The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT) has been awarded a 2-year grant by the National Collaborative for Gun Violence Research for a multi-center, prospective study to improve the understanding of individual and community level risk factors for non-lethal firearm injuries in the U.S.
Several researchers at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center’s (HIPRC) Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program will take part in the comprehensive study. This ACS COT study was selected from among 48 full proposals invited by the Collaborative after receiving 238 letters of interest responding to its proposal request.
The study intends to fill a critical data gap in understanding the burden of non-lethal firearm injuries, including looking at contextual information. The study will utilize the infrastructure of the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) to develop a nationally representative dataset of predominantly non-lethal firearm injuries, which will used to better understand both individual and community level risk factors associated with non-lethal firearm injuries.
This ACS COT study is among $7.5 million in grants announced by the Collaborative for 15 research projects that will produce evidence for improving gun policy in America. The grants build on a recent revival of gun violence research funding. In July 2019, the Collaborative awarded an initial round of $9.8 million to 17 research projects. Then, for the first time in more than 20 years, the federal government committed $25 million to support gun violence research at the end of 2019.
Gun violence is one of the five leading causes of death among Americans aged 1-64 and yet, compared with other major causes of death and injury, the federal government has invested far less in research to prevent gun violence than for other leading causes of death.
Researchers in this study are a part of HIPRC’s state-funded Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program. The group’s mission is to reduce the impact of firearm injury and death on people’s lives through interdisciplinary research and collaboration with institutional, community, and governmental partners.
For more on this study: ACS Committee on Trauma