Attachment 2: FA FGD Guide and Consent
OMB Control No. 0920-1154
Exp. Date 3/31/2026
The public reporting burden of this collection of information is estimated to average 60 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to - CDC/ATSDR Reports Clearance Officer; 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS D-74, Atlanta, Georgia 30333 ATTN: PRA (0920-1154).
My name is [FACILITATOR NAME]. I am a [ROLE] at [CONSULTANCY NAME]. I am here with a couple of colleagues who will be listening in. Today, our discussion will focus on messaging related to firearm injury and death, from the perspective of [people who own firearms/ people who do not own firearms/ organizations working to prevent firearm injury and death], like yourselves. We are defining firearm injury and death (sometimes referred to as firearm violence or gun violence) as including homicide or suicide, or nonfatal injury from assault or suicide attempt, or accidental firearm injuries.
The information you share with us today will help us create future products or materials, such as webpages, videos, and other tools, to help the public understand firearm injury and death and how to prevent it. Questions will be asked about firearm injury and death and other related violence issues. We ask that you provide your honest opinions and feedback.
Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that your involvement is voluntary, and you may end your participation at any time. I am going to review the document “Participant Informed Consent”, which I have just provided to you all. [Go through informed consent document]. There are no right or wrong answers to any of the questions we ask today. You are the expert on your own experiences and interpretations, and your thoughts and opinions are greatly valued and appreciated.
To make sure we don’t miss anything, this session will be audio and screen recorded. We will only use these recordings to help write a report. The recordings will be stored in a secure computer folder protected by a firewall and will be permanently erased after 3 years. The results and report will not identify you or other participants. What questions does anyone have? [Pause to address any questions or issues participants may have] If you are still willing to participate in this session, please say, “Yes.” [If someone no longer wants to participate, the facilitator will thank the person and dismiss them.]
Ok, great let’s get started!
[Display slide with ground rules on screen]
To help this session
go smoothly, here are some ground rules for our discussion:
Please speak one at a time – this will help us hear one another and enable us to take good notes.
Please speak clearly and at least as loudly as I am.
You can raise your hand to speak (physically or virtually) or speak up after another person has finished speaking.
You do not have to speak in any particular order, and you may speak directly to each other. This is a group conversation and you do not have to address your comments to me.
There are no right or wrong answers.
You do not have to agree with the views of other people in the group. In fact, if you disagree, we hope you will share your perspective so we can understand the full range of views in the group.
Respect others and their different viewpoints.
What’s said in the room stays in the room. Please maintain each other’s privacy.
There are a lot of you in the room and we’d like to hear from everyone. Some of you may be more comfortable speaking than others, so at times I may ask more talkative people to let others share first, or invite a quieter person to share their thoughts.
Please put away or silence any distractions like phones, tablets, or TVs for our discussion, and mute yourself when you are not speaking.
Before we get started, let’s all introduce ourselves. Please tell us a nickname that we can use to address you during the discussion.
In the context of firearms, what does safety mean or look like to you?
[For gun owners and non gun owners]
For you personally and your family?
For your community or where you live?
[For all organizations]
For your organization?
For your community?
For your audiences?
[For gun owners] What role do firearms play in your life?
Do you think of owning firearms as being part of your identity?
Are you part of a community of people who own firearms?
Did you grow up in a household with firearms?
Do you own a firearm for safety, protection, recreation?
[For orgs serving communities of color] What role do firearms play for your organization and its members?
What role do firearms play in the community/ies you represent?
Do your members consider firearm ownership as part of their identity?
What is the main reason most of your members own firearms? (safety, protection, recreation, it’s a constitutional right)
[For gun owners] What do you see as challenges to storing your guns safely? [by safely, we mean unloaded, with bullets and guns locked separately]
What could help overcome these challenges?
receiving a free gun lock, safe, or lock box?
thinking about personal/family safety
having easy access to a storage facility
[For orgs serving communities of color] What motivates/could motivate members of your group to store their guns safely? [by safely, we mean unloaded, with bullets and guns locked separately]
receiving a free gun lock, safe, or lock box?
thinking about personal/family safety
having easy access to a storage facility
Next, we’d like to talk about firearm injury and death. As a reminder, we are defining firearm injury and death (sometimes referred to as firearm violence or gun violence) as homicide, suicide, non-fatal injuries from assault or suicide attempt, or accidental injuries from a gunshot wound.
