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New Hampshire Gun Shop Project

Project of the New Hampshire Firearm Safety Coalition (mental health and public health practitioners, firearm retailers and gun-rights advocates) with Harvard's Means Matter, begun after three suicides in 2009 involving guns bought at one shop; gives gun shops posters, brochures and tip sheets on avoiding selling to suicidal customers and on temporary storage.

Years
2009–now
Country
United States
Topic
Injury preventionSuicide prevention
Asks people to
RecognizeStartTalk to someone
Strategy
Means safetySimple instructionTrusted messenger
Channel
Print
Audience
Adults
Gun shop owners, staff and customers.

Evidence

ProcessUnknown

Materials mailed to 67 NH gun shops in 2011; at a 3-month follow-up 48% displayed them; later visits found 57% disseminating (date disputed). Recent-purchase suicides fell afterwards but numbers are too small to test (Barber, quoted in press). Model copied in Tennessee, Maryland, Nevada and elsewhere. Safe messaging: means-safety messaging co-written with retailers.

Sponsor (who paid)

Credits (who made it)

  • Ralph Demicco Individual, 2009- source
  • Catherine Barber Individual, 2009- source

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Barber C, Frank E, Demicco R. Reducing suicides through partnerships between health professionals and gun owner groups: beyond docs vs glocks. JAMA Intern Med 2017;177(1):5-6 history · 2017 · DOI 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.6712 · PMID 27842187
  2. Gun Shop Project (Means Matter, Harvard) sponsor
  3. The Gun Shop Project (The Trace) news · 2016

Research notes

Sources disagree on 2009 vs 2011 start (coalition formed 2009, materials distributed 2011). Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: Ralph Demicco (The Trace, Jan 2016: owner of Riley's Sport Shop, began meeting with the coalition in summer 2009; the group launched the project in 2011); Catherine Barber (NHPR, 15 Jun 2018: 'senior researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health and Gun Shop Project member'; the Harvard Means Matter page says Means Matter began the New Hampshire work in 2009). Corrected 2026-10-22: Barber source changed from the Harvard Means Matter page, which names her only in a contact email address.

Record cases/new-hampshire-gun-shop-project.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign