Evaluation of California's Armed and Prohibited Persons System (APPS)

University of California (UC) Davis

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Violence

Treatments: Behavioral: APPS intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02318732

553213

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study evaluates exposure to California's Armed and Prohibited Persons System (APPS) and risk of future violence and other important outcome events among individuals who legally purchased firearms in the past but have since become prohibited from owning them. The main hypothesis is that APPS will be associated with a significant reduction in risk for future violence among individuals who are directly affected.

Full description

Violence remains an important public safety and public health problem. Prior research has shown that denying firearm purchases by individuals who are at high risk for committing violent crimes, thereby restricting their access to firearms, is an effective violence prevention strategy. The Armed and Prohibited Persons System (APPS) is a new violence prevention initiative undertaken by the California Department of Justice (CalDOJ). APPS is used by law enforcement to systematically identify persons who, having legally purchased firearms in the past, have become prohibited persons in the present-usually as the result of a criminal conviction. Such individuals are at increased risk for future violence.

APPS uses existing data to identify firearm owners among persons who have become prohibited from owning or possessing firearms under California or federal law. CalDOJ then uses this information to contact and attempt recovery of firearms in the possession of prohibited individuals.

This controlled prospective longitudinal evaluation of APPS relies principally on data collected by CalDOJ in the course of APPS operations or on data in the public domain, such as community characteristics published by the U.S. Census Bureau.

To maximize fairness during the implementation of APPS, approximately 1,000 California communities will be stratified by region, population, and violent crime rate and randomized into two groups that will be exposed to APPS at different times during the study period. Hierarchical analysis will examine outcomes for individuals clustered at the community level. The principal analysis will be on an intent to treat basis. A secondary per protocol analysis will also be conducted.

Enrollment: 20,000 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adults with records of firearms ownership who have experienced a prohibiting event. Prohibiting events are based in Federal and California state law. Among others, they include criminal convictions for felonies and selected violent misdemeanors; emergency hospitalization for dangerousness associated with severe mental illness, as specified in statute; and status as respondent to a domestic violence restraining order.

Exclusion criteria

• None.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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20,000 participants in 2 patient groups

Group 1

Experimental group

Description:

APPS intervention will be implemented in Group 1 communities prior to implementation in Group 2 communities.

Treatment:

Behavioral: APPS intervention

Group 2

Active Comparator group

Description:

APPS intervention will be implemented in Group 2 communities following implementation in Group 1 communities.

Treatment:

Behavioral: APPS intervention