Three professors at the 天美影视传媒 have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine in recognition of excellence in the fields of health and medicine, along with a commitment to volunteer service. Election to the Academy is considered one of the most prestigious honors in health and medicine.

Dr. , a professor of epidemiology and of pediatrics; Dr. , a professor of pediatrics; and , an affiliate professor of biochemistry, were among the 100 new members .

鈥�This is a tremendous and well-deserved honor for each of these valued members of the UW community,鈥� UW Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Tricia Serio said. 鈥淎ll three听are all visionary leaders in their vital fields, and their commitment to creating a better world through their work exemplifies the impact we strive for at the University of Washington.鈥�

Dr. Rowhani-Rahbar was recognized for his research on gun violence, which the Academy said has “deepened our understanding of the risk and consequences of firearm-related harm.” His work integrates data from health care and criminal justice systems to better understand risk factors related to gun violence and injury. That research has informed policies and programs aimed at reducing the risk of firearm-related harm, particularly in underserved and overlooked communities.

He is the Bartley Dobb Professor for the Prevention of Violence and interim director of the in the UW School of Medicine.

Dr. Coker heads the General Pediatrics department at Seattle Children’s Hospital and is co-director of the . Her research focuses on eliminating health and health care disparities for Black and Latinx children, as well as families in low-income communities. The Academy cited her leadership in advancing child health equity and work that has “transformed our understanding of how to deliver child preventive health care during the critical early childhood period to achieve equitable health outcomes and reduce disparities.”

She is the founder and former director of the Health Equity Research Program at Seattle Children’s Center for Diversity and Health Equity.

Zeng is executive vice president and director of the in Seattle. The Academy recognized her leadership of a team whose work has led to “transformative understanding of cell type diversity” by generating large-scale, open-access datasets and tools for use in neuroscience research.

Seven UW faculty members have been elected to the Academy in the past four years.

For more information or to contact any of the honorees, email Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu.听

Firearm injury is now the leading cause of death among U.S. children and adolescents. As its toll grows, researchers have focused on stopping violence in the moments before it happens. But new research led by the 天美影视传媒 suggests that interventions made earlier in young people鈥檚 lives may reduce the chances of it happening at all.听听

The study, , found that 鲍奥鈥檚 Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system reduced handgun carrying among adolescents growing up in rural areas. By the 12th grade, adolescents in CTC communities were 24% less likely to report carrying a handgun than those in communities without the program. Previous research has shown that handgun carrying is an important risk factor for听 firearm injury and harm.听听

鈥淭his provides yet another piece of evidence that science-based prevention systems such as CTC are worth further investments and scaling up, in different communities,鈥� said , UW professor of epidemiology and Interim Director of the UW’s . 鈥淔indings of this study suggest that community-based, science-based, upstream interventions focused on risk and protective factors early in life may play an important role in reducing firearm-related harm.鈥�听

The study surveyed more than 4,000 adolescents across 24 rural communities, 12 of which implemented a coordinated set of preventive interventions tailored to local priorities. Each year from 6th to 12th grade, researchers asked students about a wide range of behaviors, including whether they鈥檇 carried a handgun in the past year.听听

Adolescents in communities that implemented CTC were also 27% less likely to report carrying a handgun in a given grade than those in control communities.听听

Those findings, Rowhani-Rahbar said, merit deeper research into whether reduced handgun carrying in adolescence leads to a reduced risk of firearm-related violence throughout a person鈥檚 life. That鈥檚 especially true in rural areas, where the context around firearms may be different than in urban settings.听

Rowhani-Rahbar and his team have produced a of on among adolescents growing up in rural areas. A previous paper showed that about one-third of young males and 1 in 10 females in rural communities have carried a handgun, and that some rural youth began carrying handguns as early as sixth grade.听

鈥淭he overall burden of firearm mortality in rural areas is roughly the same as in urban areas, with differences seen in the manner in which it occurs at the population level,鈥� Rowhani-Rahbar said. 鈥淯nfortunately, rural communities continue to be under-researched and underserved.鈥澨�听

Data for this analysis came from an ongoing evaluation of CTC鈥檚 effectiveness over the past two decades.听听

Developed at the UW, CTC is an evidence-based prevention system that assists communities in using science-based solutions to foster the healthy development of young people. The 鲍奥鈥檚 Center for Communities That Care is currently helping to implement the system in 150 communities nationwide, in addition to 14 countries.听

