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

The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
 
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02318732
Recruitment Status : Active, not recruiting
First Posted : December 17, 2014
Last Update Posted : December 1, 2021
Sponsor:
Collaborators:
Rutgers University
Stanford University
Northeastern University
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
University of California, Davis

Study Description
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Brief Summary:
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.

Condition or disease Intervention/treatment Phase
Violence Behavioral: APPS intervention Not Applicable

Detailed 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.

Study Design
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Study Type : Interventional  (Clinical Trial)
Actual Enrollment : 20000 participants
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary Purpose: Prevention
Official Title: Prospective Evaluation of California's Armed and Prohibited Persons System
Study Start Date : February 2015
Actual Primary Completion Date : June 2016
Estimated Study Completion Date : December 31, 2022
Arms and Interventions
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Arm Intervention/treatment
Experimental: Group 1
APPS intervention will be implemented in Group 1 communities prior to implementation in Group 2 communities.
 Behavioral: APPS intervention
Contact with and recovery of firearms from individuals who are prohibited from possessing them
Active Comparator: Group 2
APPS intervention will be implemented in Group 2 communities following implementation in Group 1 communities.
 Behavioral: APPS intervention
Contact with and recovery of firearms from individuals who are prohibited from possessing them


Outcome Measures
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Primary Outcome Measures :
  1. Incidence of arrest for violent and firearm-related crimes [ Time Frame: Up to 3 years ]
    Arrests for violent and firearm-related crimes among persons eligible for the APPS intervention


Secondary Outcome Measures :
  1. Incidence of arrest for non-violent, non firearms-related crimes [ Time Frame: Up to 3 years ]
    Arrests for crimes not involving violence or firearms among persons eligible for the APPS intervention

  2. Incidence of emergency mental health hospitalizations [ Time Frame: Up to 3 years ]
    Emergency mental health hospitalizations following a determination of dangerousness to self or others or grave disability among persons eligible for the APPS intervention

  3. Incidence of domestic violence restraining orders [ Time Frame: Up to 3 years ]
    Domestic violence restraining orders among persons eligible for the APPS intervention


Other Outcome Measures:
  1. Community level rates of violence [ Time Frame: Up to 3 years ]
    Community-level rates of violent and firearm-related crimes

  2. Cost benefit analysis [ Time Frame: Up to 3 years ]
    Assess benefits of APPS relative to costs.


Eligibility Criteria
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Ages Eligible for Study:   18 Years and older   (Adult, Older Adult)
Sexes Eligible for Study:   All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:   No
Criteria

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.
Contacts and Locations
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Information from the National Library of Medicine

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT02318732


Locations
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United States, California
UC Davis
Sacramento, California, United States, 95618
Sponsors and Collaborators
University of California, Davis
Rutgers University
Stanford University
Northeastern University
Investigators
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Principal Investigator: Garen J Wintemute, MD, MPH University of California, Davis
More Information
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Publications:

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Responsible Party: University of California, Davis
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02318732    
Other Study ID Numbers: 553213
First Posted: December 17, 2014    Key Record Dates
Last Update Posted: December 1, 2021
Last Verified: November 2021
Keywords provided by University of California, Davis:
violence