Current data on suicide and homicide are limited in certain important aspects, and information about nonfatal firearm injuries due to self-directed and interpersonal violence is nearly nonexistent. A firearm-injury surveillance system should be designed to obtain comprehensive information about firearm deaths and injuries. For example, data are necessary regarding the age, race, sex, and ethnic background of both victim and offender, their acquaintance and the relationship, the type of firearm involved, and the site of the violence.
A Michigan system should (1) establish a mutually accepted, core workplace-violence data set, (2) develop procedures to link existing data sets, and (3) support, prepare, and disseminate periodic data summaries.
Some data already are collected on workplace violence in Michigan, but most is in databases under the control of law, medicine, and public health, and there currently is neither agreement on what comprises a core of useful data nor procedures to link existing data systems. Linking existing data sets is more efficient than creating new ones and encourages the professions to consider the data through interdisciplinary perspectives. Without accurate baseline data, however, neither the professions nor employers can determine the full effect of prevention efforts.
Law enforcement, public health, and medical officials should work together to ensure that information is collected and disseminated compatibly and consistently.
2. Increase gun-violence-prevention education and training within and among the professionals of law, medicine, and public health. Education/ training should (1) be multidisciplinary and designed to teach the professions about the risk factors associated with firearm violence and intervention methods proven or apparently effective; (2) include background about the local community, so that local firearm-related prevention programs can be specific to a community's needs, characteristics, circumstances, and cultural diversity; and (3) provide background about public health practices, including epidemiology, surveillance, health education, and general firearm-safety practices.
3. Prepare a planned-response system, to assist communities in responding to devastating events. The professions of law, medicine, and public health should assist communities in establishing a local emergency-response team to help the community deal with acts of violence. At a minimum, the team should be able to assist in obtaining/providing counseling for victims and others affected by the firearm violence, coordinating transportation needs, and communicating with the public through the media.
4. Develop assessment tools enabling individuals/families and communities to assess their risk of firearm-related violence and recognize potential intervention points. The individual/family assessment tool should include but not be limited to the following:
Whether the family owns a firearm and the reason for that ownership
Firearm storage practices in the family home
Whether relatives and friends carry firearms into the family's home
Firearm storage practices in relatives and friends' homes
Firearm ownership in homes where the family children play
Firearm storage practices in homes where the family children play
Whether there is present in the home a known risk factor for firearm violence or
suicide, e.g., depression, alcohol or drug abuse, domestic violence
The community assessment tool should include but not be limited to the following:
Acquisition of knowledge regarding nonfatal firearm injuries, homicides, and suicides
Knowledge of firearm-ownership patterns within the community
Firearm-related crime in the community
Firearm-storage practices within the community
Community attitudes toward firearms
Safe Homes
5. Advocate for a Michigan child access prevention (CAP) law that applies to youth aged 17 and younger. Fifteen states now have such laws holding adults liable when children have access to improperly stored firearms.(140) (See Exhibit 8.) The first CAP law, commonly referred to as the "Safe Storage" bill, passed in Florida in 1989.(141)
Although the effectiveness of the various state laws requires further evaluation, results in Florida and California are encouraging. After the Florida law was enacted (in October 1989), unintentional firearm fatalities dropped from 15 in 1989 to 6 in 1990, 8 in 1991, and 4 in 1992, the last year for which statistics are available. Following passage of the California law (in 1991), unintentional firearm fatalities fell from 36 in 1991 to 20 in 1992 and 11 in 1993.(140) While there may be other factors associated with the drops in deaths, one cannot ignore the fact that the number of unintentional firearm deaths decreased substantially in both states after passage of their CAP laws.
