The public health priority to address the accessibility and safety of firearms:recommendations for training

As the American Medical Association (1) emphasized, guns are the means of a number of injuries and deaths. According to 2007 data (2), firearm suicides account for approximately 50% of all suicides in the United States alone, and firearm homicides account for approximately 69% of all homicides. Firearms are present in around 35% of all U.S. households (3). The presence of a firearm in the home is a risk factor for suicide (4Ð8) and homicide, although this is not explained by elevated levels of psychopathology in those households