Gun Violence In America Research Articles

State assault weapons bans are associated with fewer fatalities: analysis of US county mass shooting incidents (2014–2022)

BackgroundThe need for evidence to inform interventions to prevent mass shootings (MS) in the USA has never been greater.MethodsData were abstracted from the Gun Violence Archive, an independent online database...

American Gun Violence & Mental Illness: Reducing Risk, Restoring Health, Respecting Rights & Reviving Communities

Abstract Intentional injuries claimed nearly two hundred lives every day in the United States in 2020, about two-thirds of them suicides, each a story of irretrievable human loss. This essay addresses the complex intersection of injurious behavior with mental illness and access to firearms. It explores what more can be done to stop gun violence while respecting the rights of lawful gun owners, preserving the dignity of persons with mental illnesses, and promoting racial equity. Strategies to prevent firearm injury in the United States are uniquely conditioned by a constitutional right to bear arms, the cultural entrenchment and prevalence of private gun ownership, and strident political disagreement on regulatory solutions to stem gun violence. Broad implementation of a range of complementary policies is needed, including community-based programs to address the social and developmental determinants of violence, improved access to a continuum of mental health services, firearm restrictions based on behavioral indicators of risk (not mental illness, per se), licensing for firearm purchase or ownership, comprehensive background checks for firearm purchase, and supply-side approaches to interrupt illegal firearm markets.

Research Project on the Factors Impacting Gun Fatalities in the US and the Most Effective Gun Laws Using Correlation and Regression Analysis

This paper is a study of various factors impacting gun violence in the US over the last decade. The factors chosen for this analysis are Social - Mental Illness; Economic - Unemployment, Consumer Price Index and Personal Income; Demographic – Gun Ownership and Legal- Gun Laws. Data for this analysis is sourced from various government bodies and forums. The compiled data has been analyzed using correlation and regression analysis to study the strength of correlation of each of these factors to gun violence fatalities. Based on the correlation analysis, a further analysis has also been done to examine the most impactful gun laws that have been implemented by some States, which can be effective in controlling gun violence in other States as well.

Child Deaths by Gun Violence in the US During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Child Deaths by Gun Violence in the US During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The association between food insecurity and gun violence in a major metropolitan city.

Food insecurity (FI) is an important social determinant of health that is associated with many forms of violence. We hypothesized that FI would be associated with gun violence. Firearm injury data was collected from 2016 to 2020 (n = 3115) at a single institution that serves as the only Level I trauma center in a major southern US city. The data were linked with Map the Meal Gap data, a publicly available data set, which estimates rates of county-level FI based on state-level FI and social determinants, including unemployment, poverty, disability, and other factors. Regression analysis was utilized to examine the relationship between FI with rates of overall gun trauma and odds of gun-related violence. Food insecurity by county of patient residence was categorized by rates less than the national average of 11.5% (low), between the national and state average (16.5%) (moderate), and greater than the state average (high). Out of state residents were excluded from the analyses. Of the 3,115 patients with firearm injuries identified, 138 (4.4%) resided in counties with low FI rates, 1048 (33.6%) in moderate FI, and 1929 (62.0%) in counties with high FI. Patients in regions of high FI were more likely to be a Level I trauma activation, a victim of assault, and have Medicaid or be self-pay. There was no significant difference in mortality by levels of FI. Food insecurity was significantly associated with firearm injury, with each percent increase in FI being related to approximately 56 additional gun-related injuries per 100,000 people (95% confidence interval, 54-59) and increased odds of the injury classified as assault (odds ratio, 1.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.07-1.19). Violence prevention initiatives targeting food insecure communities may help alleviate the US gun violence epidemic. Further, trauma center screening for household FI and in-hospital interventions addressing FI may help reduce gun violence recidivism. Prognostic and Epidemiologic; Level IV.

