obÌåÓý

Firearm violence impacts some populations more than others, and youth who are at increased risk for violence are overrepresented in school discipline and justice systems. This study will retrospectively follow 1.4 million children enrolled in Minnesota K-12 public schools for over 15 critical years of their development. Researchers will link school data with other data from Minnesota Department of Human Services and the State Court Administrator's Office. They plan to measure how early forms of school violence escalate to future firearm violence and identify how involvement with the social welfare system impacts firearm violence. The findings will help inform how the formative school years, adolescence, and emerging adulthood affect firearm violence.

Firearm-related injuries recently became the leading cause of death among children in the U.S., and children under five years old are among the largest age groups impacted by unintentional firearm injury. Unsafe firearm storage is a leading cause of firearm-related injury and death among young children, so more can be learned about improving safety practices. This study will help improve understanding about the scope and motivations for gun ownership, storage, and use among parents with young children. Using behavioral and decision science with community partners as messengers, this study will assess what parents know about firearm safety and injury prevention during early childhood. Findings from this project will inform a parent-driven firearm injury prevention program for parents of young children. .

Since firearm injury and violence are costly and risk for all forms of violence begins early in life, prevention efforts are needed that start early and are specific to audience, race/ethnicity, life stage, and developmental phases. This research will do several things. It will expand a long-term survey and will conduct in-depth interviews with those who carry firearms to better understand their ideas, practices, contexts, and experiences of acquiring, carrying, using, sharing, and storing firearms. Additionally, the research will identify key individual, behavioral, situational, trauma-related, and community risk factors for firearm injury and violence and compile findings into easily understandable language and summaries. Findings will directly benefit communities by informing schools and communities with more tailored violence prevention approaches for adolescents and young adults. .

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of economic security policies (minimum wages, the Earned Income Tax Credit, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) as primary prevention strategies for firearm violence among Black youth and young adults 10-34 years old. The study will also involve conducting interviews with Black youth and young adults 10-34 years old who have been injured by firearms and their primary caregivers who live in environments that have fewer of these economic policies. The study will evaluate economic security policies, focusing on whether existing policies are effective for primary prevention among those most impacted by firearm violence.