Harvard Injury Control Research Center
Our mission is to reduce the societal burden of injury and violence through surveillance, research, intervention, evaluation, outreach, dissemination, and training.
Training
In the first study of its kind, volunteers audited twenty basic firearm classes in the Northeastern US. While most trainers cover many aspects of firearm safety, very few discuss important public health issues such as guns and suicide, gun theft as a major source of illegal guns, using guns in self-defense only as a last resort, techniques for de-esclating threats, or provide data on home invasions, gun accidents, sexual assaults or homicides. We believe that collaboration between public health experts and firearm trainers could lead to additional information being provided to trainees to increase firearm safety.
Hemenway, David; Rausher, Steven; Violano, Pina; Raybould, Toby A; Barber, Catherine. Firearms training: what is actually taught? Injury Prevention. 2017 Oct (Epub ahead of publication). 2019; 25:123-128.
HICRC’s national survey of gun owners finds that 61% report having ever received formal firearms training. In the New England region, over 78% have received formal training. Gun owners in the three southern regions (South Atlantic, East South Central, West South Central) are least likely to have received formal training. The training content seems to vary widely. Only 15% of gun owners report receiving any information about suicide prevention.
Rowhani-Rahbar, Ali; Lyons, Vivian; Simonetti, Joseph A; Azrael, Deborah; Miller, Matthew. Formal firearm training among adults in the USA: results from a national survey. Injury Prevention. 2018; 24(2):161-165.
Houtsma C, Powers J, Raines AM, Bailey M, Barber C, True G. Engaging stakeholders to develop a suicide prevention learning module for Louisiana firearm training courses. Injury Epidemiology. 2023; 10: