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(SACRAMENTO) Individuals subject to extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), or “red flag” laws, were significantly less likely to be arrested — including for violent and firearm-related offenses — while the orders were in effect compared to the six months prior.

Strikingly, the drop in arrests did not end when the orders expired and continued for months afterward.

Those are the results of a new study published in PNAS Nexus.

(SACRAMENTO) A large, nationally representative survey of U.S. adults finds that support for, and willingness to engage in, political violence remained largely stable from mid‑2024 to mid‑2025, despite a highly contentious national election and ongoing political polarization, according to a new study published in Injury Epidemiology.

(SACRAMENTO) To assess a patient’s overall well-being and potential health risks, clinicians routinely ask questions on a wide range of topics, such as car seats, mental health, diet, sexual activity, alcohol, exercise and smoking.

Physicians and researchers at the University of California, Davis, want providers to consider a new item for their list: firearms.

(SACRAMENTO) Garen J. Wintemute, a nationally recognized expert in gun violence prevention and a pioneer in the field of injury epidemiology, was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Oct. 18 during a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

(SACRAMENTO) Gun-free zones have often been blamed for making schools, malls and other public areas more attractive to shooters; however, there have been no quantitative studies examining those claims. Now, in a first of its kind study published in The Lancet Regional Health Americas, researchers at UC Davis Health and other institutions have shown that gun-free zones may, in fact, reduce the risk of mass shootings.

(SACRAMENTO) The California Firearm Violence Research Center has awarded nearly $225,000 in grants to investigators studying gun violence exposure among adolescents, intimate partner violence and sex trafficking.

(SACRAMENTO) UC Davis Health is opening the first comprehensive trauma recovery center in Sacramento. The UC Davis CAARE Diagnostic and Treatment Center will establish the new center this summer, thanks to a nearly $1.2 million grant from the California Victim Compensation Board.

(SACRAMENTO) The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded UC Davis Health a three-year, $3 million grant. The prestigious award will fund research into the causes, complexities, and potential solutions to gun violence in disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities.

(SACRAMENTO) Between 1996 and 2021, more than 5.2 million handguns and almost 2.9 million long guns were legally purchased in California. During 11 years of that time frame, 2010-2021, California law enforcement officers recovered 45,247 of these guns from crime scenes.

Why were some of those guns later involved in a crime, but most not? Were there characteristics or commonalities with crime guns? Researchers at the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP) wanted to know.

(SACRAMENTO) Garen Wintemute, director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP), is the recipient of the Jess Kraus Award for a major research paper he authored on political violence.

“Red flag laws are a tool law enforcement and others can use when somebody is clearly at high risk of doing something with a firearm, but they can't be arrested because no crime has been committed and they don't appear to need a mental health hold or qualify for one,” Amy Barnhorst said. Read the article in UC Davis Health News. 

(SACRAMENTO)

Domestic violence went down or stayed the same during the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in five major U.S. cities. However, domestic violence involving firearms increased in three of those cities, according to a new UC Davis studypublished in the Journal of Family Violence.

(SACRAMENTO) A small segment of the U.S. population considers violence, including lethal violence, to be usually or always justified to advance political objectives. This is according to newly published research from the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP).

The study provides a complex portrait of the attitudes and concerns about the state of democracy in the U.S. It also highlights the underlying beliefs that may inform the potential for violence.

One in five adults in California, or an estimated 6.5 million people, are concerned that someone they know, usually a friend or family member, is at risk of harming themselves or others, according to new research published in Preventive Medicine.

Of the people perceived to be at risk for harming others, an estimated 19% were said to have access to firearms. For those perceived to be at risk of harming themselves, that number was approximately 11%.

A first-of-its-kind study examining records of gun purchases in California found that mass and active shooters have distinct patterns of buying guns compared to other legal purchasers. The UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP) research was published in the Journal of Criminal Justice.