Educating Teens to Prevent Firearm Injuries

Maybe it’s time to rethink our exclusive focus on politics.”

In our increasingly polarized country, political battles over “gun control” versus “gun rights” dominate public discourse, even as gun-related deaths continue to rise. In Washington state alone, the Legislature has passed more than 20 firearm-related measures since 2005. Yet in that same period, gun deaths have quadrupled from 290 in 2005 to over 1,200 in 2023.

Throughout my career as a physician and epidemiologist, I’ve approached this issue from multiple perspectives, including providing care to gunshot victims in the emergency and operating rooms, supporting grieving families in my clinic, conducting research, and educating high school students, college students, medical students, and young physicians. The data confirms what I’ve seen firsthand: we are heading in the wrong direction.

Maybe it’s time to rethink our exclusive focus on politics.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, by the time a child turns 18, they will have seen an estimated 200,000 acts of violence on television, many involving guns. Do we want kids to learn about firearms from video games and media, or is there a better way?

Most of my students associate gun violence with mass shootings. But those tragic events account for just 1% of all gun deaths. In reality, firearm fatalities now outnumber traffic deaths in half of U.S. states, including Washington. The majority of these deaths are suicides. Firearm injuries are now the leading cause of death among high school students. Shouldn’t young people have access to accurate, nonpartisan information about this critical public health issue?

We live in a country with nearly 400 million privately owned firearms. A gun is present in 40% of U.S. homes. Alarmingly, 4.6 million children live in homes where guns are stored loaded and unlocked — an accident waiting to happen. Shouldn’t students understand the basics of secure firearm storage?

Seventy percent of firearm owners cite self-protection as their primary reason for ownership. Yet few students realize that a gun in the home is statistically far more likely to be used in a suicide or domestic homicide than in self-defense. As many teens soon reach the age when they can legally purchase firearms, don’t they deserve to understand the risks?

One in six adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 seriously considers suicide. One in 12 makes an attempt. Students need to be trained to recognize the warning signs and risk factors for firearm violence. With the right tools, our kids can save lives. I would want my child’s peers to recognize if my child were in crisis and know how to respond. What better place to learn these lifesaving skills than at school?

As a parent of teens, I now realize I missed an opportunity to ask the parents of my daughters’ friends if there were unsecured firearms in their homes. I didn’t ask because no one had ever asked me. It felt awkward, even taboo. But I wouldn’t have felt comfortable sending my children into a home where firearms weren’t safely locked away. My failure to ask was a missed opportunity to protect my kids. If this question became as routine as “Does your child have a peanut allergy?” perhaps our communities could be safer.

In fact, the group most at risk for firearm suicide — accounting for 75% of gun deaths in Washington — is my own demographic: older white men. Washington passed an Extreme Risk Protection Order law in 2016, allowing family members or law enforcement to petition for the temporary removal of firearms from someone at risk of harming themselves or others. It’s a law that could save lives, but only if people know it exists. Out of the more than 10,000 students I’ve taught, only 12 had heard of ERPO. Most adults aren’t much more familiar.

Although firearm injury is now the leading cause of death among high school students, critical information about prevention is still missing from most school curricula. That’s why our team of health professionals — supported by the King County Academy of Family Physicians — is actively providing this education to high school students across Washington. We’ve delivered our evidence-based, apolitical presentations in communities from Seattle to Wenatchee to Cle Elum, equipping students with the knowledge and tools they need to stay safe and make informed choices.

Our message is simple: no politics — just facts. We recognize that firearms are part of American culture, much like cars, pizza, and video games. We don’t promote or oppose firearm ownership. Our goal is to foster a conversation about how we can work together to improve safety in our homes and communities.

Having recently moved to the Key Peninsula, I would like to offer this education to our local students. They deserve to learn the facts about firearm injury and prevention. Our communities will be safer when our young people are equipped with knowledge, empowered by data, and prepared to protect them- selves and others.

Because when we give young people knowledge, we give them the power to create a safer future. Contact me to learn how to access our program by contacting me: ga_engel@yahoo.com.

Gregory Engel, MD, MPH, is the director of Washington Ceasefire Firearm Injury Prevention Educators. He lives in Lakebay.