Ninez Ponce, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, and Michael Rodriguez, professor and vice chair of family medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, have received a three-year grant from the National Collaborative for Gun Violence Research.
The $596,171 grant will fund research on gun violence related to firearm ownership, storage practices and perceptions of gun safety, and fill critical data gaps about risk factors for gun suicide and urban gun violence related to understudied and disproportionately affected groups such as youth and young adults, veterans, immigrants, and LGBT people.
Their study is one of 15 research projects that shared $7.5 million in new grants announced by the collaborative; collectively, the research will produce evidence for improving gun policy in America. The grants build on a recent revival of funding for gun violence research. In July 2019, the collaborative awarded an initial round of $9.8 million to 17 research projects; at the end of 2019, the federal government committed $25 million to support gun violence research.
“Research has a critical role to play in informing effective gun policy,” said Rodriguez, who is co-director of the UCLA Firearm Violence Prevention Center. “We are excited to be part of this new wave of gun policy research, especially given the rigorous standards set by the collaborative.”
The UCLA study was selected from among 48 full proposals invited by the collaborative.
“Taking a public health approach is vital in addressing the root causes of violence and how they contribute to the devastating premature deaths of thousands of people in the U.S. each year,” Ponce said.