Recently NMSU Professor of Public Health Sciences Jagdish Khubchandani co-authored and published a study that shows the spike in firearm-related deaths involving American Indians and Alaska Natives leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Scott Brocato spoke with Dr. Khubchandani about the study and its findings.
SCOTT BROCATO:
The study found that the firearm death rate increased almost five times the growth rate of their populations between 2018 and 2020. Tell us about the study. When did you and the study's co-author, James H Price, first become aware of this spike among the two groups?
JAGDISH KHUBCHANDANI:
So, you know, we have continued to publish on firearm deaths in the United States since the last decade. Much of the research focuses on white adults or African American adults, and there are small population groups like American Indian, Alaska Natives, who have not been studied well. So when we talk of gun violence in the United States, we focus on dominant population groups. But the other racial ethnic minorities, it's assumed that they don't have similar death patterns. So that's why we wanted to take a look at the American Indian/Alaska Natives running into the pandemic, where they're more likely to die of guns or less likely.
Sadly, even in the pandemic year, when it seemed like gun deaths were reducing in 2020, American Indian and Alaska Natives were the special group that had an escalation of gun deaths in 2020, during the pandemic. The total population today of American Indian/ Alaska Natives is 5 million. And we compared that to 2018 and how has population increased versus gun deaths increase? And it seems like there's an exponential increase in firearm gun homicides and suicides in this population compared to their population growth; and not much is talked about this population group in terms of violence, tendencies, and preventing such violence.
SCOTT BROCATO:
Well, the study shows that American Indians and Alaska natives experienced nearly 500 firearm related deaths per year from 2018 to 2020, totaling 1,487 firearm related deaths across those three years. Can you break down the numbers as far as how many were suicides or homicides, gender and age groups, etc.?
JAGDISH KHUBCHANDANI:
So, for the most part, the death rates resemble death due to guns across the nation and other racial groups. Most American gun deaths are suicides, due to suicides; and the second common form is homicides. In American Indian/Alaska Native, we saw the similar trend: suicides are the dominant form of gun deaths.
The sad part of the numbers is that most of these are happening in young people 20 to 40 years old, and the vast majority happen in men who live in the West. So clearly we have defined areas where policies can be implemented and prevention practices can be implemented: young people, those who live with lower education, poverty, men, and those who live in the Western United States.
You know, the mental health issues today, almost one in five American people live with a diagnosable mental illness. But the rate in American Indian/Alaska Native is almost double. The rates of binge drinking are almost double the national average for American Indian/Alaska Natives, so these are priority areas. If we could bring American Indian/ Alaska Native people in the mainstream of mental healthcare, destigmatize it for them, and provide them the care that they need, hopefully the suicide rates will go down.
And for homicides, there needs to be structural changes in education, income, and reduction in poverty. It is desperately needed for this population; it's the population that's most likely to live in poverty. Almost one in five people live in severe poverty in American Indian/Alaska Native. Unless we solve that problem, the homicides won't reduce.
SCOTT BROCATO:
And which states had the highest firearm deaths among American Indians and Alaska Natives? And where did New Mexico place?
JAGDISH KHUBCHANDANI:
So according to the total number of deaths, Oklahoma ranked #1, Arizona #2, New Mexico #4. But when we adjust for the total population and age, then Alaska, Wyoming and Montana happened to be in the top three. So New Mexico does have a problem, but essentially it does seem like the Western United States, 20 to 40 year old and males, are the ones who we should focus on.
SCOTT BROCATO:
What are some solutions based on your findings?
JAGDISH KHUBCHANDANI:
Let’s take an example of New Mexico. We have one of the highest alcohol-related deaths in the nation. So clearly in American Indian/Alaska Native populations, all those states that are lagging in income and economy, there should be much focus on preventing substance use, alcohol use, prevention, and initiatives.
And then the access to firearms has increased highly during the pandemic. The FBI has suggested that we broke all the records of gun sales in the last three years. So easy access to weapons and substance use and living in poverty, those are some target areas. Sadly, the one piece that's missing here is, the states with the top ten death rates from guns of American Indian/Alaska Natives do not have laws and legislations that are implemented in the Northeast and the West that have been shown to be effective. So clearly the states have some policy work to do, and on the population public health level, there's need to reduce substance use.
