Dear AJPM  reader,

Firearm-related injury prevention is one of the most pressing contemporary challenges confronting public health today. Research on gun violence, which could provide an evidence base for effective interventions, has been dramatically underfunded and legislatively obstructed for decades. However, change may be afoot with the release of new NIH funding to support firearm research, a bump-stock ban going into effect this year, and a more rigorous background check bill pending in the U.S House of Representatives. In the last few years, AJPM has experienced a significant, and welcome, increase in submissions addressing firearm violence, and our January issue reflects that trend with several articles on related topics including: 

Sivaraman JJ, Ranapurwala SI, Moracco KE, Marshall SW.
  • A study of female intimate partner homicide deaths in 16 states found the incidence of female intimate partner homicide was 56% lower in states with ≥40 firearm legislative provisions. This protective association was stronger for homicide-only intimate partner homicide than homicide–suicide intimate partner homicide.

Adhia A, Austin SB, Fitzmaurice GM, Hemenway D.
  • An examination of child homicides from 16 states found intimate partner violence (IPV) related child homicides are under-reported in NVDRS, and 54.3% of IPV-related child homicide victims were killed in incidents where the perpetrator also killed or attempted to kill the intimate partner.

Mitchell KJ, Turner HA, Jones LM.
  • Authors found an association between exposure to suicide attempts and negative emotional distress in youth aged 10-17 years, with 12% of youth reporting someone close to them had attempted suicide. 

Please be sure to also check out AJPM ’s injury collection on the journal’s web page and explore the many articles on firearm research available in our archive. We hope you find these articles and the remainder of the January issue , to be timely, informative, and thought-provoking.

Yours in prevention and health,


Matthew L. Boulton, MD, MPH
Editor-in-Chief

American Journal of Preventive Medicine