# RFA-CE-23-006, Store Safely: Firearm injury prevention for rural families

> **NIH ALLCDC R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2024 · $501,689

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death among youth in the United States and rates of firearm-related
suicides among rural youth are increasing at an alarming rate. Reducing access to firearms is a key
component of suicide prevention because 91% of suicide attempts with a firearm are fatal. Although safe
firearm storage reduces risk of firearm injury and death, few interventions exist that are tailored to rural
communities where firearms are prevalent and an important part of community and family culture and where
health care access disparities limit opportunities for safe storage education. Store Safely is a multi-component
online primary prevention strategy designed via a university-community partnership specifically for rural firearm
owning families that has shown promise in terms of its acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary impact. In a
sample of 43 rural families, 98% reported engaging with all intervention components and 86% completed a
home safety checklist. 40% of families self-reported making a change to their storage, such as purchasing gun
locks, safes, or lockboxes; separating ammunition from weapons; reviewing the safety of current storage
practices; and relocating firearms to a location harder to access by their children. 80% found Store Safely to be
culturally sensitive and would recommend the materials to other parents. In response to this urgent need and
RFA-CE-23-006 (Funding Option B) we will use a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach
and a hybrid two effectiveness-implementation framework to test this innovative, highly scalable online
intervention. Our specific aims include: 1) refinement of the Store Safely intervention, incorporating feedback
from the pilot trial and our community partners, 2) a pilot RCT of 20 families to refine measures and
procedures, and 3) a hybrid-two trial with 800 rural firearm owning families randomized to receive Store Safely
or a wait list control to provide definitive assessment of the impact of Store Safely on the primary intervention
target of locked firearm storage as well as mechanisms of intervention to include knowledge, attitudes, and
behavioral intentions as well as family safety behaviors, such as home safety checks. Implementation
questions are designed to identify the most fruitful means of reaching and recruiting families to the intervention.
Our team of investigators is uniquely poised to successfully lead this study given our lengthy track record of
community-based participatory research, the development of interventions for youth at risk for suicide and
firearm injury, and implementation science. If found to be effective, Store Safely has the potential to reduce
suicide mortality in rural areas by capitalizing on the strengths of rural communities to enhance safety.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10919255
- **Project number:** 5R01CE003629-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Cynthia (Cindy) Ewell Foster
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $501,689
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-30 → 2025-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10919255

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10919255, RFA-CE-23-006, Store Safely: Firearm injury prevention for rural families (5R01CE003629-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10919255. Licensed CC0.

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