Foundational Principles

The Society holds the following principles:

• The Society is nonpartisan; our interest is in promoting rigorous science that ensures the safety of individuals, families, schools, and communities across the nation.

• Everyone - regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, geographic location, and economic status - has a fundamental right to be safe in the places they live, work, study, play, and worship. 

• Firearm-related harms research merits parity in terms of scientific standing and resources with other societal crises of similar scope (e.g., HIV/AIDS, cancer, tobacco).

The Society supports research on firearm-related harms prevention across a diversity of disciplines and approaches, including:

• Firearm injuries in all forms (e.g., suicide, homicide, unintentional, mass shootings);

• Firearm injuries across the lifespan and from the individual to population level;

• Approaches ranging from individual behavior change, broader societal policies, clinical and policy, and firearm violence treatment and prevention;

• Qualitative and quantitative methods, descriptive, and experimental research;

• Partnerships between researchers and those most closely connected to firearm-related harms: people impacted or at risk of being impacted by firearms; firearm owners; and those on the frontlines of response to firearm-related harms, such as school staff, social workers, and health care professionals.