Citation

Ziminski D. Front. Public Health 2024; 12: e1338722.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Frontiers Editorial Office)

DOI

10.3389/fpubh.2024.1338722

PMID

38601502

PMCID

PMC11004240

Abstract

In June 2022, the U.S. federal government passed its first major firearm policy since the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). Summative content analysis was used to explore how the social problem of firearm violence was outlined in both policies, with the goal of extracting the social issue's definition from the policies' approaches to solving it. Both policies do not outline the various types of firearm violence, nor the disproportionate effect of firearm violence on certain populations. This work informs the role of federal policy in defining and monitoring firearm violence as a public health issue, identifying both individual and structural risk and protective factors from an asset-based lens, and allocating preventative efforts in communities that are most affected.

Language: en

Keywords

*Firearms; content analysis; federal policy making; firearm injury prevention; gun violence; issue definition; Policy; Public Health; social problem analysis; social problem awareness; Violence/prevention & control