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NIH grant 1R01CE003816-01: Leveraging individual-level data to evaluate the effects of California's firearm policies on young adults
Institute: {'code': 'CE', 'abbreviation': 'NCIPC', 'name': 'National Center for Injury Prevention and Control', 'admin_org_id': '12501083', 'admin_funding_url': ''}. PI: SONJA ALSEMGEEST SWANSON. Award: $346743.
Start: 2026-09-30T00:00:00.
ABSTRACT
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young adults, with half of these deaths involving firearms.
Among young adults ages 18-20 years, long guns play a disproportionately large role, accounting for
approximately half of all firearm suicides. Although federal and state laws impose age restrictions on whether,
where (from licensed dealers versus private sellers), and what type of guns can be purchased (e.g., handguns
versus long guns), all prior studies of the effects of minimum age restrictions have focused on restrictions for
handguns. Considered as a whole, these studies find supportive evidence that imposing a minimum
purchasing age reduces firearm suicide rates in young adults. The ultimate objective of this work is to
rigorously quantify the effects of California's policies regarding the minimum age to purchase long guns on
firearm access and on suicide risk among young adults. Specifically, using the Longitudinal Study of Handgun
Ownership and Transfers (LongSHOT), an already-assembled multi-decade cohort of over 38 million adults in
California (2004-2021), the proposed work will estimate the effect these policies have on young adults' gun
purchasing and household-level exposure (Aim 1), and on risk of suicide (Aim 2). As such, this work will
directly support the purpose of RFA-CE-25-030 (“to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies to keep individuals,
families, schools, and communities safe from firearm-related…deaths”) using existing data sources under
Funding Option A.document fetched 2026-10-24 02:47