Great Lakes Wire

The work of two MPHI employees was recently featured in the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on firearm violence. Abby Collier, Director, and Sasha Mintz, Senior Epidemiologist, of the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention (National Center), coauthored an article alongside four partners from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

The article is titled “Unintentional Firearm Injury Deaths Among Children and Adolescents Aged 0–17 Years” and was published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The Surgeon General gave the advisory on June 25, titled “Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America.” The advisory addressed current statistics and factors surrounding gun violence, impacts on communities and families, and a public health approach to preventing gun violence and injury.

These topics are related to Mintz and Collier’s work, which examined data on unintentional childhood firearm injury deaths from 2003-2021 documented in the National Violent Death Reporting System. The Surgeon General highlighted multiple statistics from the article to provide guidance on proper firearm safety and storage.

The report also shared research from the article that emphasized places where unlocked firearms were commonly accessed.

For more information on the article and the Surgeon General’s advisory, visit:

Unintentional Firearm Injury Deaths Among Children and Adolescents Aged 0–17 Years | National Library of Medicine

Firearm Violence in America | HHS.gov

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