Addressing America’s Firearm Violence Crisis: An Epidemiological Approach to Environmental and Behavioral Interventions

Firearm violence in the United States is a public health crisis and the leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults (Lee et al., 2022). Yet, it is often perceived as an issue rooted in an individual’s mental state rather than a consequence of a lack of protective firearm policies. However, when addressing firearm violence, it is also crucial to identify the factors that contribute to violent environments and unintentional gun injuries. This paper examines the underlying factors that fuel firearm violence and proposes a comprehensive, evidence-informed firearm violence intervention from an epidemiological perspective: an orientation that focuses on the characteristics of the agent, host, and environment. Protective firearm policies directly address the agent: firearms. However, the environmental factors that perpetuate violence and the lack of education on safe gun storage should also be addressed. By addressing environmental risk factors such as alcohol misuse and a lack of green spaces in communities, the rates of firearm violence in low-income neighborhoods could be mitigated. Along with these efforts, interventions to teach gun owners about safe gun storage should be implemented to reduce the number of unintentional firearm injuries. Overall, addressing the firearm violence crisis will require a comprehensive epidemiological approach to account for its multifaceted nature. This framework focuses on the interactions between the disease-causing agent (firearms), host (gun owners and non-gun owners), and their shared environment (Principles of Epidemiology, 2023). In the context of firearm violence, applying the epidemiological model will target firearms (agents) and the individual behaviors and environments. Without this perspective, the social and environmental risk factors that contribute to firearm violence will continue to be overlooked.