The findings on handgun carrying stem from a long-term trial of CTC鈥檚 effectiveness. Including more than 4,000 adolescents, that trial has shown that CTC leads to long-term reductions in alcohol and drug use, antisocial behavior and violence beginning in adolescence, among other benefits.听听

Reducing gun-related risk was not an explicit goal of CTC. That it did anyway, UW social work professor Margaret Kuklinski said, points to the power of focusing on upstream risk factors to create wide-ranging change in the lives of young people 鈥� change that could last a lifetime.听听

鈥淏ehaviors in adolescence 鈥� both positive behaviors and behaviors we want young people to avoid 鈥� tend to share risk and protective factors,鈥� said , who is the UW Endowed Associate Professor of Prevention in Social Work and also director of the . 鈥淲hen CTC helps communities implement prevention approaches that, for example, strengthen commitment to school, increase positive activities for young people, reduce family conflict, or strengthen norms against alcohol and drug use, communities can expect to see a variety of positive behavior changes in young people. Now we know that those changes include reduced handgun carrying.鈥澨�听

Other authors are Sabrina Oesterle (Arizona State University), Emma Gause, Kimberly Dalve, Julia Schleimer (Department of Epidemiology, 天美影视传媒), Elizabeth Weybright (Washington State University), John Briney and David Hawkins (Social Development Research Group, School of Social Work, 天美影视传媒). This research was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.听

For more information on this study, contact Ali Rowhani-Rahbar at rowhani@uw.edu.

The number of U.S. adult handgun owners carrying a loaded handgun on their person doubled from 2015 to 2019, according to new research led by the 天美影视传媒.

Data come from the 2019 National Firearms Survey (NFS), an online survey of U.S. adults living in households with firearms, including nearly 2,400 handgun owners. Compared to estimates from , the new study suggests that in 2019 approximately 16 million adult handgun owners had carried a loaded handgun on their person in the past month (up from 9 million in 2015) and 6 million carried every day (twice as many as carried daily in 2015).

Published Nov. 16 in the American Journal of Public Health, the also found that a larger proportion of handgun owners carried handguns in states with less restrictive carrying regulations: In these states, approximately one-third of handgun owners reported carrying in the past month, whereas in states with more restrictive regulations, only about one-fifth did.

鈥淏etween increases in the number of people who own handguns and the number of people who carry every day, there has been a striking increase in handgun carrying in the U.S.,鈥� said lead author , a professor of epidemiology and Bartley Dobb Professor for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the UW.

Among the other findings reported in the new study:

• About 7 in 10 handgun owners said they carried a loaded handgun as protection against another person, dwarfing the number who said they carried as protection against an animal, for example, or for work
• 4 in 5 handgun owners who reported carrying were male, 3 in 4 were white, and a majority were between the ages of 18 and 44

Researchers pointed to some limitations of the study: Respondents were asked if they carried, and how often, but not where. It is possible that a person residing in a state with one type of permitting restrictions (or none) could have carried their handgun in another state with different laws. The study also did not ask whether the respondent carried a handgun openly or concealed.

While the data are from 2019, researchers say the findings are timely, following . States, in general, have become less restrictive over the years regarding handgun carrying 鈥� more than 20 do not require permits to carry today, compared to only one such state in 1990. The differences highlighted in this study suggest that this behavior may be responsive to the types of laws governing carrying that pertain in a state.

鈥淭he Supreme Court ruling has already resulted in some states鈥� loosening of laws related to handgun carrying,鈥� Rowhani-Rahbar said. 鈥淚n light of that ruling, our study reinforces the importance of studying the implications of handgun carrying for public health and public safety.鈥�

The study was funded by the Joyce Foundation and the New Venture Fund. Co-authors were Amy Gallagher, now of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, previously of the Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program at the UW; Deborah Azrael of Harvard University; and Matthew Miller of Northeastern University.

For more information, contact Rowhani-Rahbar at rowhani@uw.edu.

The first of research led by the 天美影视传媒 into handgun carrying by young people growing up in rural areas has found six distinct patterns for when and how often these individuals carry a handgun.

The patterns, or 鈥渓ongitudinal trajectories,鈥� suggest that youths in rural areas differ in some ways from their urban counterparts when it comes to handgun carrying and provide information for programs designed to help prevent firearm violence and injury.