A specific law directed toward adults who permit children and adolescents to gain access to firearms sends a clear message that such conduct is not acceptable. After all, possession in Michigan of a gun by a person aged under 18 is illegal except in narrow circumstances defined by law.(142) Pediatric morbidity (illness) and mortality due to unintentional gunshot wounds often result from spontaneous activity that occurs when children find and play with a loaded firearm or mistake it for a toy.(32, 143) Although a study conducted in Oklahoma looked at fatalities, the morbidity from unintentional gunshot wounds is even greater: Unintentional firearm injuries claim 1,200 to 1,500 lives each year,(48) but 17,000 suffer nonfatal injuries.(47)
At least six studies conducted throughout the nation focus on household firearm-storage practices.(10,12,33-36) Generally speaking, each identifies improper storage as a problem. A recent study covering a one-week period in 29 urban, suburban, and rural pediatric practices in Illinois, New Jersey, Texas, Utah, Georgia, Iowa, and South Carolina, finds that of people owning a gun (1,682 of 5,233 parents surveyed indicated ownership of at least one powder firearm), 61 percent reported at least one gun in an unlocked location in the house, 15 percent at least one gun loaded in the house, and 7 percent at least one gun unloaded and unlocked. Only 30 percent of the households reported that all firearms are in locked storage and unloaded. The study reveals that the main reasons for possessing a loaded firearm are protection and work. A correlation is found between ownership of a handgun and a household headed by a female.(12)
The 1992 Michigan Behavioral Risk Factor Survey reports the following: (9)
Almost 40 percent of households reported storing firearms unloaded and locked up but
storing ammunition in an unlocked location
More than 23 percent reported storing firearms unloaded but not locking up either firearms
and ammunition
More than 6 percent reported storing firearms unloaded and locked up
Regardless of storage pattern, 64.6 percent of the respondents indicated that they believed there was no risk of someone in their household being injured by a firearm(9) (the survey did not determine the presence/number of children in the home). In 1995 there were 13 accidental firearm deaths in Michigan among those aged 19 and under, but we do not have information about where the deaths occurred or the circumstances surrounding them.(3)
The various studies indicate that poor storage practices in the home often give children easy access to firearms; accessible firearms can be used to commit suicide, deliberately used against others, or unintentionally used against the child or someone else. While the studies cannot be generalized to Michigan, the responses in the 1992 Michigan Behavioral Risk Factor Survey suggest that firearm-storage patterns in Michigan provide easy access to firearms by children, with all the risks associated with such practices.(9) Finally, although the majority of police departments queried in a recent survey advise callers to use trigger locks and other accepted safe storage practices, a large number of the police officers do not engage in any storage practice themselves. (144)
6. Provide information and counseling about a firearm-safe home environment: Give parents counseling and materials on how to safely handle and store firearms, and teach primary-care health providers how to identify actual and potential cases of domestic abuse and how to counsel victims and potential victims. In 1988, one in six pediatricians reported treating a child for a gun-related injury. Although many individuals keep guns in their household for protection, at least one study suggests that doing so poses a risk to family and friends in terms of homicides, suicides, and unintentional injuries.(17) Primary-care health providers perhaps are best positioned to provide information to parents about the risks associated with (1) household firearm storage, particularly when children are present, and (2) the danger of there being firearms in homes where domestic abuse has occurred or could occur.
The American Academy of Pediatrics assumed leadership in encouraging its members and others to provide both anticipatory guidance and preventive counseling to parents about the dangers of firearms in the home, particularly when children are present.(145) But since many children do not have pediatricians as their primary health care provider, all primary-care providers should be so trained.
Although the American Academy of Pediatrics advocates firearm-safety counseling, a recent study reveals that most participating pediatricians personally have not provided anticipatory guidance and preventive counseling to parents. Nearly 75 percent of the surveyed pediatricians, however, believe that they should provide such counseling, and more than 66 percent believe that the parents would heed their advice.(146) This suggests that primary-care providers need to be given materials regarding safe firearm handling/storage practices; individual provider training could occur through continuing medical education (CME).
In a survey of Maryland parents, almost all indicated that they would heed their pediatrician's advice concerning gun storage, but only 19 percent of mothers and 10 percent of fathers said they would follow advice to remove the weapon from the home.(147) This strongly suggests that pediatricians C and by extension, other primary-care providers C are an authoritative and creditable conduit of firearm storage/handling information in households with children and that parents are prepared to hear and heed such information.
