Dear AJPM Reader,

This month marks 6 years since the shooting at Parkland High School in Florida that resulted in the deaths of 17 people and represents just one of innumerable incidents of mass firearm violence that have occurred in recent years. This makes research at the intersection of firearms and prevention highly relevant, as gun violence and firearm-related deaths continue to increase in this country. At AJPM, we’re placing special emphasis on publishing and highlighting research on this topic, gathering articles into our Firearm Research collection, which was launched following the Parkland shooting.

The Firearm Research collection includes three articles from recent AJPM issues. In our January 2024 issue, Impact of Medicaid Expansion and Firearm Legislation on Cost of Firearm Injuries examines how Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion and firearm legislation at the state level has affected coverage and costs of firearm injuries. Findings showed that expansion increased government coverage of firearm injury-related hospitalization by about 15 percent. The authors also maintain that states with weaker firearm legislation had significantly higher costs for patients with unintentional and self-harm firearm injuries. Among these states, those that did not expand Medicaid had the highest proportion of uninsured and self-pay patients.

Hospitalization is the source of most nonfatal firearm injury-related costs, according to an article in our February 2024 issue, Costs of Fatal and Nonfatal Firearm Injuries in the U.S., 2019 and 2020. This article found a total cost of $483.2 billion for firearm-related injuries and deaths in the U.S. in 2020, 16% higher than in 2019. These costs show significant disparities, with non-Hispanic Black people, males, and younger people affected more than other groups. In another February 2024 article, Modification of Firearm Law-Firearm Injury Association by Economic Disadvantage, authors found that places with stricter firearm laws had lower rates of firearm incidents, but that communities with the greatest level of economic disadvantage benefited least from this association.

These articles are a reminder that the societal impact of firearm violence is unevenly distributed across location, economic resources, and demographic groups, and that targeted policies are an important tool in reducing these effects, especially among vulnerable communities and the populations within.

We hope you find these articles, as well as our February 2024 issue, to be timely, topical, and informative.

Yours in prevention and health,