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Firearm owners, parents of kids and teens, and loved ones of anyone at higher suicide risk should take immediate action to prevent injury and death.

Free firearm safety help available from U-M:

• Parents’ Guide to Home Firearm Safety
• Make your home suicide-safer
• Nine ways to prevent firearm tragedies near you
• Podcasts on firearm injury prevention topics
• Online learning about firearm injury prevention and safe storage
• Firearm Counseling for Clinicians and Safe Storage for Clinicians
• How can we reduce the firearm death toll in older adults?
• What More Could We Do to Prevent Veteran Suicides? 
• Firearm Policy Briefs 

Anyone interested in receiving updates about firearm injury prevention research at U-M can join the IFIP email list.

Transcript

Host:

Welcome to the Michigan Medicine News Break, your destination for news and stories about the future of healthcare. Today, new Michigan laws make storing firearms safely more important than ever. Firearm owners, parents of kids with teens and loved ones of anyone at higher suicide risk should take immediate action to prevent injury and death.

Michigan has brand new laws that aim to reduce the toll of firearm injuries and deaths across the state by requiring guns to be stored securely in any location where young people might be present. Starting next year, firearm owners whose weapons end up in the hands of a young person who shoots themselves or someone else could face prison time or major fines. The firearm owner could face charges and a fine even if the gun is never fired, but gets into the hands of a young person who shows it to someone.

One year ago this month, University of Michigan researchers showed that for the first time, firearms had become the leading cause of death among people age one to 19 in the United States. Meanwhile, national data showed that suicide rates have spiked to near record highs. About half of all suicide deaths involve a firearm and suicides account for half of all firearm related deaths in the United States. All of this makes it more important than ever for Michiganders who own firearms to take steps to store them safely, either with gun locks or in locked storage with ammunition stored separately, say experts from the University of Michigan.

Gun locks are available for free from most law enforcement agencies, and for a low cost from retailers. Locked storage boxes can be inexpensive. The new laws also eliminate Michigan sales taxes on all secure storage devices purchased by Michiganders.

“Even if you don’t live with a child or teen, or a person with a high risk of suicide, simple storage changes can prevent tragedy,” said Patrick Carter, M.D., co-director of the U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and an emergency physician at Michigan Medicine.

Michigan Medicine last fall signed on to the Hospital's United Campaign, which promotes safe storage and encourages parents to ask about firearm storage in homes where their children are going to play.

The psychiatric emergency services team at Michigan Medicine recently gave away its 500th free gun lock in just over a year through a program for patients who seek emergency mental health care at U of M. The team also asks nearly every patient and family they see about firearm ownership and offers information on safe storage.

Said John Kettley, the Chief Social Worker for the Department of Psychiatry's Emergency Team, "We hope that other mental health emergency and primary care providers will consider adding detailed screening and education for their patients no matter their diagnosis.”

Victor Hong M.D., who directs the Emergency Psychiatric Service said, "Our efforts to conduct a more thorough assessment of firearm safety for our patients are bearing fruit. We are having more active discussions and coaching sessions with families about the risks of having unsecured firearms, and what some options are for safe storage. These discussions are approached from a non-judgmental stance to facilitate an open conversation and in an effort to facilitate a change in behavior." There is free firearm safety help available from U of M, which will be linked in the show notes for this episode.

With the establishment of the U of M Firearm Institute in 2022, U of M has become a national leader in academic firearm research that seeks to reduce injury and death, and inform policy makers while respecting individual rights. For instance, a team of U of M researchers has helped Upper Peninsula families with teens increase safe storage practices through tailored education. Other U of M research has shown that firearm purchases by families with teens grew during the pandemic.

While the new Michigan laws focus on safe storage of firearms around young people, one third of all firearm deaths in the US are among people over 50, with the vast majority of those deaths being suicides. Men over age 75 have the highest rate of suicide of any age group, though the new report from the CDC shows that rates have risen in many age groups and among both men and women.

Carter's research has shown that 24% of firearm owners are over age 50, and 20% of those who have children living with them or visiting often, store at least one of their firearms loaded and unlocked. He has also studied other older adults' attitudes toward firearm injury prevention policies. As Michigan policy makers consider other measures to reduce the toll of firearm injury, research led by U of M teams on the impacts of extreme risk protection orders, (also sometimes called “red flag laws”) on domestic violence incidents and mass shootings, is informing their work.

Anyone interested in receiving updates about firearm injury prevention research at U of M can join the email list that will also be linked in the description for this episode.

For more on this story and others like it, visit michiganmedicine.org\health-lab. The Michigan Medicine News Break is a part of the Michigan Medicine Podcast Network and is produced by the Michigan Medicine Department of Communication. You can subscribe to the Michigan Medicine News Break wherever you listen to podcasts.