1 - (SYM 118) Promoting Secure Firearm Storage Through Credible Messaging and Messengers in Community and Military Settings

 Secure firearm storage has been proposed as a method for reducing firearm suicide, along with other forms of firearm injury and death.  Large scale adoption of secure storage practices (e.g., unloaded, locked, separate from ammunition) has been limited; however, interventions to promote increased uptake continue to be developed and evaluated.  Given recent research indicating that firearm suicide decedents are less likely than other suicide decedents to have received mental healthcare (Bond et al., 2023), firearm owning service members with suicidal ideation who have not received recent mental healthcare are more prone to insecure firearm storage (Anestis et al., 2023), and healthcare workers rarely assess for firearm access (Bond et al., 2023), some have proposed extending interventions beyond the healthcare system. In this presentation, we will present on two such efforts. 

The first effort involves adaptations of Project Safe Guard (PSG; Anestis et al., 2021), an evidence-based lethal means counseling approach, to be administered within military settings by peers and within civilian settings by faith leaders and barbers.  PSG has been adapted in a recent trial at Buckley Space Force Base (Stanley et al., 2024), with minor content adjustments and a shift towards implementation by peer interventionists.  Additionally, adjusted trainings for PSG have been developed via pilot trials within the National Guard, resulting in a protocol being used to train faith leaders and barbers across New Jersey to equip trusted community members with tools for guiding effective conversations regarding secure firearm storage.  Preliminary results from this effort will be presented.

The second effort involves public health messaging that leverages voices deemed credible by firearm owners.  Both survey (e.g. Anestis et al., 2021) and experimental data (e.g. Anestis et al., 2022) have demonstrated that specific voices tend to be seen as credible across communities (e.g. law enforcement), while specific subcommunities of firearm owners indicate preferences for other voices (Bond et al., 2024).  Within this same line of research, data have shown that the medium through which the message is delivered may be more influential than the specific content of the message (e.g. Bandel et al., 2022).  We will discuss conclusions that can be drawn from this line of research, noting strategies for leveraging messaging as a tool to promote social norm changes around secure firearm storage, thereby creating a more hospitable environment for interventions like PSG.