Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., Bethesda, MD 20817, USA.
Mil Med. 2024 Aug 19;189(Suppl 3):510-516. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usae172.
The purpose of this paper is to examine a scalable secure firearm storage intervention in the U.S. National Guard (NG) in preventing firearm injury and suicide. A study among firearm-owning members of the Mississippi NG testing Project Safe Guard (PSG), a 10 to 15 min lethal means counseling intervention, found that PSG increased self-reported secure firearm storage practices. Here, we sought to examine a "real world" rollout of a modified PSG program in the NG in which NG members were trained to understand the importance of lethal means safety and to deliver PSG to Guardsmen peers within their units.
The PSG team collaborated with the NG to identify 4 states for the rollout; for each state, the NG was responsible for identifying key personnel ("facilitators") who would receive the training. Team members provided in-person training at 5 locations across 4 states (AZ, GA, IA, and NV) from January to April 2023. Attendees were provided with combination trigger locks or cable locks and evaluation instructions. Questionnaires were administered to training attendees via REDCap at pre-training and post-training. We conducted descriptive and comparison statistics of questionnaire data.
A total of 186 facilitators were trained at 5 in-person training locations across 4 states (AZ, GA, IA, and NV) from January to April 2023; data collection concluded in August 2023. There were 137 pre-training responses (74% pre-survey response rate) and 88 post-training responses (64% response rate from those who took the pre-training survey). Findings demonstrate increases in self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding firearm injury and suicide and a reported desire to store personal firearms more securely.
The adapted version of PSG shows promise as a relevant and acceptable intervention among Guardsmen to enhance knowledge and attitudes regarding firearm suicide, increase secure firearm storage practices, and normalize conversations about firearm suicide prevention among peers. This intervention seeks to frame firearm suicide prevention within a culture of safety, complementary to the existing prevention methods and training within the NG.
本文旨在研究美国国民警卫队（NG）中一种可扩展的安全枪支存储干预措施，以预防枪支伤害和自杀。一项针对密西西比州 NG 中拥有枪支的成员进行的研究，测试了 Project Safe Guard（PSG），这是一种 10 到 15 分钟的致命手段咨询干预措施，发现 PSG 增加了自我报告的安全枪支存储实践。在这里，我们试图研究一种在 NG 中推出的经过修改的 PSG 计划的“真实世界”版本，其中 NG 成员接受培训，了解致命手段安全的重要性，并向他们所在单位的同侪提供 PSG。
PSG 团队与 NG 合作，确定了 4 个州进行推广；每个州都负责确定关键人员（“促进者”），他们将接受培训。团队成员于 2023 年 1 月至 4 月在 4 个州（亚利桑那州、佐治亚州、爱荷华州和内华达州）的 5 个地点进行了现场培训。参加者获得了组合扳机锁或电缆锁以及评估说明。通过 REDCap 在培训前和培训后向培训参加者进行问卷调查。我们对问卷数据进行了描述性和比较统计分析。
2023 年 1 月至 4 月，在亚利桑那州、佐治亚州、爱荷华州和内华达州的 5 个现场培训地点共培训了 186 名促进者；数据收集于 2023 年 8 月结束。共有 137 份培训前的回复（74%的培训前调查回复率）和 88 份培训后的回复（从参加培训前调查的人中，回复率为 64%）。调查结果表明，参加者对枪支伤害和自杀的知识、态度和信念有所提高，并表示希望更安全地存放个人枪支。
经过改编的 PSG 版本在国民警卫队中作为一种与士兵相关且可接受的干预措施具有潜力，旨在增强他们对枪支自杀的认识和态度，增加安全枪支存储实践，并使关于预防枪支自杀的对话在同侪中正常化。这种干预措施试图在安全文化框架内构建枪支自杀预防，与国民警卫队现有的预防方法和培训相辅相成。
