For the first time in 24 years, the CDC has funded research to understand and prevent firearm violence.
Megan Ranney RES’08 F’10 MPH’10, MD, was one of 16 investigators to receive a grant last September. Ranney, The Warren Alpert Foundation Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, will use the three-year, $1.95 million award to study the effectiveness of a bystander intervention in changing firearm injury prevention norms, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors among a sample of 50 4-H Shooting Sports Club communities.
“The history of public health tells us that change is created by listening to, and including, communities at risk. Unfortunately, firearm injury prevention work has rarely centered on those who own and use guns,” Ranney says. “I’m so excited to work with 4-H, a national organization with a tremendous track record of positive youth development, to create culturally appropriate programming around firearm injury risk for their Shooting Sports Clubs. Working with youth during their formative years has the potential to have huge positive ripple effects, both for their communities and for the country.”