[For gun owners and non-gun owners] When you hear the term “firearm injury and death” what comes to mind?
Specific images?
Specific places or settings? (e.g. urban vs. rural)
Specific people?
Specific events?
Specific terms or phrases?
Specific other types of violence?
Is it possible to prevent firearm injury and death?
How do you think it can be prevented?
Whose responsibility is it to prevent or address firearm injury and death?
At what level? (local, state, federal)
Which fields? (law enforcement, medical, public health, etc.)
How should public health be involved in preventing firearm injury and death?
I’d like to get your feedback on some new messaging being developed related to firearm injury and death. I’m going to show you two different main message options and a series of submessages. You can imagine the main message as a headline that might appear at the top of a poster or on a website, and the sub-messages as information that might go underneath that headline.
[Display slide with set of messages on screen, reading each message aloud (Att. 4)]
I’m going to ask you some questions about this messaging. Feel free to talk about whatever stands out to you – the entire set of messaging, the main message, or any sub-messages. If you have something to say about a specific part of the messaging, please identify which piece you are talking about using the number or letter provided.
[Ask the following set of questions for each message set displayed. Note that messages to be tested will be prioritized beforehand. Starting with messages that are highest priority, present and ask related questions for as many message sets as is feasible within the 30 minutes allotted for this section.]
How would you sum up in just a few words your first impression of this messaging?
How well do you think the main ideas come across? Is it clear/easy to understand?
What do you think of this idea?
Is this messaging believable? Why/why not
Would data or a statistic make this messaging more believable?
Was your reaction to this positive or negative?
[For all organizations:] Does your organization agree with any specific parts of this messaging? If so, what?
[For all organizations:] Does your organization disagree with any specific parts of this messaging? If so, what?
Which of the two main messages do you prefer and why?
Which one do you find more engaging?
Which one do you think makes a more appropriate headline for the submessages?
Do the main messages appeal to different audiences? If so, which audiences do they appeal to? Which audiences should CDC prioritize?
Which of the supporting messages do you prefer and why?
Which one do you find more engaging?
Do the messages appeal to different audiences? If so, which audiences? Which audiences should CDC prioritize?
[For all organizations] How relevant is this messaging for you and your work?
Who would you share this information with (e.g., other violence prevention professionals, CBOs, educators, schools, faith-based organizations, law enforcement, policymakers)?
When would you share this information? What events/circumstances might prompt you to share it?
Where would you share this information (e.g., setting, platform)?
As you look at this messaging, would you know how to explain it to the audiences you are trying to reach (e.g., how to share this with a policymaker)?
How could these messages be improved?
Is there anything you want to know that this messaging does not tell you?
Is there a way to say this differently that would make it clearer/less confusing?
Do you have recommendations for how to improve the credibility of this messaging?
Are there any words or phrases that bother you or that you think should be said differently?
Would having data or a statistic improve this messaging? How so?
[For all organizations:] Is there a way to say this differently that would make you personally, or the populations you work with, more likely to notice and think about the messaging?
If you knew this message came from CDC, would you think it was believable?
Why or why not?
When it comes to information or messages put out by CDC or other federal agencies:
[For general consumers] How important is it for CDC or other federal agencies to understand your perspective?
Why?
[For general consumers] How important is it for CDC or other federal agencies to understand your concerns or feelings?
Why?
[For all organizations] How important is it for CDC or other federal agencies to understand the perspective of the people you serve/ your community/your organization?
Why?
[For all organizations How important is it for CDC or other federal agencies to understand the concerns or feelings of the people you serve/ your community/your organization?
Why?
How could an agency such as CDC best reflect your perspective when it comes to these kinds of messages?
[For gun owners and non gun owners] Did you know that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (or CDC) does work to prevent violence, including firearm injury and death?
(If yes) Where had you heard this before, or how did you know this?
Does this surprise you?
[For gun owners and non gun owners] Would you trust information about preventing firearm injury and death more from CDC or another organization?