鈥淏ecause firearms in many rural areas are such an integral part of a robust gun culture, understanding how youth engage with firearms in those settings is incredibly important,鈥� said principal investigator and senior author听, a UW professor of epidemiology and the UW Bartley Dobb Professor for the Study and Prevention of Violence. 鈥淪trikingly, until now there has been almost no research into the longitudinal patterns of handgun carrying in rural areas.鈥�

In these communities, young people carry handguns at nearly twice the rate as in urban settings, the researchers point out. And urban youths and rural youths do not necessarily have the same cultural context, motivations and use of firearms.

鈥淎 key takeaway of our study is that about one in three youth in rural areas report carrying a handgun by age 26,鈥� said , lead author and acting assistant professor of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine who holds a doctorate in economics. 鈥淪o, this is a prevalent behavior among these youth during adolescence and early adulthood. For those who carry, about half say they did so only one time, but another portion is carrying quite frequently, 40 times or more a year.鈥�

Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this study of handgun carrying among youth in rural areas is based on interviews with roughly 2,000 young people who started answering survey questionnaires in the sixth grade. Participants took repeated surveys over a roughly 15-year period, 2005 to 2019, as part of the 鲍奥鈥檚听. That larger study is designed to evaluate the university鈥檚听听program, which helps communities take a broad approach to preventing youth problem behaviors.

These study results are the first in a series of related UW studies that are funded by the CDC and part of a wider range of focusing on firearm violence and injury prevention. Investigators at the UW Social Development Research Group, Washington State University, Seattle Children鈥檚 Research Institute and Arizona State University collaborated on the current UW study.

The researchers identified these six patterns, which are based on 10 chronological waves of survey data (click on each image for a description):

The researchers add that in these patterns of carrying that emerged over the 10 nearly annual waves of surveys, some participants reported first carrying at an early age, as young as 12 years old. Consequently, they said, educating young adolescents about firearms, firearm violence, injury and conflict resolution may be suitable, especially if it connects to the firearm culture of that community.

鈥淐ertainly this behavior is very episodic, but adolescence is the age when other behaviors such as bullying and physical violence emerge,鈥� said Ellyson, who is also a principal investigator at Seattle Children鈥檚 Research Institute . 鈥淐arrying a handgun concurrently with bullying or physical violence may increase the risk, and those behaviors could escalate into more severe violence. More research is needed to measure the potential consequences and health risks of handgun carrying.鈥�

The study emphasizes that nearly all current interventions focused on handgun carrying are related to crime, which may not work for most youth in rural settings, where handgun carrying may occur with different motivations, circumstances and consequences.

鈥淏efore this study, we knew that there is a certain fraction of youth in rural areas who carry handguns,鈥� said Rowhani-Rahbar, co-director of the at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center. 鈥淏ut with this study, we provided evidence that there are distinctive and different patterns of handgun carrying. The discovery of these patterns in rural areas is the first step toward prevention, because knowing when this behavior starts as well as its frequency and duration may provide important points of intervention for injury prevention.鈥�

In 2020, for the first time in nearly 30 years, the CDC听听$7.8 million in funding for more than a dozen national studies to understand and prevent firearm violence. The 鲍奥鈥檚 proposal to study handgun carrying among rural adolescents was awarded roughly $1.5 million. The current study is one of four areas of focus in the 鲍奥鈥檚 proposal and involved surveys from 12 communities across 7 states: Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

Next, the UW researchers will focus on improving understanding of the cultural context of handgun carrying among young people in rural areas. What are the reasons they pick up a handgun? What are the settings in which they do? What does 鈥渃arrying鈥� a handgun mean to them? After that, the researchers hope to examine what happened before a person carried and what happened after. What were the consequences? Finally, they hope to test the effectiveness of the Communities That Care prevention program.

鈥淭here is a very strong safety culture around the use of firearms in rural areas, and some of these young people are very well exposed to and trained in the safe use and handling of firearms, but some of them are not,鈥� said Rowhani-Rahbar. 鈥淭his type of research really sheds light on the fact that you have to think about context, you have to think about setting, you need to consider community-based factors that should drive and inform the prevention efforts that you design.鈥�

Co-authors are Emma Gause and Julia Schleimer, with the Firearm Injury and Policy Research Program, UW Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center; Vivian Lyons, with the UW Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center and the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan; Schleimer, also Department of Epidemiology, UW School of Public Health; Margaret Kuklinski, John Briney and Kevin Haggerty, Social Development Research Group, UW School of Social Work; Sabrina Oesterle, Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, School of Social Work, Arizona State University; and Elizabeth Weybright, Department of Human Development, Washington State University.

