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

(1) Albright, Teresa L., and Sandra K. Burge. "Improving firearm storage habits: impact of brief office counseling by family physicians." The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice 16.1 (2003): 40-46.

(2) Rowhani-Rahbar, Ali, Joseph A. Simonetti, and Frederick P. Rivara. "Effectiveness of interventions to promote safe firearm storage." Epidemiologic reviews 38.1 (2016): 111-124.

(3) Price, James H., et al. "Psychiatrists’ practices and perceptions regarding anticipatory guidance on firearms." American journal of preventive medicine 33.5 (2007): 370-373.

(4) Roszko, Paul JD, et al. "Clinician attitudes, screening practices, and interventions to reduce firearm-related injury." Epidemiologic reviews 38.1 (2016): 87-110.

(5) Everett SA, Price JH, Bedell AW, et al. Family practice physicians’ firearm safety counseling beliefs and behaviors. J Community Health. 1997;22(5):313–324.

(6) Puttagunta, R., T. R. Coverdale, and John Coverdale. "What is taught on firearm safety in undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education? A review of educational programs." Academic psychiatry 40.5 (2016): 821-824.

(7) Olson, Lynn M., Katherine K. Christoffel, and Karen G. O’Connor. "Pediatricians’ involvement in gun injury prevention." Injury Prevention 13.2 (2007): 99-104.