The UAB Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Alabama Committee on Trauma (COT) for the purchase of 1,000 gun locks to distribute across Alabama in the goal of injury and death prevention.
Libby Kellen, RN, BSN, the division’s Injury Prevention Coordinator, submitted the grant application and is a part of a roundtable comprised of Birmingham community members that is strategizing how and where to distribute the locks along with information on gun safety and safe storage.
The number of patients treated at UAB for gun violence injuries has increased by 40% in the last three years. Now, UAB treats an average 3 to 4 gunshot wound patients a day.
“We remain relentless in our goal of eliminating preventable injuries and deaths across our state,” said division director and chair of the COT, Jeffrey Kerby, M.D., Ph.D., FACS. “Providing these locks to gun owners and encouraging safety and responsible ownership is one common sense strategy to meet that goal.”
Evidence has shown that public health campaigns focused on safe gun storage can reduce accidental gun deaths. A gun lock is the least expensive and most effective way to prevent a firearm from being used. The 1,000 locks were purchased from Mark’s Outdoors and are trigger locks, meaning they are two-piece locks that fit over the trigger guard. A cylinder fits behind the trigger, preventing the gun from being fired. Trigger locks are opened by a keypad, combination, or key.
Division professor Kimberly Hendershot, M.D., FACS, who serves as the chair of the Alabama COT, says the COT is committed to helping prevent injuries and deaths from all mechanisms, including accidental injuries from firearms. She says the issue of firearm violence and accidental injury and death is a public health problem.
Earlier this year, in the wake of mass shooting events across the United States, the COT’s Firearms Strategy Team (FAST), made up of trauma surgeons, many who are firearm owners themselves, renewed their 13 recommendations to reduce firearm injury, death, and disability. One recommendation is that “owners provide safe and controlled storage of their firearms.”
“Safe gun storage is one way to help prevent accidental injuries related to firearms, especially accidental injuries involving children,” said Hendershot. “This initiative is a tangible way for UAB and the Alabama COT to help protect its local community and prevent families from suffering accidental tragedies.”
The upcoming campaign to distribute the gun locks is just one of many injury prevention efforts from the division. The division also offers courses on Stop the Bleed, safe driving for teens, and fall prevention for the elderly.