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For more information, contact Rowhani-Rahbar at rowhani@uw.edu.

Brian Donohue, public information editor at UW School of Medicine, contributed to this story.

Talking to people at gun shows about suicide prevention and the risks of unsecured firearms can lead to safe weapons storage, according to a new study.

The research by at the 天美影视传媒, from visits to 18 gun shows and other community events around Washington state last year, found that engaging people in a community-based setting, in an empathetic conversation focused on safety, resulted in more people locking up their firearms.

The results are promising, lead author and Forefront co-founder said, because they show that meeting people where they鈥檙e at, physically and psychologically, can lead to behavior change that can prevent tragedy.

鈥淲e need to be educating people who own firearms or are considering purchasing them that suicide is a possible risk to take into consideration and to make plans in advance to mitigate these risks. So many people are in crisis today 鈥� from youth, to veterans, to our men in economic distress and in relationship turmoil 鈥� we are all vulnerable. We need to educate firearms owners, both experienced and new, at the point of purchase and other places we can find them to raise awareness,鈥� said Stuber, an associate professor of social work at the UW.

The published Oct. 20 in BMJ Injury Prevention.

According to and data, about half of all suicides involve firearms. In Washington state, three-quarters of all firearm fatalities are suicides, which most people aren鈥檛 aware of when they purchase a firearm, Stuber said. , and . A 2019 Forefront study focused on the potential role of firearms retailers in preventing suicides, by evaluating store owners鈥� willingness to learn about the issue and train their employees in how to spot and act on suicide warning signs. That study found that many retailers were interested in learning more and adopting prevention strategies among their staff.

The new study tested an outreach strategy created by Forefront known as SAFER, an extension of its multi-faceted program, which offers training, education and locking devices for firearms and medications in communities across Washington.

Forefront鈥檚 trained staff and volunteers regularly provide suicide-prevention trainings tailored to students, teachers, parents, veterans, health care workers and pharmacists. In reaching out to visitors to gun shows 鈥� who are mostly men, often veterans 鈥� Forefront designed the brief, motivational interviewing approach it calls SAFER (Signpost, Assess, Facts, Emotion and Recommend) to both educate and listen with empathy. By talking with a person about their familiarity with issues surrounding suicide and their understanding of the risks of unsecured firearms, the volunteer can deliver a suicide-prevention recommendation that encourages safe firearms storage. The volunteer also provides the person with a free locking device for hand-guns, rifles or AR-15s to take home.

In this study, 1,175 people received the SAFER intervention. They took a short, written survey to assess knowledge of firearms safety and suicide prevention prior to the SAFER conversation. Most SAFER encounters took about 10 to 20 minutes each.

Four weeks later, Forefront emailed a survey to people who received the intervention. Of the 372 who completed the survey, 66% said they now kept their firearms secure at home, a 15 percentage-point increase from the 51% who reported doing so during the pre-intervention survey.

鈥淭o my knowledge, this is the first study to assess receptiveness to suicide prevention messages and self-reported change in firearm storage behavior at gun shows,鈥� said , an associate professor of epidemiology and co-director of the at the UW. Prior had focused on clinical or other community settings, including in Washington state. 鈥淭his study is novel not only due to its outreach to participants in gun shows, but also because of its empathetic approach to engage them in conversations about suicide prevention. It can serve as a model for other regions of the country to use similar approaches and broaden the inclusion of individuals who might be at high risk of suicide in their outreach and prevention programs.鈥�

Initially, people may not think suicide-prevention awareness applies to them, Stuber said. But that鈥檚 a key message of the intervention: Life circumstances can and do change. Even if you never have thoughts of suicide, it鈥檚 critical to have a plan to protect yourself, your family, even friends or strangers who visit your home by locking up firearms and medications and understanding what to do if you are someone you care about is at risk.

鈥淲e鈥檙e building on the idea that people want to do the right thing here, but they don鈥檛 necessarily know what the right thing is,鈥� Stuber said.

As part of the SAFER intervention, volunteers also offered a locking device for medications. In the pre-intervention survey, 15% of participants said they safely stored medications 鈥� a proportion that grew to about 22% afterward, according to the study. Even a modest increase shows a positive impact, Stuber noted, and provides important information for enhancing the strategy going forward. Currently, the emphasis is on locking up firearms, which is the main goal for the audience and the setting.

