When gun storage becomes public health policy in Colorado

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

Guns and public health: Safe Starts at Home program

The Anschutz Family Foundation recently gave a grant to CU Anschutz and its associated schools to develop a program called Safe Starts at Home.

I linked to the press release I saw first below.

Quoting from the press release with links intact:

“The program [Safe Starts at Home] began in response to requests from several Colorado counties and was developed by the Injury and Violence Prevention Center (IVPC) and the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative (FIPI). The IVPC and FIPI teams packaged research on effective household safety practices to prevent firearm and overdose injuries and deaths, and developed training for these county staff who visit and support families. Within a year of that initial request to build the capacity of home-visiting professionals, approximately 40 other programs in the state had expressed interest in the Safe Starts at Home program.”

A later quote from the press release fleshes out some of the details:

“Instead of creating new services, Safe Starts at Home integrates program components into existing county infrastructure. County staff who are already trained and qualified to conduct home visits are taught to include conversations about secure storage of firearms, medications, and substances. The program distributes household safety kits that include firearm locking devices, medication storage bags, and educational materials on the importance of preventing unauthorized firearm access and overdose prevention.”

I have written before about how I am (to the extent it doesn’t interfere with someone’s rights or their ability to defend themselves) in general supportive of safe storage of firearms at home. This is particularly the case if I knew one of the people in my household was suicidal.

As such, I’m not too concerned about INFORMATIONAL efforts at safe storage. Still, expanding the mission of home visits in this way bears some scrutiny and left me with some questions. When any agent of the government, social worker on up to police, comes into your home and starts asking questions, we as citizens should be sitting up and asking about it.

I directed my questions to the people at FIPI, asking which counties inquired about/requested the program as well as for copies of training materials, information handouts, and/or the grant.

Eventually, a Dr. Joseph Simonetti (mentioned in the press release–he was one of originators of the program and is its current medical director).

I wish I had more to share. What I received in answer to my questions was the handouts in the shared folder linked second below and the following statement from Dr. Simonetti (quoting my email):

“I’m not sure when/if we will make these publicly available [training materials for those doing home visits]. We are unable to share data about the counties who are interested – we collected that info through an anonymous survey. We also tend not to share things like training materials/resources outside of training sessions.”

As a quick aside, see “Related” below for a quick blurb on the Gun Shop Project.

Without pointing any fingers or making conspiratorial claims, I do not understand the reticence of the people at FIPI to share more. All over their website, in all their materials, are talk about collaboration and trust.

Is this a good way to build it when your program is sending government employees into people’s homes to talk about a topic that is viewed by some as sensitive? Perhaps as the program matures, they’ll choose to be more forthcoming. If I get more or hear more, I’ll update.

In the meantime, as I’ve said with other, similar contexts about firearms: they can ask, you can decline to answer.


https://news.cuanschutz.edu/coloradosph/safe-starts-at-home-cu-anschutz-initiative-scales-statewide-to-prevent-firearm-injuries-and-overdoses

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18iRuvEKEgvkMZCAJ8A65_C-x6XSZLNcE?usp=sharing

Related:

In the post above, I mentioned that my local health department NCHD said they “… support our partner organization Centennial Mental Health Center who are implementing the Gun Shop Project working with trusted messengers in the firearm community.”

If you would like some info on the Gun Shop Project, check out the link below.

https://cdphe.colorado.gov/suicide-prevention/gun-shop-project

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.