EXPERTS ADVISORY

Experts from the University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention are available to discuss various aspects of the mass shooting in Michigan, from firearm injury prevention to public policy and the psychology of traumatic events with children.

Justin Heinze is an associate professor of health behavior and health equity at the School of Public Health, co-director of the National Center for School Safety and director of the school safety section at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention.

“Following another tragic incident, we must turn our attention back to prevention while thinking about the recovery process,” he said. “Over the past decade, we have witnessed an increase in the number and severity of these types of tragic incidents with each incident having devastating impacts on families and the communities that surround them. These tragedies are a reminder of the urgent need to address the problem of firearm injury using comprehensive data-driven solutions, especially those that focus on ways we can prevent these devastating incidents from occurring in the first place.”

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April Zeoli is an associate professor of health management policy and faculty member at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. Her main fields of investigation are the prevention of firearm violence, intimate partner violence and homicide through the use of policy and law. She leads the largest study of extreme risk protection orders to date, which involves roughly 7,000 cases from six states.

“We found that roughly 10% of extreme risk protection order petitions were filed due to threats to shoot at least three people,” she said. “By making sure that the people who make these threats do not have access to firearms, we may be able to prevent mass shootings.”

To help residents better understand the new law around extreme risk protection orders in Michigan, the institute launched the ERPO toolkit. It includes resources on how to file an ERPO, what to do if you are served an ERPO, how to implement the policies and more.

“Research has shown that well-implemented firearm policy that is based on evidence-based risk factors can be effective in reducing all types of firearm injury,” Zeoli said. “However, there is a patchwork of firearm policies in the United States in which some states have evidence-based firearm policies while others do not. The outcome of this is that the level of protection citizens have from gun violence may depend, in part, on in which state they live.”

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Elyse Thulin is a research assistant professor at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. Her research seeks to understand factors that increase risks of firearm-related injury in adolescent and emerging adults, variations by intent, gender and rurality and also ways that technology and online spaces may exacerbate or be leveraged to reduce the risk of harm. Her projects include evaluating student-submitted tips to a statewide anonymous report system, which is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We need to continue to increase the focus on firearm injury prevention by identifying key aspects underlying this public health problem and developing and implementing evidence-based solutions,” she said. “One of the strategies we have seen to be significantly impactful is technology-based interventions, like anonymous reporting systems. These systems can get resources to the person in need and prevent escalation and a more severe crisis by providing a space for individuals to share information without fear of retribution.

“Our focus should continue to be on achieving our common goals of decreasing firearm death and injury, and through technology-based interventions like confidential, or anonymous, reporting systems, we can identify early warning signs. These measures are critical when discussing solutions to this preventable societal challenge.”

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Rebeccah Sokol is an associate professor at the School of Social work and faculty member at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. Her research program evaluates strategies to promote child and adolescent safety with a focus on recognizing and addressing fundamental causes of violence. She collaborates with interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral teams to understand the effects of programs and policies that address material hardships on youth safety.

“Around the United States, there are countless individuals, organizations and communities who are working tirelessly to prevent violence, including acts of mass violence, in an evidence-based manner,” Sokol said. “Critical components to these evidence-based strategies are policies that uphold responsible firearm ownership. For example, Child Access Prevention, or CAP, laws and universal background checks. 

“Simultaneously, keeping our communities safe extends to efforts that mend our social fabric: ensuring that people can meet their basic needs and have opportunities for upward mobility, creating places and spaces for people to belong and include others and keeping open lines of communication with young people to provide consistency and support. In our collective healing, remembering and supporting this work can help us honor the loved ones lost and build a better future.”

Contact: [email protected]