Students Deserve to Know the Facts of Firearm Injury.

A Guest Post, from Gregory Engel, MD, MPH

When most people think about firearm violence they think about the tragic mass shootings that the media cover periodically in our country. What they may not realize is that mass shootings account for less than 1% of firearm deaths. 

Firearm deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in half the states in the country, including Washington State. Suicides make up the majority of those deaths. And, from a health standpoint, firearm violence is particularly relevant to high school students. In fact, firearm injury is the leading cause of death in this age group.

Firearm Injury Prevention Educators have been providing public health-informed education on firearm injury prevention for the past seven years.  We present the facts of gun violence to high school students, without embellishment or a political agenda. 

We focus on the high school population for three reasons:  

• One, there is an important lesson in health to be learned. We discuss how public health professionals think about health issues and go about promoting safety and saving lives. This is critical information for youth who are learning how our society works.  Washington State needs informed citizens who can make choices that will lead to safer, healthier communities.

• Two, firearms are ubiquitous in the U.S. and  firearm violence is an unfortunate reality.  There are practical, important steps students can take to keep themselves, their friends and their families safe and healthy.

• Three, health classes are a promising venue to reach large numbers of people in an efficient manner.   

Since 2017, with the help of a grant from the King County Academy of Family Physicians, we have reached over 6000 students in grades 9-12 at two dozen Washington State high schools. 

The presentation has been vetted by Lisa Love, director of health curricula for Seattle Public Schools.  Superintendents of Tacoma and Edmonds schools recommend it to their health instructors and it has been enthusiastically received by students, teachers and administrators. Administrators and teachers at Edmonds are working to make education on firearm injury prevention a standard part of the health curriculum  

We want to provide this critically important information to all Washington high school students. If you are a parent, teacher or principal and would like to invite us to teach at your school, or would like more information about our program, please contact us.

Sincerely,

Gregory Engel MD MPH
Gun Violence Prevention Educators
ga_engel@yahoo.com
(206) 963-6915