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Identifying Local Level Strategies: North Carolina County Commissioners’ Perceptions of Firearm Violence Prevention Interventions

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Abstract

Firearm violence continues to be a national public health issue. The objective of this study was to collect baseline data regarding North Carolina County Commissioners’ perceptions of firearm violence and potential local level interventions. A cross-sectional study of NC County Commissioners (n = 582) was conducted to investigate the research questions. The top 5 firearm violence prevention interventions that would be supported by NC County Commissioners included offering gun safety classes for adults (88.5%), implementing public education campaigns to promote responsible firearm storage (86.0%), developing courtroom processes that ensure domestic abusers turn in their guns as required by law (83.2%), adopting a standard policy of tracing all crime guns (79.4%), and providing firearm violence prevention programs for at-risk neighborhoods and individuals (72.2%). North Carolina County Commissioners perceived lack of understanding regarding which interventions would be most effective as the greatest barrier to supporting various types of firearm violence prevention interventions (50.3%).

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Funding

This work was supported by the Office of Research and Economic Engagement at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, PO Box 26170, Greensboro, NC, 27402-6170, USA

    Erica Payton Foh, Md Towfiqul Alam, Peace Okpala & William H. Dudley

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  1. Erica Payton Foh
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  2. Md Towfiqul Alam
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  3. Peace Okpala
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  4. William H. Dudley
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Correspondence to Erica Payton Foh.

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Payton Foh, E., Alam, M.T., Okpala, P. et al. Identifying Local Level Strategies: North Carolina County Commissioners’ Perceptions of Firearm Violence Prevention Interventions. J Community Health 47, 334–343 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-021-01050-8

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