As suicide rates for women veterans have increased, proportionately, more than male rates, an increasing number of those deaths involved firearms, according to the “National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report,” released in September 2021.
Those weapons were involved in 49.8% of female veteran suicides in 2019; in 2018, the rate was 41.1%. The respective figures for male veterans were 70.2% and 69.6%. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs projects that women, who are the fastest growing group of veterans, will be 15% of that population by 2035. That compares to 9% in 2018.
Regarding women, the V.A.’s 2019 report also concluded that, from 2001 to 2019:
- Firearm suicides by women veterans increased 12.9% and decreased 4.2% for non-veteran women.
- Suffocation suicides increased 10.1% for women veterans and 12% for non-veteran women.
- Poisoning suicides decreased 16.6% for women veterans and 7.1% for non-veteran women.
- Suicide by other means declined 6.3% for women veterans and 0.7% for non-women veterans.
V.A. researchers previously concluded that suicide rates were higher among women who’d been sexually assaulted or harassed during their military service.
[Related story: Gun suicides felled some veterans; others found a way forward.]
They’ve also written that, “A greater likelihood of using firearms, which are highly lethal, as the method for suicide may explain some of the difference between suicide rates of women [v]eterans and women non-[v]eterans.”
