The Walmart Effect: Testing Private Interventions to Reduce Gun Suicide, from: Gun Violence in America: An Interdisciplinary Examination article review
This interesting article highlights a recently published study that assessed a long-term environmental, policy-oriented approach to gun suicide prevention. It explored the question, "Can corporate policies reduce the toll of gun violence?"
The authors reviewed the impacts of a change in Walmart policy from 1994 when they stopped selling handguns in 49 of 50 states. Later, in 2006, they stopped selling all firearms at over half of their stores, though some have resumed.
"This article suggests that Walmart’s decision to suspend handgun sales at all of its 1,975 stores in 1994 was responsible for preventing between 500-1,000 gun suicides annually. We also find evidence, albeit less robust, that Walmart’s later decision to end rifle and shotgun sales at some of its stores reduced the firearms suicide rate in counties in which Walmart did not subsequently reverse course. And while our identification strategy for investigating the causal effect of state gun laws is not as well identified, we join a host of other studies finding that stronger gun control laws are associated with substantial and statistically significant reductions in suicide as well."
The reduction in the suicide rate ranged from 3.3% to 7.5%, depending on the specific county, and represents an estimated number of saved lives from 5,104 to 11,970 in the study period.
The article shares in greater detail the research methods, constraints, and other contextual information that may be useful in guiding or supporting merchant education and policy-related efforts. Check it out here.
