WASHINGTON -- A new report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council proposes priorities for a research agenda to improve understanding of the public health aspects of gun-related violence, including its causes, health burden, and possible interventions. The committee that wrote the report said significant progress can be achieved in three to five years through a research program that addresses five high-priority areas: the characteristics of gun violence, risk and protective factors, prevention and other interventions, gun safety technology, and the influence of video games and other media.
The report stems from executive orders issued by President Obama in January 2013 directing federal agencies to improve knowledge of the causes of firearm violence, interventions that might prevent it, and strategies to minimize its public health burden. One of these executive orders charged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with identifying the most pressing firearm-related violence research needs. In turn, CDC and the CDC Foundation asked IOM and the Research Council to recommend a research agenda on the public health aspects of firearm-related violence. The committee determined potential research topics by surveying previous relevant research, receiving public input, and using expert judgment. It was not asked to consider the amount and sources of funding required to carry out the research agenda and did not specify the methodologies that should be used to address the topics.
"The complexity and frequency of gun-related violence combined with its impact on the health and safety of the nation's residents make it a topic of considerable public health importance," said Alan Leshner, chair of the study committee and CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "Therefore, when developing its agenda, the committee took a public health approach that focused on gun violence problems associated with significant levels of injuries and fatalities. Although this research agenda is an initial, not all-encompassing set of questions, it could help better define the causes and prevention of firearm violence in order to develop effective policies to reduce its occurrence and impact in the U.S. Similar approaches to public health problems have produced successes in lowering tobacco use, accidental poisoning, and motor vehicle fatalities."
The committee said this public health research agenda should be integrated with research conducted from criminal justice and other perspectives to provide a much fuller knowledge base, as no single agency or research strategy could provide all the answers. For the five research areas, the committee identified the following key research topics:
- Characteristics of gun violence
- Characterize the scope of and motivations for gun acquisition, ownership, and use and how they are distributed across subpopulations.
- Characterize differences in nonfatal and fatal gun use across the U.S.
- Characterize the scope of and motivations for gun acquisition, ownership, and use and how they are distributed across subpopulations.
- Risk and protective factors
- Identify factors associated with youth having access to, possessing, and carrying guns.
- Evaluate the potential risks and benefits of having a firearm in the home under a variety of circumstances and settings.
- Improve understanding of risk factors that influence the probability of firearm violence in specific high-risk physical locations.
- Identify factors associated with youth having access to, possessing, and carrying guns.
- Firearm violence prevention and other interventions
- Improve understanding of whether interventions intended to diminish the illegal carrying of firearms reduce firearm violence.
- Improve understanding of whether reducing criminal access to legally purchased guns reduces firearm violence.
- Improve understanding of the effectiveness of actions directed at preventing access to firearms by violence-prone individuals.
- Determine the degree to which various childhood education or prevention programs reduce firearm violence in childhood and later in life.
- Explore whether programs to alter physical environments in high-crime areas decrease firearm violence.
- Improve understanding of whether interventions intended to diminish the illegal carrying of firearms reduce firearm violence.
- Gun safety technology
- Identify the effects of different technological approaches to reduce firearm-related injury and death.
- Examine past consumer experiences with accepting safety technologies to inform the development and uptake of new gun safety technologies.
- Explore individual state and international policy approaches to gun safety technology for applicability to the United States as a whole.
- Identify the effects of different technological approaches to reduce firearm-related injury and death.
- Influence of video games and other media
- Examine the relationship between exposure to media violence and real-life violence.
The study was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the Foundation's support originating from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, The Joyce Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, one anonymous entity, and two additional donors whose agreements have not been finalized with the CDC Foundation. Established under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council provide independent, objective, evidence-based advice to policymakers, the private sector, and the public. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. A committee roster follows.
Contacts:
Jennifer Walsh, Senior Media Relations Officer
Chelsea Dickson, Media Relations Assistant
Office of News and Public Information
202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu
Pre-publication copies of Priorities for a Public Health Research Agenda to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence are available from the National Academies Press on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu or by calling tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).
INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE
and
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
Committee on Priorities for a Public Health Research Agenda to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence
Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D. (chair)
CEO and Executive Publisher of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Washington, D.C.
Louis Arcangeli, M.A.E.
Adjunct Professor
Georgia State University
Atlanta
Alfred Blumstein, Ph.D.
J. Erik Jonsson University Professor of Urban Systems and
Operations Research
H. John Heinz III College of Public Policy and
Information Systems, and
Professor of Engineering and Public Policy
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh
C. Hendricks Brown, Ph.D.
Professor
Center for Family Studies
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, and
Director
Prevention Science and Methodology Group
Miller School of Medicine
University of Miami
Miami
Donald Carlucci, Ph.D.
Chief
Analysis and Evaluation Technology Division
U.S. Department of the Army
Picatinny Arsenal
Rockaway Township, N.J.
Rhonda Cornum, M.D., Ph.D.
Director of
Health Strategy
TechWerks
North Middletown, Ky.
Paul K. Halverson, Ph.D.
Founding Dean and Professor
Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health
Indiana University
Indianapolis
Stephen W. Hargarten, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor and Chair
Department of Emergency Medicine;
Director
Injury Research Center; and
Associate Dean of Global Health
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee
Ronald C. Kessler, Ph.D.
McNeil Family Professor of Health Care Policy
Harvard Medical School
Boston
Gary Kleck, Ph.D.
Professor of Criminology
College of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Florida State University
Tallahassee
John A. Rich, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor and Chair
Department of Health Management and Policy
School of Public Health
Drexel University
Philadelphia
Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D.
President
Biologue Inc.
Chapel Hill, N.C.
Susan B. Sorenson, Ph.D.
Professor of Social Policy and Practice and Health and Societies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
David Vlahov, Ph.D., M.S.
Dean and Professor of Community Health Systems
School of Nursing, and
Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
School of Medicine
University of California
San Francisco
STAFF
Patrick Kelley, M.D., Dr.PH.
Study Director