Firearms and Clinical Practice A Handbook for Medical and Mental Health Professionals

The essential guide for medical and mental health professionals who need to understand what to Know, Ask, Do (KAD) when firearm-related issues arise in their practices.

In Firearms and Clinical Practice, Gianni Pirelli and Sarah DeMarco provide medical and mental health professionals with a practical guide on the intersection between mental health and firearms. Utilizing a best-practices model that encourages empirically-supported practice and decision-making, the authors present case examples, vignettes, and useful tips for medical and mental health professionals to navigate gun-related issues that may arise in practice. They further outline and review formal frameworks and models for clinicians to incorporate when firearm-related issues arise in therapeutic contexts, especially when the assessment of suicide and violence risk is necessary. In addition, they assess newly developed forensic mental health assessment (FMHA) models and applications for evaluating civilians seeking initial firearms permits, gun rights restoration, and reinstatement of firearms subsequent to revocation and forfeiture matters. Firearms and Clinical Practice is a must-have resource for a wide range of medical and mental health practitioners, designed to help readers apply firearm-related information, concepts grounded in the empirical literature, and best practices in the clinical and forensic treatment and evaluation arenas.

Gianni Pirelli currently leads the group practice, Pirelli Clinical and Forensic Psychology, LLC. He is 1 of just 5 people who is Board Certified in Forensic Psychology based out of New Jersey, and 1 of approximately 300 or so nationally. He received his doctorate in clinical-forensic psychology from The Graduate Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and is a Licensed Psychologist in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Dr. Pirelli's primary areas of research pertain to forensic mental health assessment (FMHA), ethics and standards of practice in forensic psychology, and guns and mental health. He has given many professional conference presentations and invited talks, and he has numerous publications, including The Ethical Practice of Forensic Psychology: A Casebook (Oxford, 2017) and The Behavioral Science of Firearms: A Mental Health Perspective on Guns, Suicide, and Violence (Oxford, 2018). In addition, his articles have been published in leading practice-oriented
journals such as the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology; the Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice; Professional Psychology: Research and Practice; and Psychology, Public Policy and Law. Dr. Pirelli's research has been cited in amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court and the New York State Court of Appeals, and in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice final report (2020). He is also the former Editor of the New Jersey Psychological Association's (NJPA) journal, the New Jersey Psychologist, and served as an editorial board member on the leading forensic psychology journal, Law and Human Behavior, for many years.

Sarah DeMarco is the Director of Training at the Center for Research and Practice (CRT) at Pirelli Clinical and Forensic Psychology, LLC. She earned her M.A. in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. DeMarco has worked with adults and adolescents in a variety of clinical-forensic and correctional settings, such as a forensic psychiatric hospital, state prisons, inpatient and outpatient substance abuse treatment centers, and a juvenile detention center. Dr. DeMarco conducts forensic mental health assessments (FMHAs) that address various psycholegal issues, and she has extensive experience conducting risk assessments, in particular. Dr. DeMarco is also an Adjunct Professor in the Forensic Psychology graduate program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and has been designated Adjunct Faculty for the doctoral internship program at Rutgers University. She remains
active in research and continuing education efforts, and she recently published a chapter in the 2020 book Trauma in Forensic Contexts.