Poster #94 - When Religion and Politics Intersect: Impacts on State Level Firearm Homicide vs. Suicide Rate

• In Event: Poster Session II (posters 80 – 155)

Abstract

Firearms are highly lethal and claim over 48,000 lives each year in the United States. These deaths reflect gun ownership, which is predicted by multiple factors such as political ideology, religiosity, race, age, and geography. Within this cultural and demographic context, firearm homicides often serve as a means of defense against perceived evil. Firearm suicide, in contrast, stems primarily from profound social disconnection. Prior literature has examined the independent roles of partisanship and religiosity in shaping gun culture and firearm attitudes, but has not explored their combined influence. This study addresses these gaps by examining how the interaction of religiosity and partisanship influences firearm suicide and homicide rates. Publicly available data on 50 US states and the District of Columbia from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER), the Public Religion Research Institute’s (PRRI) American Values Atlas, and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) were utilized to create a nationally representative dataset. We conducted multiple OLS regression models to test how the interaction between high religiosity and political affiliation impacts state firearm homicide and suicide rates separately. Further results and implications will be presented.

Authors

• Melvin Alexander Vargas Melgar, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Pierre Lescure, University of Nevada, Las Vegas