7. Ensure enforcement and monitoring of personal protection orders (PPOs) in domestic violence matters, to guarantee that the law's intent is fulfilled; in cases in which a law enforcement officer is under a PPO prohibiting possession or purchase of a firearm, ensure a timely hearing. Effective April 1, 1996, Michigan Public Acts 402, 404, and 417 of 1994 became effective. The laws permit the circuit court to enter a personal protection order against a spouse or stalker or as part of a divorce. Such orders are designed to prevent the person to whom the order is directed from committing any violence against the person who sought the court's protection.
Under the law, a judge may, as part of the order, prohibit someone from purchasing or possessing a firearm; regardless of whether the order specifically prohibits purchase, a person under a PPO is prohibited from obtaining a concealed weapons permit. Timely entry of the order into the Michigan State Police Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN) is critical to ensuring that a firearm prohibition is enforced; a delay could allow someone to purchase a gun prior to an orders taking effect and use it against the person who sought the court's protection.
There is a particular problem when a PPO is issued against a law enforcement officer and it includes a prohibition on possessing or purchasing a firearm, because the officer could lose his/her right to carry a weapon. In such an instance, the officer's employer should be informed of the order and the enjoined officer afforded a hearing within 24 hours of the PPO issuance; a timely hearing for a law enforcement officer will protect the interest of all parties, including the public.
Of note is the fact that if prior to April 1, 1996, a PPO was issued with a firearm
possession or prohibition provision, it may prohibit a person from obtaining a license to
purchase a pistol and it does prohibit him/her from obtaining a concealed pistol license,
but it does not affect the purchase or possession of such firearms as a shotgun, unless
after April 1, 1996 (the effective date of PAs 402, 404, and 417), the court modifies the
earlier order. Information should be disseminated to the public so that PPOs and the new
provisions are fully understood and the process monitored to determine whether its full
intent is being fulfilled in an effective and timely manner.
Safe Schools
8. Work with schools to educate students about gun violence, starting in early elementary school and continuing through secondary school. Young people spend a large portion of their life in schools, and the affective and cognitive learning they obtain there can be a powerful force in their lives. In the modern world, a schools education mission must address complex societal realities as well as more purely academic pursuits. Thus, schools are obliged to prepare students to comprehend the dangers associated with gun violence and teach them how to avoid it. Aspects of this preparation that may be appropriate for students at some point in their education include the following:
Nature and magnitude of firearm violence in society(21)
Psychological attitudes and social forces that promote gun violence(71)
Medical and legal consequences of gun violence(21)
Alternatives to gun violence, including nonviolent conflict resolution (69,71,74,77,148)
Safe and appropriate handling and storage of firearms(21,74)
A study of gun-related violence in and around inner-city schools by Sheley, et al. indicates that much of the violence that occurs in and around schools is not the result of the school environment but rather the community as a whole.(70) Accordingly, the authors suggest that changes must occur within the familial, communal, and social situations of those involved in gun-related violence.(70) The school setting is an appropriate place to address the issues associated with gun violence.
9. Assist schools in designing curricula and programs to reduce gun violence. Such programs must be systematically evaluated, both before their general use and after implementation. The sense of urgency surrounding the problem of school gun violence has produced a "mini-industry" of proposed solutions and interventions. Some come from professional and academic spheres but may be primarily driven by political, ideological, or market forces. Organizations producing curricula, programming, or other firearm-violence products for students, teachers, parents, or administrators have an obligation to evaluate the products before marketing them; likewise, schools should evaluate all such materials before introducing them. Such evaluations may be conducted internally or by outside agencies, depending on available skills, resources, and other factors.
Programs such as Project S.T.O.P. (Schools Teaching Options for Peace), a traditional conflict-resolution program that includes a curriculum and peer mediation, and the Safe Harbor Program, which includes a 20-session curriculum, a counseling component, and a school-wide anti-violence campaign, merit consideration. An evaluation sponsored by the National Institute of Justice in 1993 and 1994 reveals that student exposure to each of the programs is positive, altering perceptions that respect can be gained through violence.(149) In addition, when students have a high level of participation in Project S.T.O.P. , it reduces their feeling of hopelessness.
