Risk Factors for Firearm Injury

What You Can Do believes in your ability, as a provider, to prevent firearm injury and death—especially firearm suicide, firearm homicide, and accidental firearm death—among the patients with whom you already are interacting. Identifying risk factors in your patients is the first step to planning an informed conversation about risk for firearm injury and firearm safety.

There are 3 main categories of risk for firearm injury and death:

Patients at acute risk	Those with suicidal or homicidal ideation
Patients with individual risk factors	History of violent behavior History of violent victimization Abusive partners Alcohol and drug misuse Serious and poorly controlled mental illness Impaired cognition or judgement
Patients belonging to a demographic group at risk	Children and adolescents Middle-aged and older men, for suicide Adolescent and young men, for homicide

In some cases, the factors exposing patients to increased risk of firearm injury may be the reasons those patients are coming into contact with a health care provider like you.

We're not recommending universal counseling.

We're recommending that when a patient exhibits risk factors for firearm injury and has access to a firearm, you talk with him or her about strategies to reduce that risk.

Risk Factors for Firearm Injury

There are 3 main categories of risk for firearm injury and death:

Patients at acute risk

Patients with individual risk factors

Patients belonging to a demographic group at risk

We're not recommending universal counseling.

Preventing Firearm-Related Injury and Death: A Targeted Intervention

Looking for CME Credit?