Firearm-related violence is a big problem in the United States. Every day over 100 people die, and another more than 200 people are treated in emergency departments, as a result of firearm-related injuries.
In an effort to understand and prevent firearm violence, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded 16 grants this month to researchers across the country investigating strategies for preventing firearm-related injuries, deaths, and crime. Three investigators from UC Davis were among the 16 awardees.
CHPR faculty member Aimee Moulin, M.D. and a professor of Emergency Medicine at UC Davis Health, is one of them. Dr. Moulin will examine the synergistic impacts of firearm access and opioid-related harm on firearm suicide risk at the individual and population levels in the state of California. Her two-year research project is titled “Firearm Access, Opioid Use, and Firearm Suicide Mortality.”
The other two UC Davis awardees are assistant professors with the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis Health. Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, Ph.D., M.P.H., will study the “Prevalence of Community Gun Violence Exposure and Consequences for Adolescent Well-Being” for her two-year project and Rose Kagawa, Ph.D., M.P.H., will examine “Physical, Social, and Economic Environments and Firearm Fatalities Among Youth” over the course of her mentored career development (K01) award.
According to the CDC, the 16 awards represent research that is an “important step toward keeping individuals, families, schools, and communities safe from firearm violence and its consequences.”