The federal General Accounting Office recently released a study of four programs in which schools and communities are working together to develop solutions to school violence.(150) While each has a different focus, both teachers and students interviewed report that their respective violence-prevention programs are useful, help to de-escalate conflict, and teach coping skills that enable students to make positive choices. The programs help teach youngsters that they have choices to make and that their actions can have consequences resulting in suspension, injury, or death.
While each program shows promise for helping to reduce school violence, including gun violence, evaluation is essential to ensure that program objectives are met efficiently and prudently. A model weapons intervention and prevention program, such as the STAR program that was developed by the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence and the Baron Assessment Counseling Center in Boston, are worth consideration.(77)
10. Help schools train all elementary and secondary school employees in the legal and medical consequences of gun violence and the skills needed to prevent it. Everyone connected with a school can play his/her part in preventing, preparing for, managing, and resolving gun violence.(74,77) School employees include crossing guards, janitors, and lunchroom aides as well as teachers and administrators. The threat of violence can be observed and responded to before a violent event occurs, and any school employee may find him/herself on the scene immediately before, during, or in the aftermath of such an event. Schools have an obligation to prepare their employees for both threat response and crisis response.(74,77,148) School employees must be educated in the following areas, some of which correspond to the skills the students are taught:
Promoting respect for cultural and ethnic diversity(77)
Resolving conflicts nonviolently(74,77,151)
Managing disruptive students(77,83,151)
Breaking up fights(77,148,151)
11. Help schools develop a combination of strategies to assure a gun-free physical environment. Schools naturally first turn to staff training and curriculum as their strongest suits in shaping student attitudes toward firearms and firearm violence, but the physical plant design and management also can support the effort by promoting and facilitating the firearm-free imperative. The challenge lies not in creating firearm-free enclaves per se C rigid limitation of personal freedom would achieve that C but in protecting children from school violence while teaching and demonstrating respect for personal privacy and individual liberty, values that American schools are expected to uphold.(152) Each of these concerns must limit the other in a legal and locally feasible manner. Techniques that may be appropriate and effective in any given situation include the following:
Limiting and monitoring entrance points to school buildings and grounds (74,148)
Permitting only mesh or clear book bags (21,148)
Invoking policy-driven use of metal detectors (21,68)
Conducting random locker searches(21)
Having adult monitors in school hallways (68,74,77,148,153)
Posting prominent posters opposing gun violence (20)
Establishing a communications network that links classrooms, grounds, and offices with
security and/or law enforcement personnel (74,148,153)
Establishing a hotline or similar means for students by which they can report knowledge of
actual or potential firearm violence in school, on school grounds, in school vehicles, or
at school events(74,151)
At least two of the techniques listed C using metal detectors and searching lockers randomly C raise questions as to whether the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution applies to the school setting.(152) Although the Supreme Court has not specifically addressed the Fourth Amendment validity of suspicionless metal-detector searches, a number of lower courts have found their use constitutional in certain circumstances, i.e., at airports.(154) There is a distinction, however, between airports C where boarding a plane is voluntary C and a school, where students are compelled to enter. If school administrators give prior notice to students that they will be subject to metal-detector searches (not unlike the notice at airports), it could be sufficient to balance personal intrusion and school safety.
Regarding random locker searches, most courts that have addressed the issue generally have held that students have no reasonable expectation to privacy where the school authorities and the students share joint control of lockers.(155) Even where it has been found that students have a legitimate expectation of privacy in their locker, the courts have allowed warrantless searches if the lower reasonable-expectation standard identified in New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985), is satisfied.(156)
12. Collaborate with schools in developing alternative education and support services for students expelled for bringing a gun to school, onto school grounds, into school vehicles, or to school events; such services should be offered if there is confidence that the students (1) may benefit from them and (2) will present no danger to others. Michigan P.A. 328 of 1994, as amended by P.A. 250 of 1995, generally requires permanent expulsion of any student who possesses a weapon, including a firearm, in a weapon-free school zone (there are four exceptions, not repeated here) or temporary expulsion with reinstatement after a specific period of time (students in grades five or lower cannot be reinstated for at least 90 school days after the date of expulsion; students in grades six or higher cannot be reinstated for at least 180 school days after the date of expulsion).
