“If Not Us, Then Who?”: Frontline Social Workers’ Perspectives on Gun Violence

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Social work research on preventing gun violence has been sparse and little is known about how much practitioners discuss guns with clients.

Method

Frontline social workers were recruited purposively from the western region of New York state in the United States. This qualitative study used inductive content analysis of focus group and interview transcripts with 27 social workers to explore whether and how they discuss gun violence and safety with clients, their training history, perceived barriers to discussing gun violence, and their view of their role in addressing gun violence.

Results

Most participants had minimal training, but wanted more. Conversations with clients were generally limited. Social workers’ personal opinions and experiences weighed heavily; however, they stressed the importance of engaging with clients neutrally.

Conclusions

Social work needs to develop and test trainings that could provide practitioners with information and skills needed to effectively prevent gun violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Guns
• firearms
• violence
• prevention
• social work

Disclosure statement

The authors have no financial conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University at Buffalo Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy Research Grant.