Medical students are the next generation of physicians, and emphasizing the importance of and gaining comfort with discussing firearm safety with patients from early is vital to incorporating this issue into physicians' daily practice.

Healthcare providers hold a vital role in preventative care. Discussing firearm safety has shown to improve patient wellbeing by increasing the number of firearms that are kept locked and unloaded in homes (1, 2). However, due to a lack of training, providers often do not feel comfortable counseling patients and families regarding safe gun ownership (3, 4).

75% of physicians lack formal training on counseling for firearm interventions and there is currently no standardized medical student or resident physician education surrounding firearm violence (5, 6). Given these alarming statistics, we see an urgent need to train medical students, residents, and current providers with firearms injury prevention curriculum.

In 2019, SAFE built an online curriculum that was updated and released in July 2024. Clinicians and Firearms was created to serve as a model for firearm injury prevention education. This platform can hopefully reflect lessons that can be incorporated into medical schools’ structured clinical exams for their students.

Click Here to Watch Clinicians and Firearms.

1. Pamphlet For Patients About Gun Safety

2. How to Counsel

3. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma

4. Bullet Points