Occupational Health and Safety in the Era of Gun Violence

As a college professor and occupational health nurse, the increasing number of shootings in educational settings deeply concerns me. I have received texts from colleagues at my alma matter, UNC Charlotte, telling me that they were on lockdown during the 2019 campus shooting that took the lives of Ellis Parlier and Riley Howell (Boraks et al., 2019). Most recently, I have sat in horror and watched breaking news notifications appear during the shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, that claimed the lives of three faculty members (Yamat & Finley, 2023). All the while, I was thinking “what if that had been me?,” which is a sobering, yet horrifying, reality. It really could have been me, or any of the readers of this editorial.

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics reports that in 2021, there were 48,830 total firearm deaths in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.), with the number in 2023 reaching at least 40,000 deaths (Alfonseca, 2023). Even though many of these deaths are self-inflicted (Alfonseca, 2023), public health officials have recognized the increasing threat that gun violence has on the health of the United States (Sanchez et al., 2020). However, I believe that occupational health and safety practitioners and researchers should view gun violence, particularly the threat of mass shootings in the workplace, as a threat to occupational health. The Worker’s Rights pamphlet describing the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) states “The OSH Act was passed to prevent workers from being killed or otherwise harmed at work. The law requires employers to provide their employees with working conditions that are free of known dangers.” This begs the question, why do we not view a gun violence as a known danger for those working in any setting where a mass shooting could potentially occur?

There is no simple answer as to “why.” However, as occupational health nurses trying to promote gun- free workplaces, we need to be aware of local, regional, and national statutes and laws to better understand the context in which we are working. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as promoting a “gun- free workplace” policy. We must recognize that many laws promote concealed carry, and even promote open carry, of firearms into the workplace by employees and patrons (Stevenson, 2021). This is also not just a legal issue for occupational health nurses, or those of us working in educational settings (e.g., school nurses or faculty) to circumvent. All nurses should be working toward decreasing gun violence in their communities. Tangible actions we can take include educating patients about gun safety and storage, conducting health screenings for violence-related risk factors, connecting patients to appropriate mental health services, and advocating for universal background checks for all gun sales (American Academy of Nursing, 2022).

In her 100-year review of occupational health nursing, Parker-Conrad (1988) emphasized that occupational health nurses have long stood up against unhealthy work environments and promoted workplace-based prevention to support worker health. Let’s not let the next 54 years pass by and arrive at the bicentennial of occupational health nursing without having advocated for the right to and promoted a gun-free work environments for all.