New Firearms Safety Grants Explore Reporting Systems, Safe Storage, Childhood Injuries, More

·  “Rigorous examination of anonymous reporting system data to prevent youth suicide and firearm violence: An applied natural language approach” (the two-year project will receive $350,000 the first year). Justin Heinze, associate professor at the School of Public Health and co-director of the National Center for School Safety, will analyze school-based anonymous and confidential reporting system submissions and characterize the types of tips reported, what factors influence student tip submissions and content, and whether exposure to training influences tip behavior and content.

·  “Store Safely: Firearm injury prevention for rural families” (the three-year project will receive $470,325 the first year). Cynthia Ewell Foster, clinical associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and director of the Community Engagement Core within the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, will conduct research in partnership with the Marquette County Health Department. The study will evaluate Store Safely, a multicomponent online primary prevention strategy for rural families who own firearms.

Two NIH grants will go to:

·  “Structural racism and youth firearm violence: Socio-ecological mechanisms and resilience (the two-year project will receive a total award of $156,000). Daniel Lee, research assistant professor at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, will examine the social and psychological link between structural racism and youth firearm violence to inform the development of upstream prevention programs.

·  “Assessing risk for firearm injury and attitudes about new gun violence prevention laws in Michigan to enhance policy implementation” (the two-year project will receive a total award of $518,106). Brian Hicks, professor in the Department of Psychiatry, with support from senior faculty at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, will provide advanced training and career development for established NIH-supported investigators to obtain the skills and expertise that can be integrated into their firearm injury prevention work and research.

Altogether, the grants and the projects further the work of the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, a U-M presidential initiative launched in 2019 with the goal of identifying data-driven solutions to the urgent public health issue of injuries, deaths and other harms caused by firearms.

IFIP fosters collaboration among researchers on campus and off by engaging with partners across the university and in the U-M Health System along with external partners, all looking to answer critical questions about firearm injury prevention.

“The benefit of our institute is that the infrastructure can provide researchers of all levels and within multiple disciplines across the University with the scaffolding necessary to advance their research programs within this field and within their schools,” said Carter, who is also director of the CDC-funded Injury Prevention Center at U-M and part of the leadership team for the NICHD-funded Firearm Safety among Children and Teens, FACTS, Consortium.

“The collaborative efforts of our team allows us to support their efforts to generate new knowledge and advance solutions that will ultimately decrease firearm injury across the United States.”