Right now, most students get their information about firearms from television, movies, social media—even video games. By the time the average U.S. student graduates from high school, they’ve seen more than 200,000 acts of violence on TV alone, many involving firearms. Yet instruction on firearm violence is not included in Washington State’s health education standards.
When most people think about firearm violence, they think about the mass shootings that periodically dominate the news. What many don’t realize is that mass shootings account for less than 2% of all firearm deaths. Today, firearm-related fatalities outnumber traffic deaths in half the states in the country—including Washington. Most of these deaths are suicides. Firearm injury is now the leading cause of death among high school-aged youth. From a health perspective, this issue could not be more relevant.
Unfortunately, in the U.S., the conversation around firearm violence has become deeply polarized—too often framed as a clash between “gun control” and “gun rights.” This political gridlock prevents meaningful public health approaches that could save lives. By viewing firearm injury as a political issue, rather than a public health issue, we’ve missed critical opportunities for prevention.
For the past decade, Firearm Injury Prevention Educators has provided public health–informed education on firearm injury prevention to high school students. We present the facts—without embellishment, without a political agenda.
We focus on high school students for three key reasons:
It’s a health issue. We teach students how public health professionals approach safety and injury prevention. This knowledge is essential for young people learning how society functions—and how they can be part of building safer, healthier communities.
It’s a practical issue. Firearms are widespread in the U.S., and firearm violence is an unfortunate reality. Students can take concrete steps to keep themselves, their friends, and their families safe.
Health class is the right setting. Health education offers an efficient and effective way to reach large numbers of students with life-saving information.
From a parent’s perspective, this may be one of the most important lessons their child receives—because the people most likely to notice when a young person is at risk of committing or becoming a victim of firearm violence are their peers. Friends often know before any adult that someone is in danger. We need our kids to understand the risks, recognize the warning signs, and know what to do.
Since 2017, with support from the King County Academy of Family Physicians, we’ve taught more than 11,000 students in grades 9–12 at over two dozen high schools across Washington State. And the program is growing fast—we reached over 5,000 students in 2024–2025 alone, about 6% of students enrolled in health education statewide.
Our presentation has been vetted by Lisa Love, Director of Health Curricula for Seattle Public Schools, and is recommended by the superintendents of Tacoma, Edmonds, and Cle Elum school districts. It’s been enthusiastically received by students, teachers, and administrators alike.
What surprises many people is that this kind of instruction is not perceived as politically controversial. We’ve yet to receive a single complaint—from a teacher, student, administrator, or parent—about the content of our program.
Our next step is to develop a curriculum that health teachers can deliver themselves, integrating firearm injury prevention into existing units on injury, prevention, and mental health. We are currently partnering with administrators and health educators in the Edmonds School District to pilot a two-day program aimed at doing exactly that.
The goal is to create a replicable, high-impact lesson plan that can reach the widest possible audience of high school students in Washington State.
Help Us Get This Life-Saving Information to Every Student in Washington
We’ve done the work to create a public health–informed, nonpartisan, classroom-tested curriculum on firearm injury prevention. It’s been vetted by education leaders, embraced by students, and shown to be both effective and appropriate for high school health classes.
But having a curriculum ready to go is only half the battle.
The bigger challenge is making sure schools know it exists.
School boards, administrators, teachers, and parents are inundated with new programs all the time—many of them untested, unproven, or politically charged. We need your help cutting through that noise. Whether you’re a parent, teacher, principal, school board member, or simply someone who cares about the health and safety of young people, you can help us make sure this curriculum reaches the students who need it most.
Here’s what you can do:
Share this information with your school or district leadership.
Introduce us to decision-makers in your community.
Advocate for this curriculum to be included in health classes at your local high school.
This is one of the most urgent public health challenges facing youth today. We have the tools. We have the momentum. What we need now are more voices—your voice—to help bring this work to more schools across Washington State.
If you’re ready to help—or want to learn more—please reach out. Together, we can ensure every student gets the facts they deserve.
Gregory Engel, MD, MPH
Gun Violence Prevention Educators
ga_engel@yahoo.com