Toxic Masculinity and Gender-Based Gun Violence in America: A Way Forward

Toxic Masculinity and Gender-Based Gun Violence in America: A Way Forward

I am the ‘evil other’ (and so are you): healing historic divisions that breed public mass gun violence in the US

ABSTRACT This paper conceptualises one possible antidote to the conditions that produce public mass gun violence (PMGV) in the United States. I begin by illuminating how PMGV is a backlash to the nation’s ‘founding’ on the violent divisions of colonisation and coloniality. I then inquire: If PMGV is a reflection of a deep societal wound, what methodologies and educational considerations can we engage to prevent violence and promote healing? I explore an ecology of knowledges (EoK), cognitive justice, and transdisciplinarity to envisage how Other ways of knowing already figure into pedagogical practices that alleviate violence and create anti-oppressive societies. These theories unsettle Western and colonial logics that rely on contradictory thinking (e.g. good or evil). The theories also encourage us to get to know the ‘other’ in ourselves in order to get to know the ‘other’ in the disaffected, work with him, and soothe his desires for violence before they erupt.

Gun violence is surging - researchers finally have the money to ask why.

With historically high levels of new funding, US gun-violence research is starting to find its footing. With historically high levels of new funding, US gun-violence research is starting to find its footing.

Quantitative Literacy and Guns

Briggs, William. 2017. How America Got Its Guns: A History of the Gun Violence Crisis; (Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press). 352 pp. Paperback: ISBN 978-0-8263-5813-4. E-book ISBN 978-0-8263-5814-1. Quantitative literacy and statistics are just two of many disciplines required to understand the problem of gun violence in America. However, it’s also useful to appreciate their limitations in an issue that is so complex.

The epidemic of gun violence in America.

The epidemic of gun violence in America.

The development of acurrent events and dialogue forum at alarge U.S. academic medical center.

The Vanderbilt Community Circle (VC2) was designed to provide all faculty, staff, and students within the entire Vanderbilt University Medical Center community adedicated venue to discuss current events and ongoing societal issues. During the 2017-18 academic year, four VC2 events were held on: "Race, identity, and conflict in America," "Gun violence in America," "Gender in the workplace," and "Immigration in America." Facilitators guided participants to share their views and perspectives on these matters with pre-developed open-ended questions. Attendees started discussions in small groups and then eventually combined into alarge one. Pre- and post-event surveys were administered to measure the program's effectiveness. One-hundred and twenty-four participants were included, 75 of whom completed both the pre- and post-event surveys. Sixty-four of the 75 (85%) agreed or strongly agreed that "multiple perspectives and opinions were represented" and 73% felt that their "own perspective was broadened on the issue." Most (89%) believed that the format and setting of the event was conducive to dialogue and discussion, and almost all (91%) reported that they would attend asimilar event in the future. Groningen Reflection Ability Scale scores were high before (94 [25th-75th: 88-99]) and remained high after the events (93 [25th-75th: 88-93.3], p > 0.05). We successfully implemented amedical center-wide, recurring current events and dialogue forum in hopes of increasing reflection, unity, and understanding across our own community.

Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Future of Psychiatric Research into American Gun Violence.

This article outlines a four-part strategy for future research in mental health and complementary disciplines that will broaden understanding of mass shootings and multi-victim gun homicides. First, researchers must abandon the starting assumption that acts of mass violence are driven primarily by diagnosable psychopathology in isolated “lone wolf” individuals. The destructive motivations must be situated, instead, within larger social structures and cultural scripts. Second, mental health professionals and scholars must carefully scrutinize any apparent correlation of violence with mental illness for evidence of racial bias in the official systems that define, measure, and record psychiatric diagnoses, as well as those that enforce laws and impose criminal justice sanctions. Third, to better understand the role of firearm access in the occurrence and lethality of mass shootings, research should be guided by an overarching framework that incorporates social, cultural, legal, and political, but also psychological, aspects of private gun ownership in the United States. Fourth, effective policies and interventions to reduce the incidence of mass shootings over time—and to prevent serious acts of violence more generally—will require an expanded body of well-funded interdisciplinary research that is informed and implemented through the sustained engagement of researchers with affected communities and other stakeholders in gun violence prevention. Emerging evidence that the coronavirus pandemic has produced a sharp increase both in civilian gun sales and in the social and psychological determinants of injurious behavior adds special urgency to this agenda.