Any student expelled for possessing a gun or other dangerous weapon is prohibited from enrolling in any other public school unless reinstated. Expelled students may attend an alternative education program as long as they are physically separated from the general pupil population. If a school district does not offer an alternative education program, the district may arrange for the intermediate school district to provide the appropriate instructional services to the expelled student.
The law does not address what happens to expelled students in cases in which a school neither has an alternative education program nor arranges for the student's education with the intermediate school district. The necessary responsibility to protect other students should not be permitted to negate a school district's education responsibilities to an expelled student. An education-oriented process, while based explicitly on the principle of zero tolerance and dictated by law, nevertheless should take a positive approach to the offending students' ongoing education needs by providing diversion or alternative opportunities for those who could benefit from them, such as first-time offenders.(148)
The MPPGV believes that alternative education opportunities must be offered to expelled students, to assist them in obtaining an education and ensure that they are not left unsupervised on the streets, where they could commit crimes.
13. Advocate that student-code-of-conduct provisions directed at preventing gun violence be authorized by Michigan law, included in Michigan Department of Education guidelines, and well-publicized by local school districts. Current Michigan law requires local school boards to create "regulations relative to the conduct of pupils concerning their safety while in attendance at school or en route to and from school."(157) It also requires districts to develop and implement student codes of conduct, but it neither specifies their content nor requires the State Board of Education to assist districts in developing them.(158) The state board's "Recommended Guide to Student Rights and Responsibilities," dating from 1982, states that "It is not the purpose of the >Guidelines to dictate a uniform set of rules of conduct for students."(159)
A student code of conduct exists to provide the school with an opportunity to inform its students of the type of behavior expected of them; clearly, gun-violence prevention has a powerful behavioral component. Although annual review with student input is desirable, minimal content for student conduct codes may well include all of the following:
Unconditional ban on carrying weapons, including guns, in school or on school grounds
Student's unconditional responsibility to report, anonymously or otherwise, knowledge of
weapons in school, on school grounds, in school vehicles, or at school events (151)
Student responsibility to seek nonviolent ways of resolving conflict (20,69,71,77,83,148)
Student responsibility to pursue both academic success and behavioral maturity in school
(77,148)
14. Assist schools in forming and facilitating the work of a Community-School Safety and Security Advisory Committee (CSSSAC); membership should include but not be limited to students, parents, teachers, school administrators, youth-service professionals, business leaders, and professionals from the fields of law, medicine, and public health. Schools do not wish to import firearm violence, even if it is endemic in the surrounding community. Nor does the community wish the schools to serve as incubators of youth violence that will boil out through school gates into surrounding streets and neighborhoods. The mutual interest of the community at large and its schools is to work together to prevent firearm violence. An essential tool in bridging the common interests of the whole community and schools is the CSSSAC, a structure to bring these firearm-violence prevention stakeholders together. (74,77,148,151,158)
The charge to the CSSSAC is to assess school climate, policies, and practices pertaining to student safety and security and to make recommendations to the local board of education for obtaining a safe school environment. While the roots of school violence often are imported into the education setting, the school still is responsible for protecting young people from violence during school, at school activities, and while the student is on the way to and from school. The task should be to recommend safety and security measures that will protect children, while teaching and demonstrating respect for their personal privacy and individual liberty.(152)
15. Engage parents in efforts to prevent gun violence in schools, on school property, and at school- sponsored activities. Meaningful parent involvement that complements the activities of schools, CSSSACs, and other organized elements of society is essential in preventing firearm violence.(148) Parents can engage their children in discussions that will evoke and reinforce concern about firearm violence in schools, helping them to clarify their feelings and understand their options. Parents can volunteer for training as hall and playground monitors. They also can sign contracts (modeled after those used by Students Against Drunk Driving) with their children, incorporating the following pledges:(151)
