Research Projects

This table lists examples of ongoing or completed research projects led by members of the Center for Firearm Injury Prevention.

Project Title	Goal
A multi-state evaluation of extreme risk protection orders: Implementation, outcomes, and jurisdictional variation	To examine the uptake and implementation of extreme risk protection order laws in six different states and evaluate its association with subsequent risk of injury and death.
Behavioral health and criminal legal system interactions of extreme risk protection order respondents: A statewide mixed-methods study	To characterize patterns of behavioral health orders and criminal legal system involvements in cases of extreme risk protection orders and examine their relationship with subsequent behavioral health and criminal legal system outcomes.
Black Women’s Experiences at the Intersection of Firearms and Intimate Partner Violence	To understand the experiences of Black women who have left abusive relationships where their perpetrator threatened, harmed, or non-fatally injured them with a firearm.
Building research capacity for firearm safety among children	To utilize multidisciplinary research expertise across the U.S., as well as stakeholder partner groups of gun owners, to catalyze the science of childhood firearm injury prevention.
Culture, longitudinal patterns, and safety promotion of handgun carrying among rural adolescents: Implications for injury prevention	To improve our knowledge of the culture, scope, and developmental patterns of handgun carrying, as well as its determinants and consequences, among youth living in rural communities, and provide actionable evidence for informing strategies that can prevent firearm-related injury and promote safety in this population.
Decision-Making Processes Involving Behavioral Health and Criminal Legal Systems for Extreme Risk Protection Order Respondents	Identify factors influencing the decision-making processes for professionals (i.e., judges, law enforcement officers (LEOs), co-responders, and prosecutors) as they order a behavioral health evaluation (BHE), involuntarily transport or arrest individuals, conduct behavioral health assessments, or offer legal counsel as part of ERPO.
Domestic violence protection orders in King County, WA	To characterize the implementation of orders to surrender and prohibit weapons over time, to assess firearm threats and violence against children, to examine respondent behaviors (e.g., suicidal threats) and outcomes (e.g., crime, violent death).
Early Childhood Education and Violence Prevention Across the Life Course and Generations	To estimate the effects of Head Start, a large-scale, comprehensive early childhood education intervention, 1) inter-generationally on suicidal ideation and inter-personal violence perpetration, and 2) intra-generationally on handgun carrying and inter-personal violence perpetration, along with interactive effects of demographic, social, economic, and environmental factors.
Evaluating and improving the accuracy of ICD-coded hospital data systems in estimating the incidence of nonfatal firearm injuries by intent type	To identify ways to improve hospital billing data efficiently and substantially such that they can be used for surveillance of non-fatal firearm injury by intent.
Evaluation of Safe Storage Distribution Events	To evaluate the implementation of statewide programs that distribute firearm locking mechanisms into community settings.
Evaluation of suicide prevention training for healthcare professionals: A natural experiment	To evaluate the impact of state policies for suicide prevention training among healthcare professionals on suicide-related outcomes.
Extreme Risk Protection Orders in Washington State and their Impact on Firearm-Related Arrests and Convictions	To describe the current state of Washington’s Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) and assess their impact on firearm-related arrests and convictions.
Firearm rights restoration and risk for subsequent firearm and non-firearm violence	To characterize firearm rights restorations and their association with subsequent violence in Washington State.
Firearm safety practices of rural families in Washington state	To understand firearm safety practices of rural families in Washington state.
Gun-free zones: Legislative landscape and relationship with firearm violence	To characterize the evolution of federal and state laws related to designating gun-free zones and identify how the incidence of firearm violence and crime has changed in government-designated gun-free vs. gun-allowing zones.
Homicide, suicide, and prior domestic violence protection order (DVPO) case involvement: Data linkage and data quality evaluation pilot study	To describe patterns of DVPO case involvement leading up to homicide or suicide among people who have experienced domestic violence.
Incorporating data from trauma registries into an existing project seeking to improve nonfatal firearm injury coding and surveillance	To assess intent coding in trauma registry data and examine the extent to which rule-based intent designations jibe with standard practice among trauma registrars.
Online storage maps to facilitate voluntary firearm storage: Mixed methods evaluation	To examine the perspectives of (1) suppliers (ranges, retailers, and LEAs in Colorado and Washington) and (2) users (firearm owners and family members in Colorado and Washington) about statewide voluntary firearm storage maps, and to then (3) develop an implementation toolkit for other states.
Pathways 2 Safety	Develop, implement, and evaluate a training program and workplace based intervention for community behavioral health providers to conduct lethal means safety counseling.
Preventing firearm-related harm through domestic violence protection order firearm prohibitions and relinquishment	To rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of implementation of domestic violence protection order firearm prohibitions in four Washington counties in reducing subsequent firearm-related crime, injury, and death among victim-survivors, protected minors, and respondents [CDC 1R01CE003623-01].
Research priorities for gun violence prevention after Bruen	To identify research needs after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen.
Risk factors for intimate partner homicide: A case-control study focused on male perpetrators of intimate partner violence and the role of firearms	To examine why some suicidal male perpetrators of intimate partner violence kill their partner while others do not.
Risk of subsequent firearm-related crime among individuals with prior misdemeanor conviction	To evaluate the risk of arrest and conviction for firearm-related crime in relation to history of firearm and non-firearm-related misdemeanor crimes.
School Shootings and Mental Health in the United States	To understand the mental health impacts of school shootings on those directly and indirectly involved and to inform future research, guide public health interventions, and support advocacy groups and policy makers working to reduce the frequency and impact of school shootings.
Shared decision-making for firearm safety among older adults at high risk for firearm suicide	To refine and evaluate an innovative decision aid to promote safer firearm storage for older adults with early dementia or depression.
Social impact evaluation and assessment of youth firearm violence intervention and prevention programs	To examine the impact of community-based youth firearm violence intervention and prevention programs across Washington State.
S.P.A.R.K.: Understanding Resilience in Children and Families After Parental Loss to Gun Violence.	To understand how children and surviving caregivers experience parental loss to gun violence, identify protective factors that support healing, adaptation, resilience, and long-term well-being, and build evidence to inform upstream public health, policy, and systems-level supports that will reduce downstream harm for families over time.
Spillover Implications of Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO) for Household Members.	This study examines violence victimization risk among household members of ERPO respondents by tracking outcomes across time and by comparing risk between cases where the full ERPO was granted versus denied or dismissed. It also explores the lived experiences and support needs of household members affected by ERPOs, drawing on the perspectives of household members themselves, ERPO advocates, and practitioners such as judges, law enforcement officers, and attorneys.
The impacts of state-level abortion restrictions post-Dobbs on intimate partner violence and child maltreatment.	To assess the relationship between post-Dobbs state-specific abortion restrictions and two subtypes of violence: injuries due to intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment (CM) stratified by firearm-related status.
Uncovering the Facilitators of Change within Youth Mentoring Interventions to Prevent Interpersonal Firearm Violence Among Youth	Focus on how community-based youth mentoring programs can prevent firearm violence in the communities they serve while promoting social justice among youth and families.