Which organization(s)?
Do you trust organizations more at the federal, state, or local/community level?
What type of organization? (healthcare or mental health? law enforcement?)
Would you trust violence prevention information more if it came from law enforcement?
[For all organizations] Where do you get information or data about firearm injury and death?
Where do you get information about FA I&D prevention strategies and best practices?
What sources of information do you rely on?
Is there any additional information you think we should know?
Does anyone have any questions about what was discussed today?
If there are no additional items to add or questions I would like to thank you for your time and for sharing your experiences with me today.
___________________________________________________
FGD CONSENT FORM
STUDY TITLE: Formative Research for Firearm Violence and Community Violence Messaging
SPONSOR: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Violence Prevention
WHAT AM I BEING ASKED TO DO?
We are asking you to be part of a focus group discussion. This is part of a research study that will inform the creation of communications messages and materials put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The purpose of this group is to get your thoughts and opinions on communication messages and concepts related to firearm injury and death, and how to prevent it.
WHAT WILL I BE DOING?
A focus group is a special group discussion. We will meet with a small group (about 6 to 8 individuals) with people like you in a private Zoom meeting to talk about this topic. We will ask you what you think about several different messages, images, and short video clips related to firearm injury and death. We will use this information to create firearm injury and death prevention materials and messages for organizations that are working to prevent this type of violence, as well as the general public.
We will record what people say so that we do not miss what is being said. We will also take notes. We will destroy the recordings and notes as soon as we finish working on our materials and messages. Our job is to:
Ask you questions,
Keep the group focused on the topic we want to discuss, and
Make sure we don’t run out of time.
We really want you to feel free to talk together as a group. If everyone is talking about the questions we asked, we will just listen to your ideas and take notes. This discussion will take about an hour to complete.
DO I HAVE TO DO THIS?
You do not have to be part of this group. It is your choice. Your being in this focus group is voluntary. You can say that you don’t want to be in the focus group and that is fine. You are also free to stop participating at any time. It is important that you feel okay answering the questions honestly. You do not have to answer any questions you do not want to answer.
HOW WILL MY PRIVACY BE PROTECTED?
To protect your privacy, we will not ask you to share your full name and we will not write down your name in any of the notes we take.
We value your being in this focus group. We also understand that you may not be okay telling the entire group what you think out loud. In these cases, if you prefer, you can write down your ideas or thoughts and share them in the Zoom chat box with [name of facilitator or note-taker/observer]. No one else will see these ideas, sent as private messages, except the study team. We will review all private messages sent to us via private Zoom chats after the focus group and record them in a password protected drive with other study materials. We will destroy our notes and recording when we finish working on our messages.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS?
Because you will be speaking with us in a group, there is the possibility that other participants in the group will tell other people you were here. They may repeat what you said during the focus group to other people. However, we will ask everyone in the group to not share anything said in the discussion with anyone after the discussion ends. We hope you will feel comfortable being open and honest in your responses to our questions.
ARE THERE ANY BENEFITS TO BEING IN THIS GROUP?
There are no direct benefits to being in this study. However, you may benefit from knowing your contributions in this discussion could help improve public messaging about firearm injury and death and help prevent future firearm injury and death.
WILL I RECEIVE PAYMENT?
We will give you a $25 token of appreciation after we finish the discussion to thank you for your time, effort and contributions.
WHAT WILL BE DONE WITH THE RESULTS OF THIS FOCUS GROUP?
We will review information from the focus group to inform the creation of future products or materials to help prevent firearm injury and death, such as webpages, videos, and other tools.
OTHER INFORMATION
Please keep a copy of this information sheet for your records. If you have any questions or concerns about this study, you may contact [PI NAME] at [PHONE NUMBER] or via email at [EMAIL ADDRESS]. The study team is also willing to answer any questions or concerns you might have right now or after the discussion.
Please answer yes or no to the following statements:
___ I understand the information that has been provided to me and voluntarily agree to take part in this focus group discussion.
___ I know that I have a choice to be in this focus group discussion or not, and can stop taking part at any time during the discussion.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Dills, Jennifer (CDC/NCIPC/DVP) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2025-05-18 |