Opportunities and Barriers to Screening and Counseling for Safe Firearm Storage

Safety practices such as storing a firearm locked and unloaded are widely promoted although not universally applied. Educating patients about firearm safety practices is effective in increasing safe firearms storage behaviors; however, screening for safe firearm storage in practice remains low. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether our clinic population was at risk for firearm-related injuries and whether opportunities existed to study risk-mitigation interventions in future work.

The study was conducted at a suburban, midwestern academic family medicine clinic. Patients filled out paper surveys about firearm ownership and willingness to discuss firearms safety with clinicians. Health care personnel filled out paper or electronic surveys about their comfort level in discussing firearm safety with patients. Data then were collated and analyzed.

We surveyed 160 patients (60% female, 80% White), and 40.6% of respondents reported living in a home with a firearm. Respondents who stored their firearm unsafely were more willing to discuss firearm safety than to change their storage behavior. Eighteen health care personnel responded to our health care personnel survey. Perceived barriers to asking about firearms included lack of time, knowledge, or educational materials. Having a screening policy was selected as the best opportunity for improvement.

Firearm owners appear willing to discuss firearm safety with their clinician, potentially representing an opportunity to promote risk-reduction through approaches such as motivational interviewing. In a busy outpatient setting, automating the firearm screening process could lessen the burden on clinicians.