UW has big role in Seattle’s safe-storage firearms measure

UW Medicine | Newsroom | July 10, 2018

Dr. Fred Rivara, beside a firearm lock box, speaks at a March 21, 2018, news conference about safe gun storage. / Photo credit: KUOW Radio

Studies from Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, School of Public Health cited in new legislation.

The Seattle City Council passed legislation Monday requiring gun owners to lock up their guns or face fines up to $10,000 – a policy significantly informed by University of Washington researchers. It will become law 180 days after Mayor Jenny Durkan signs the legislation.

UW Medicine’s Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center (HIPRC) and the University of Washington School of Public Health were key to getting council members behind this bill.

“I think it signifies that the city is doing whatever it can to reduce the toll of gun violence,” said Dr. Fred Rivara, a professor of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine and nationally known gun-violence investigator at HIPRC. MORE>>