After teens, young children from birth to 5 years old are the largest age group impacted by unintentional shootings and have the highest number of firearm fatalities in the United States. And an estimated 30 million US children lived in households with firearms.
Research is limited on firearm safety perspectives and practices of parents with young children, and a team of researchers from the University of Michigan are working together to better tailor firearm safety approaches and communications to meet the needs of parents.
Called the Supporting All Families through Education and Responsible Management and Storage (SAFE ARMS) study, the three-year CDC-funded research project focuses on understanding how parents think about firearm safety for their young children.
Alison Miller, professor of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Hsing-Fang Hsieh, research assistant professor at the university’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and Michigan Public Health alumna, serve as co-principal investigators of the project.