Forefront continues to improve SAFER to hone in on the demographics of the person receiving the intervention and to tailor the message accordingly, Stuber said. For example, if the individual has children, the volunteer can focus on the risks of a child gaining access to a firearm and emphasizing the need for a fast-access firearm locking device, which participants also receive education about through a raffle at gun shows.

Another key is to expect emotion, Stuber added. People routinely shared personal experiences with suicide or concerns about friends or relatives, which could end up being an opportunity to counsel or provide resources beyond the individual receiving the SAFER intervention.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to firehose people with facts and statistics. We should be listening more than talking,鈥� Stuber said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Forefront has begun offering a 鈥渢ele-SAFER鈥� intervention, as well, through individualized Zoom sessions facilitated by veterans organizations and nonprofit groups, Stuber said.

The study was funded by a Boeing Global Engagement Grant and the Washington state Legislature. Co-authors were Brett Bass and Morgan Meadows of Forefront; and Anne Massey, a graduate student in the UW Department of Epidemiology.

For more information contact Stuber at jstuber@uw.edu

With roughly 109 people dying every day and many others treated in emergency rooms from firearm-related injuries 鈥� which are the second leading cause of death among adolescents 鈥� the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has, after decades, stepped in to fund critical firearm research.

The CDC on Sept. 23 it would fund 16 studies for a total of more than $7.8 million to understand and prevent firearm violence. The 天美影视传媒鈥檚 proposal to study handgun carrying among rural adolescents was awarded a three-year grant totaling roughly $1.5 million.

鈥淭hese awards were made by the CDC after about three decades with no direct funding for this area of research. They herald an era in which we will collectively work with a variety of stakeholders to reduce the burden of this major population health challenge in our communities and beyond,鈥� said , an associate professor of epidemiology in the UW School of Public Health who is leading the UW study. “This is a historic development and consequential milestone for the field of public health in general, and the science of violence and injury prevention in particular.鈥�

The UW study will focus on rural communities where the high levels of firearm access and mortality, cultural influences, attitudes and risks associated with youth handgun carrying are understudied and underserved.

鈥淗andgun carrying is widely recognized as a key risk factor for firearm-related injury among youth living in urban areas, but our knowledge of the culture, scope and developmental patterns of handgun carrying 鈥� as well as its determinants and consequences 鈥� among youth living in rural communities is strikingly limited,鈥� said Rowhani-Rahbar, who is also the co-director of the Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program at Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center.听“This new project will build on about two decades of foundational research conducted by our colleagues in the at the 天美影视传媒.”

The UW study will use existing data and collect new data from rural adolescents to:

• Identify opportunities and barriers in firearm injury prevention by improving our understanding of the cultural context of handgun carrying among rural adolescents.
• Determine specific developmental points of intervention by characterizing patterns of handgun carrying in rural communities from early adolescence to young adulthood.
• Examine individual and social-developmental factors that distinguish patterns of handgun carrying in rural communities from early adolescence to young adulthood.
• Test the effect of the Communities That Care prevention system on developmental patterns of handgun carrying among adolescents living in rural communities.

鈥淭he goal of this project is to fill this knowledge gap and provide actionable evidence for informing strategies that can prevent firearm-related injury and promote safety among adolescents in rural communities,鈥� said Rowhani-Rahbar.

The study will be conducted through a collaboration with investigators from UW’s Social Development Research Group, Washington State University, Arizona State University and Seattle Children’s Research Institute.

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For more information, contact Rowhani-Rahbar at rowhani@uw.edu.

Roughly one-third of young males and 1 in 10 females in rural communities have carried a handgun, reports a new 天美影视传媒 study. And, the study found, many of those rural kids started carrying as early as the sixth grade.

鈥淭his is one of the first longitudinal studies of rural adolescent handgun carrying across multiple states in the U.S.听It provides evidence that youth handgun carrying in these settings is not uncommon,鈥� said lead author , a UW associate professor of epidemiology and co-director of Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program at Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center.

The study of rural communities across the country, in the Journal of Adolescent Health, also found the practice was associated with pro-handgun attitudes and with having friends who carry handguns.

Knowing that some kids as young as 12 report carrying a handgun indicates that firearm violence and injury-related prevention programs may need to be introduced early in a child鈥檚 life, researchers say.

