Recommendations for Developing State Firearm Surveys and Applying Findings

November 25, 2024 | Philicia Tucker, Ali Maffey

Background

The Joyce Foundation found that since 2019 more than a dozen states have initiated formal offices focused on the prevention of firearm-related harms, many of which have adopted a public health approach. In addition, states with and without formal offices focused on firearms are working to improve firearms data collection that can inform prevention strategies specific to injuries, suicides, and violence in their jurisdictions.

While existing public health data systems like the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System include certain questions about firearm use, access, and storage, many jurisdictions are eager to collect additional and nuanced information about firearms to translate into preventative action. In recent years, four states—Colorado, Missouri, New Jersey, and California—administered firearm-specific surveys to understand residents’ perspectives on firearms and firearm-related harms, and opportunities to use this data to inform prevention strategies. Survey administrators from each state shared their process for developing, analyzing, disseminating, and promoting results of their firearm surveys (detailed in Appendix A). The themes and lessons learned from their surveys can help inform other jurisdictions that may consider firearm survey development.

Survey Development and Dissemination Recommendations

Getting Started

Consider the existing data gaps within your jurisdiction related to firearm attitudes, experiences, and behaviors, as well as perspectives of population groups that may be more challenging to identify within existing data. Use this to inform the survey purpose and audience.

Then, create a plan that lays out short and long-term goals from development to dissemination of the survey (e.g., what you are hoping to get out of the data, how you plan to use this data to develop or apply prevention strategies, etc.).

Leveraging Partnerships

Develop strong networks with institutes of higher education to support survey administration, analysis, dissemination, and publication.

Involve the right partners (e.g., community organizations, public health professionals, firearm retailers, communities that experience the highest levels of violence exposure, etc.) and perspectives from the early planning stages. Continue to engage them through results dissemination and action.

Asking the Right Questions

Don’t recreate the wheel. Utilize existing firearm surveys as a template for developing questions. Consider including questions about prevention strategies, policies, and evidence-based practices to better understand your population’s perspectives and attitudes toward potential interventions.

Expand qualitative data collection through interviews or focus groups to better identify the lived experiences of hard-to-reach populations. Additionally, consider each of the unique audiences that will engage with the survey and the most effective strategies to increase diverse participant response (e.g., pilot survey questions, offer multiple language options, etc.).

Focusing on Language that Resonates

Ensure you have built community trust, and involve community voices that reflect the populations most impacted by or experienced with firearms. Frame the survey in a way that resonates with the general public, ensuring they can agree with the purpose and intentions (e.g., “The survey is intended to promote the health and wellbeing of the community.”).

Use plain language that reflects firearm owners’ experiences when developing questions. For example, ask owners if firearms are “locked in a specific place” instead of general questions about safe storage. Learn more about firearm language that resonates best in “Talking About ‘Firearm Injury’ and ‘Gun Violence’: Words Matter”, published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Finally, test survey language with people who have diverse perspectives prior to survey administration (e.g., firearm owners, firearm harm prevention advocacy groups, etc.).

Data to Action: Promoting Results and Applying Findings

Make sure community voices are heard prior to releasing the data. Then, share results with the community, and listen to and consider feedback. Also, promote results to leadership and key collaborators to increase awareness and knowledge of firearm-related issues and public perceptions about effective prevention strategies. (e.g., share results with public health leadership, governors’ offices, and policymakers to inform legislative considerations).

Be creative in how you share your data to reach a broad audience. For example, use social media platforms for short digestible content, develop data dashboards, partner with marketing firms to promote findings, etc.

Consider other cross-sector or community partners that may have interest in the survey results (i.e., adverse childhood experience prevention experts working to reduce exposure to community violence, suicide prevention partners focused on reducing access to lethal means, etc.).

Common Survey Challenges

It is likely that you will run into challenges throughout the firearm survey process. Common survey challenges include:

• Lack of alignment across partners with differing priorities for survey content, and how that data will be used to inform policymakers, community members, and the general public.
• Lack of sufficient budget for the staff time and resources it takes to engage partners authentically, and develop, analyze, and disseminate a survey and its findings from beginning to end.
• Reaching sufficient respondents from specific communities to obtain data representative of one’s jurisdiction, specifically including rural communities and populations directly impacted or closest to firearm-related harms.
• Some residents choose not to respond to a firearm survey due to the topic’s politicized nature. Sometimes, there is also public backlash.

Appendix A