Students will not use firearms, except as specifically permitted by Michigan law (e.g.,
for hunting)
Parents will prevent unauthorized student access to firearms
Parents will unconditionally support their children's attempts to be free of firearm
violence
16. Support ancillary efforts in schools that will result in reducing gun violence. Beyond what they do to address gun violence specifically, schools also can address a number of different but closely related problems that create a context for the acquisition and use of guns by school-age youth. Because the forces that bring youths and guns together are at once social, psychological, and economic, interventions with objectives other than gun-violence reduction may be expected to have this secondary effect. Schools are well-advised to support, in conjunction with other community leaders, the following:
Anti-drug training, curricula, and programs(69,71,77,83,151)
Anti-gang training, curricula, and programs(77,148,151)
After-school athletic, recreation, and community service programs(77)
Programs that prepare students to seek and find jobs(148,151)
17. Encourage schools to gather information related to
guns and gun violence in a consistent format and report that information to the Michigan
Department of Education for collation, analysis, and dissemination. All public
policies should be supported by data to some extent, but Michigan education law is almost
silent on the reporting of data related to gun violence. There is only one somewhat
relevant requirement for reporting to a central agency: When a student is expelled for
possessing a weapon, the local school board must refer him/her to the local county social
services department or county community mental health agency, pursuant to P.A. 328 of
1994. The data currently used to characterize the problem of gun violence in Michigan
schools come from statewide and national surveys, criminal justice sources, and anecdotal
reports, but not a primary source.
Urgently needed is a standard-format report, generated at specific intervals by every school, that permits (1) data to be "rolled up" from school to district to larger units, (2) fair comparison of data from one school, district, or larger unit to another, (3) observation of trends over time, and (4) evaluation of new programs or practices. Such a data source will permit reasonable analysis, and dissemination of reports generated from the analyzed data will motivate the public and policymakers to seek more effective solutions to the problem of gun violence in schools.
As a recent Wayne County pilot effort demonstrated, schools are understandably reluctant to report data that might make them look bad in comparison with non-reporting or incompletely reporting schools.(160) Nevertheless, clear, consistent, comprehensive data on gun violence in schools is a precondition to both understanding the problem and appropriately allocating resources to address it.
Safe Streets
18. Advocate for and assist in systematically evaluating programs designed to reduce gun violence, both before and after such programs are implemented in the community. At the outset, the professions should help review and assess programs before they are implemented. Certainly, new and innovative community programs should be introduced, but if unproven, they should be introduced as pilot projects in order to assess their effectiveness. All programs should be closely monitored, evaluated, and continually adapted, where appropriate, to incorporate what is learned from the ongoing evaluation.
19. Provide prevention resources and information to Michigan communities, to assist citizens and community leaders in developing firearm-related prevention programs targeted to the community's specific needs, characteristics, circumstances, and cultural diversity. Because of differences in the racial and/or ethnic makeup, needs vary among locales. It is important that firearm-prevention resources be identified and modified so that they address the specific needs of a community. A locale needs to ask "What combination of intervention strategies likely will be most effective in preventing firearm injuries in this area?" Specifically,
Which points in the causal chain are particularly vulnerable to interruption?
Which interventions are likely to help prevent of firearm violence?
Which are likely to be effective across various races or ethnic populations?
What sort of interventions will result in immediate reductions in firearm injuries?
What sort of interventions will result in long-term reductions?
Which of the potential interventions are feasible and most readily adaptable to this
community?
What are the costs of the various interventions, relative to their effectiveness?
It is important that factors associated with the increased risk of firearm-related violence be identified in each community, so that resources can be channeled to high-risk populations or individuals or both. Because the root causes of firearm violence are so complex, no single, comprehensive solution will prevent all violence or even a certain type of violence. Communities need to assess a combination of potential interventions and implement programs designed to accomplish the following (160).
