Future Directions for Firearm Injury Intervention, Policy, and Research

Pediatric firearm injury is a national clinical and public health concern in the United States. Addressing this crisis requires a comprehensive approach, integrating efforts from clinicians, public health professionals, policy makers, educators, researchers, community leaders, law enforcement, and others. In this chapter, we discuss the response to pediatric firearm injury from three perspectives: interventions, public policy, and research. In each domain, we briefly review the current state of knowledge and provide specific recommendations and directions to guide future efforts. It is important to recognize, however, that intervention programs, public policy, and academic research are inter-related efforts, each informing and influencing the others, such that progress in one area can and often will be a springboard to meaningful progress in another. While the problem of pediatric firearm violence is daunting, it need not be intractable. There have been substantial, culture-shifting public health successes in other areas. Policy, research, and intervention, informing, supporting, and reinforcing each other, can advance reciprocally and exert a meaningful reduction on the burden of pediatric firearm injury and mortality.