鈥淵outh handgun carrying and firearm violence are often presented as an exclusively inner-city problem,鈥� said Dr. Rowhani-Rahbar, who is the Bartley Dobb Professor for the Study and Prevention of Violence in the UW School of Public Health. 鈥淗owever, that focus should not come at the cost of ignoring non-urban settings. Indeed, youth in some rural areas experience similar or even higher rates of handgun carrying and certain forms of interpersonal violence 鈥撯�� for example, being attacked or threatened with a weapon 鈥撯�� than their counterparts in urban areas.鈥�

Specifically, the researchers found:

• In sixth grade, 11.5% of males and 2.8% of females had carried a handgun within the past year.
• From the sixth grade to age 19, 33.7% of males and 9.6% of females reported carrying at least once during that time.
• Of those who carried, 34% of males and 29.3% of females had carried a handgun for the first time in the sixth grade. However, of those who carried, a majority of both sexes carried a handgun only once over the seven years.
• More kids who carried had friends who did the same. For instance, in the 10th grade, 63% of males who carried had a friend who carried. And of those young males who had not carried a handgun, only 6% had a friend who did. The same pattern was apparent for females.
• A far higher percentage of kids who carried also endorsed pro-handgun norms. For instance, they were much more likely to view taking a handgun to school or work as 鈥渘ot very wrong鈥� than their non-carrying peers.

The study of handgun carrying among rural youth is based on 2,002 kids who started answering survey questionnaires in the sixth grade when they lived in 12 rural communities in seven states. Participants took annual surveys over a seven-year period, 2005 to 2012, as part of the 鲍奥鈥檚 . That larger study is designed to evaluate the university鈥檚 program, which helps communities take a broad approach to preventing youth problem behaviors.

The 12 communities included in the new study had been randomly selected to not implement the Communities That Care prevention program, which has been found to reduce a variety of risky behaviors among youth, including carrying a handgun.

鈥淲e looked at handgun questions only in the control communities, those that did not receive the risk prevention program,鈥� Dr. Rowhani-Rahbar explained. 鈥淭his is because we did not want to measure the effect of the Communities That Care intervention in this study. We wanted to characterize the age at initiation, prevalence and patterns of handgun carrying in the absence of the intervention.鈥�

The dangers of young people鈥檚 exposure to guns are well-documented 鈥撯�� firearm injury is second only to vehicle crashes as a among U.S. kids, with 65% of those deaths resulting from a conflict with another young person. Carrying firearms adolescent bullying, physical fighting and assault. The researchers also point out that federal law prohibits people under age 18 from possessing a handgun.

This is just the first step toward studying health effects, Dr. Rowhani-Rahbar said. A lack of foundational information about youth handgun carrying in rural settings means studies of the causes and consequences of this behavior have also been missing. The team now plans to study these factors 鈥撯�� risk of violence or injury among rural youth who carry a handgun compared to those who do not, for instance 鈥撯�� in the near future.

The Communities That Care program and its youth development study are run by the UW School of Social Work鈥檚 .

Co-authors are Sabrina Oesterle, who is now at Arizona State University and worked on this study while with the Social Development Research Group in the UW School of Social Work; and , a research scientist with the Social Development Research Group. This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

While gun violence in and as calls for policies to stem the crisis grow, 天美影视传媒 researchers point out in a new analysis that barriers to data stand in the way of advancing solutions.

鈥淔irearm data availability, accessibility and infrastructure need to be substantially improved to reduce the burden of the public health crisis of firearm violence,” said , lead co-author and associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology in the UW School of Public Health.

The paper was in JAMA on Oct. 11. Other co-authors are and from the Department of Pediatrics in the UW School of Medicine.

The authors look at three specific categories 鈥� firearm ownership and storage, firearm purchase and firearm tracing 鈥� to show how previously available data led to published research. In these three cases, data either is no longer being collected or researchers are not allowed access.

For example, a 2003 amendment to the U.S. Department of Justice appropriations bill still blocks the release of federal data involving the tracing of firearms to anyone outside of law enforcement or prosecutors. In another example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention鈥檚 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System previously collected data related to household firearm ownership and storage, but the CDC stopped asking those questions in 2004.

“There are fundamental questions of policy and practice important for preventing firearm violence that have been left unanswered for decades,鈥� Rowhani-Rahbar said.听鈥淧art of our inability to answer those questions is due to limited research funding.听However, there are circumstances in which the lack of access to pertinent data that are not readily collectible by or available to investigators, regardless of research funding, can substantially impede research progress.鈥�

For the authors鈥� complete analysis, read the . For more research and information on firearms, visit the .

For more information, contact Dr. Rowhani-Rahbar, rowhani@uw.edu.