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

February 13, 2026 updated by: University of California, Davis

Prospective Evaluation of California's Armed and Prohibited Persons System

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.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

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 Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

20000

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • Sacramento, California, United States, 95618
        • UC Davis

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

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.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / 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

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
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
Up to 3 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
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
Up to 3 years
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
Up to 3 years
Incidence of domestic violence restraining orders
Time Frame: Up to 3 years
Domestic violence restraining orders among persons eligible for the APPS intervention
Up to 3 years

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Community level rates of violence
Time Frame: Up to 3 years
Community-level rates of violent and firearm-related crimes
Up to 3 years
Cost benefit analysis
Time Frame: Up to 3 years
Assess benefits of APPS relative to costs.
Up to 3 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of California, Davis

Collaborators

Stanford University
Rutgers University
Northeastern University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Garen J Wintemute, MD, MPH, University of California, Davis

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

February 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 21, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 21, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 12, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 12, 2014

First Posted (Estimated)

December 17, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 18, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 13, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 553213

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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