Edgar Huntly's Gun Violence and Indigenous Mechanisms of Peace

AbstractThis essay analyzes American gun culture, past and present, through two lenses: a set of early Euro-American writings on weapons and defense, including Charles Brockden Brown's well-known novel Edgar Huntly, and a little-known but capacious archive of Native American materials, philosophy, and story. While the Euro-American writings and the Indigenous archive both raise crucial questions about the relation between weapons and human subjectivity, only the Indigenous archive presents vital alternative object orientations that promote peace. Considering wampum belts in particular as an Indigenous mechanism of peace, this essay argues that to understand American gun violence we must pay attention to Indigenous efforts to cultivate relationships by putting forth healing objects and burying the weapons of war, efforts that are largely erased from the colonial records and from the contemporary imagination of the past. Ultimately, Native American theorizations of object orientation and human subjectivity challenge both our understanding of the colonial past and our current conversation surrounding gun violence.

Educational Innovation for Gun Violence in the US

Gun violence remains a public health issue that continues to affect tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of Americans annually. 1 Hink A.B. Bonne S. Levy M. et al. Firearm injury research and epidemiology: a review of the data, their limitations, and how trauma centers can improve firearm injury research. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2019; 87: 678-689 Crossref Scopus (11) Google Scholar Within the community of trauma surgeons, increased effort and attention has been turned to the opportunities surgeons have for prevention of firearm injury and the humanistic care of trauma patients. 2 Kuhls D.A. Campbell B.T. Burke P.A. et al. Survey of American College of Surgeons Committee on trauma members on firearm injury: consensus and opportunities. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2017; 82: 877-886 Crossref PubMed Scopus (30) Google Scholar ,3 Bulger E.M. Kuhls D.A. Campbell B.T. et al. Proceedings from the Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention: a public health approach to reduce death and disability in the US. J Am Coll Surg. 2019; 229: 415-430.e12 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (37) Google Scholar Integrated into this approach has been attention to the social determinants of health that affect firearm injury risk, trauma informed care training, and improved technical skills for managing complex penetrating trauma. 4 Kim D. Social determinants of health in relation to firearm-related homicides in the United States: a nationwide multilevel cross-sectional study. PLoS Med. 2019; 16e1002978 Crossref Scopus (14) Google Scholar , 5 Rowhani-Rahbar A. Quistberg D.A. Morgan E.R. et al. Income inequality and firearm homicide in the US: a county-level cohort study. Inj Prev. 2019; 25: i25-i30 Crossref PubMed Scopus (13) Google Scholar , 6 Brenner M. Inaba K. Aiolfi A. et al. Resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta and resuscitative thoracotomy in select patients with hemorrhagic shock: early results from the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma's Aortic Occlusion in Resuscitation for Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Registry. J Am Coll Surg. 2018; 226: 730-740 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (84) Google Scholar , 7 Ordonez C.A. Rodriguez F. Parra M. et al. Resuscitative endovascular balloon of the aorta is feasible in penetrating chest trauma with major hemorrhage: proposal of a new institutional deployment algorithm. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2020; 89: 311-319 Crossref Scopus (15) Google Scholar , 8 Garcia A.F. Manzano-Nunez R. Orlas C.P. et al. Association of resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) and mortality in penetrating trauma patients. Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg. 2020 Apr 16; ([Epub ahead of print]) Crossref Scopus (8) Google Scholar

Effects of Statewide Coronavirus Public Health Measures and State Gun Laws on American Gun Violence

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic dramatically shifted American public life, and with it patterns of gun violence. In this paper, we show that states’ efforts to contain COVID-19 infections through statewide emergency declarations, Stay at Home orders, and phased reopening have significantly altered prevailing patterns of firearm injuries and deaths. We provide a systematic analysis of how state policy responses to COVID-19 affected overall levels of gun violence and specific kinds of shootings, including multiple victim and mass shootings. While emergency declarations and Stay at Home orders had a dampening effect on many forms of gun violence, we find that the number of people injured or killed by a firearm per day increased more than 15% following state reopening, on average. Over the first 30 days of reopening, we estimate that the average state had an additional 5 mass shootings than would be predicted absent the epidemic in the first 30 days of reopening. Additionally, we examine how COVID-related public health measures affect the composition of gun violence. We find that gun violence has followed workers and children home; even though workplaces and schools have closed, gun violence has likely reappeared in Americans’ lives as domestic violence related shootings and child involved shootings during Stay at Home and school closure periods. Finally, we show that state gun laws worked together with COVID-related emergency declarations and Stay at Home orders to further decrease gun violence in some states. Conversely, in states with decreased criminal liability for firearm use, as in states with Stand Your Ground laws, we observe an exacerbating effect on firearm injuries and deaths during the emergency declaration and Stay at Home order periods. Only one policy, waiting periods for handgun purchases, significantly dampened reopening surges in gun violence. These findings suggest that state policy environments can substantially reduce the impacts of exogenous shocks like COVID-19 on American gun violence and provides guidance on which policies can be helpful and which can be harmful.

