Anticipatory Violence and Health Among Black Adults in the United States.

This study analyzes the relationship between anticipatory community and police violence and health outcomes including mental and physical well-being, sleep problems, and functional disability. Using data from a nationally representative survey of 3015 self-identified Black and African American adults in the USA collected in 2023, findings from a series of regression analyses reveal that anticipating community violence is linked to poorer self-rated health and increased sleep problems. Anticipatory police violence is associated with poorer physical health and sleep disturbances.

Adverse childhood experiences and defensive gun use: The indirect role of threat sensitivity and depressive symptoms.

Background/purpose: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been linked to various detrimental life outcomes, including an increase in threat sensitivity and depressive symptoms. Studies have also found an association between ACEs and firearm ownership. To date, no study has assessed whether ACEs have direct or indirect effects on defensive gun use (DGU) through these risk factors.

Disability and Racial Justice Go Hand in Hand: A Commentary on Black Men and Firearm Violence.

Black men in the United States face disproportionately high rates of firearm violence, leading to death and disability more often than males of other racial/ethnic groups. Managing life after such injuries involves significant challenges in daily activities, employment, and pain management. Despite the critical impacts of firearm-related disabilities on Black men, their experiences remain largely unexplored by disability scholars, public health researchers, and practitioners.

Gun violence exposure and population health inequality: a conceptual framework.

This essay establishes a conceptual framework to understand how direct, secondar and community exposures to gun violence converge to influence population health. Our framework asserts that persistent gun violence in structurally disadvantaged communities enacts broad consequences for mental, physical and behavioural health, operating as a key driver of racial and socioeconomic health disparities. We discuss the applications of this framework for research and improved data collection with a focus on establishing timely and accurate measures of gun violence alongside individual and community health measures.

Storage of firearms in vehicles: findings from a sample of firearm owners in nine U.S. states.

Background: In recent years, there has been a growing number of thefts of firearms stored in vehicles. Despite this trend, there is limited research on firearm storage patterns in vehicles in the United States. This study investigates these storage patterns and evaluates the relationship between the surge in firearm purchases after March 2020 and the practice of storing firearms in vehicles.

A multi-state evaluation of extreme risk protection orders: a research protocol.

Background: Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) are civil court orders that prohibit firearm purchase and possession when someone is behaving dangerously and is at risk of harming themselves and/or others. As of June 2024, ERPOs are available in 21 states and the District of Columbia to prevent firearm violence. This paper describes the design and protocol of a six-state study of ERPO use.

Deer Hunting Season and Firearm Violence in US Rural Counties.

Importance: Firearm violence is a major public health problem in the US. However, relatively little research has focused particular attention on firearm violence in rural areas, and few studies have used research designs that draw on exogenous variation in the prevalence of firearms to estimate the association between firearm presence and shootings.

Objective: To investigate the association between the start of deer hunting season and shootings in rural counties in the US.

Demographic differences in perceived effectiveness for policies to prevent school shootings: results from a representative survey in New Jersey.

Objective: To determine what firearm policies New Jersey residents believe will prevent school shootings and the extent to which this varies by sex, firearm ownership status, and political affiliation.

Methods: A representative sample of New Jersey residents (N = 1,018) was collected via the Eagleton Center on Public Interest Polling (ECPIP). Data were weighted to reflect the state's population.

Differences in reasons for secure and unsecure firearm storage: Results from a representative cross-sectional study of nine states.

Objectives: To examine factors that differentiate firearm owners who endorse specific reasons for secure and unsecure firearm storage.

Methods: A subsample of firearm-owning adults (n = 3,119) drawn from a representative sample of adults (n = 7,785) residing in nine US states participated in an online survey.

Results: The most common reason for not always using a gun safe was concerns that they render firearms too slow to access during an emergency (60.

Exploring the Role of Fear, Civic Disengagement, and Economic Disenfranchisement Within Communities that Experience Gun Violence.

A growing body of research has documented how gun violence can affect mental and physical health outcomes among adults. Likewise, the literature is also beginning to reveal negative psychological effects related to distress and hypervigilance and sociological implications around diminished community engagement and economic opportunity. However, there remains a need to fully explore the role of fear related to the experience of gun violence.

Gun Violence Exposure and Quality of Life in Nine US States.

Direct and indirect gun violence exposure (GVE) is associated with a broad range of detrimental health effects. However, much of this research has examined the effects of a single type of GVE (e.g.

Officer gunpoint during police stops: Repercussions for youth mental health and perceived safety.

Youth-police contact is increasingly acknowledged as a stressor and a racialized adverse childhood experience that can undermine youths' mental health. The present study investigates a particularly distressing feature of youths' direct and witnessed in-person police stops-officer gunpoint (i.e.