Address the root causes of firearm violence
Apply a learn-as-we-go approach
Emphasize coordinated action among the professions of law, medicine, and public health and
community leaders and other agencies
Emphasize early intervention
Develop a strategy that involves all segments of the community, including residents,
schools, businesses, religious organizations, and elected leaders
Programs that are culture specific and age appropriate must be developed to enable children to progress without violence from adolescence to adulthood.(162) Given the trends of firearm violence involving adolescents and young adults, aged 15B19 and 20B24, respectively, it is apparent that early intervention is critical if the cycle of firearm violence that grips young people in Michigan is to be broken.
20. Support aggressive enforcement of Michigan's current firearm laws. The Partnership supports the resolute enforcement of the state's firearm laws, including the guarantee that a person convicted of a felony firearm violation actually serves a full two-year sentence in a state corrections facility.
21. Evaluate proposed changes in Michigan's firearm laws on the basis of their public health and safety implications. Given the impact of firearm violence in Michigan, members of the professions of law, medicine, and public health believe that any changes in Michigan's firearm laws must be made only for sound public health and safety reasons.
Safe Workplace
22. Encourage employers and organizations in the professions of law, medicine, and public health to conduct workplace crime- and violence-prevention assessments, including both facility/environment reviews and employee safe-practice studies. Workplace violence can be significantly reduced if proven crime- and violence-prevention techniques are consistently and correctly used C examples are security measures, cash handling techniques, and procedures for handling disgruntled patients, clients, or customers. While many law enforcement agencies routinely evaluate the potential for crime and violence in their settings, offices connected with the legal profession, medicine, and public health do not receive the same review. Since such offices are high-risk settings for violence (and comprise almost 15 percent of all employee workplaces), conducting crime- and violence-prevention assessments or reviews can reduce violence and set an example for other Michigan employers.
23. Solicit all employers and organizations in the professions of law, medicine, and public health (and strongly encourage all Michigan companies) to adopt (1) "zero tolerance" for violence in the workplace, (2) internal reporting systems that allow every employee to report all instances of violence or threats of violence, and (3) an employer-response system that ensures effective investigation and progressive, appropriate response to documented threats or incidents. "Leading-edge" companies that have substantial experience in workplace violence prevention indicate that such measures are needed to establish the expectation of a violence-free workplace, encourage employees to report all incidents, threats, and perceived threats, and assure employees that there will be a swift response to violent incidents or threats. There is clear evidence that the perpetration of many gun-related homicides are preceded by weeks or months of threats. By establishing workplace violence-prevention programs, the professions of law, medicine, and public health can set an example for the rest of society.
24. Challenge employers and organizations in the professions of law, medicine, and public health (and strongly encourage all Michigan companies) to adopt a "no guns unless specifically authorized" (e.g., for use by law enforcement or security personnel) policy, with the imposition of serious sanctions for violation. A well-communicated "bright-line" employee policy with regard to guns at the workplace can help to avoid gun violence. It is not possible for supervisors, security personnel, and other employees to know the motivation or intent of an employee who brings a gun to work; moreover, a worker having a gun in his/her desk, lunch pail, or in open view in a vehicle usually will foster suspicion, reduce productivity, and induce others to carry guns in defense. Since Michigan and most other states already have adopted statutes that require schools to be "gun free," there is no reason that workplaces cannot adopt similar policies. Michigan students in possession of a gun face expulsion from school; employees who bring guns to work should face a similar penalty.
25. Provide support, training, and resources to enable employers to develop and implement effective workplace violence-prevention programs in their communities. Successful programs in the fields of law, medicine, and public health can serve as examples for other employers. Effectively implementing workplace violence-prevention programs requires interdisciplinary collaboration and local cooperation, and each profession has an important role. By joining forces, the professions can help to overcome internal workplace resistance to adopting "yet another employee program." For example, if the local judge, prosecutor, chief of police, and public health official join with the medical staff of local health care institutions, it increases the likelihood that a hospital board will implement a program and the probability that the program will be effective.
