Pneumatic nail guns are ubiquitous at residential construction sites across the United States. These tools are noted for the traumatic injuries that can occur from their operation. Different trigger mechanisms on these tools are associated with different levels of risk. Residential building subcontractors and workers, both native-born and immigrant, were brought together in focus groups to discuss their attitudes and beliefs regarding risk factors for nail gun injury as well as barriers to the adoption of safer technology. Participants' comments are organized first by influences on traumatic injury occurrence or prevention and later by sociotechnical system category. Participants attributed influences on injury risk to personal and external causation factors in all sociotechnical system categories; however, participants more frequently described influences on injury prevention as related to workers' behaviors, rather than to external factors. A discussion of these influences with respect to attribution theory and sociotechnical models of injury causation is presented.
Keywords: carpenters; nail guns; residential building construction; risk perception; traumatic injury.