Law Enforcement: a Vital Partnership in the Public Health Approach to Gun Violence

To discuss the concerns, motivations, and accomplishments of the law enforcement community with respect to gun violence. To raise awareness of the scope of the problem of gun violence from the law enforcement perspective. Gun violence impacts civilians and the law enforcement community in different ways, with similar outcomes. A multidisciplinary approach of education, legislation, and enforcement may best impact trending US gun violence. The law enforcement community can help to define gun violence as a public health crisis. Working relationships between the police, health care providers, legislators, and community leaders are extremely important in the national conversation about gun violence prevention.

Turning Experience into Action: This Is Our Lane

To discuss the origins, motivations, and accomplishments of the social media inspired movement @ThisIsOurLane, a grassroots action intended to raise awareness of the scope of the problem of gun violence and to provide examples of successful past clinician lead social media and grassroots legislative advocacy. In 1 year, conversations to address the issue of gun violence in America have been moved from trauma rooms and societal meetings, into lecture halls, state, and federal legislatures. Social media played a large role in disseminating our message, and as a result, the number of research projects has increased, and an endgame to gun violence has been better defined. Healthcare providers have helped to define gun violence as a public health crisis and, because of our presence, have become important stakeholders in the national conversation about gun violence prevention.

International Student Perceptions of American Gun Culture and School Shootings: A Public Health Examination.

A shooting in an American education institution quickly creates a global ripple effect, due to the large number of international students enrolled in American secondary schools and higher education institutions. International students studying in the United States may offer unique insight into local and global perceptions of American gun culture, highlight the transnational physical, emotional, and psychological impact of gun violence, and offer fresh understandings about the American gun violence public health problem. A qualitative research study was conducted at The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) that included focus groups and in-depth interviews of students from China and India. These nations represent the largest American international student populations. The study included a random sampling methodology. Findings show that gun violence in American schools is a major concern for prospective international students and their families. While concerns about targeted-shootings diminish, students develop behaviors that indicate a pervasive fear of indiscriminate attacks (e.g., mass shootings and petty crime), such as avoidance of large public gatherings and traveling in groups for safety. They also question university campuses' unfettered visitor access and remain perplexed by the ease of gun access in America, which they directly attribute to causing America's gun violence problem. Social and mass media play large roles in perception-building processes by supplying accurate and real-time as well as fake or misleading information. However, divergent viewpoints emerge among family members concerned for their overseas relatives' safety while international students develop more refined perspectives.

Youth exposure to violence involving a gun: evidence for adverse childhood experience classification.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have historically included child maltreatment, household dysfunction, and other critical issues known to impact children negatively. Although youth experiences with violence are broadly captured in some ACE measures, youth exposure to violence involving a gun has not been included specifically in the operationalizing, and thereforescientific study, of ACEs. There are numerous implications of this omission, including limiting access to ACE interventions that are currently available and resources for individuals who have been exposed to gun violence. Thus, and given the persistent prevalence of gun violence in the US, we conducted a systematic review of the literature over the past two decades on the assessment of and response to ACEs and gun violence. Eighty-one journal articles across four search engines met our inclusion criteria. Our findings provide evidence that youth gun violence exposure should be classified as an ACE. In addition to increasing access to resources for youth affected by gun violence, these findings may improve the likelihood of funding and research into gun violence, with direct implications for prevention and intervention efforts.

Democratizing School Safety

Gun violence in America has had tragic impact on schools, school children, and students’ parents. Gun control legislation, updated security systems, and the hiring of school security personnel are high on the lists of many concerned people. However, at the same time, interest in more self-help or democratizing efforts has been shown. The latter has included arming school officials and teachers as well as seeking volunteers in some jurisdictions to act as school resource officers. Specific strategies to protect schools utilizing the services of qualified citizens are considered. In particular, where sufficient paid workers are unavailable, the author proposes that school safety should be achieved using a “risk-based security” strategy in conjunction with volunteer police resources drawn from school neighborhoods and local colleges.