JJIE Hub: Policy Reform — Youth Gun Violence Prevention

Browse Gun Laws

This page of the Giffords Law Center website features a comprehensive database of gun policies for the federal, state, and local levels of government. It provides information on laws on a variety of firearm topics, including background checks, who can have a gun, gun sales, gun owner responsibilities, and many others. Each category has a list of subtopics pertaining to the original category that makes it easy to navigate. It also contains a section to find gun laws sorted by state.

The State of America’s Children 2021

More impactful than Covid-19, gun violence was the leading cause of death for children and teens in 2018. From the Children’s Defense Fund, this chapter of The State of America’s Children 2021 focuses on gun violence that is affecting children in the aftermath of Covid-19. The chapter calls for reform due to the overwhelming number of guns flooding the market in the United States. Common-sense gun safety measures are touted as the best way to protect children from firearms in their homes, schools, and in the public.

Contemporary Issues in Gun Policy: Essays from the RAND Gun Policy in America Project

The complexity and controversy surrounding gun policies in the United States lead to a lack of access to evidence-based and unbiased information to facilitate the development of fair and effective gun policies. This 2021 report from RAND seeks to address this by synthesizing available scientific data on a range of topics including mass shootings, taxation of firearms and ammunition, policy evaluation of gun control and buyback programs in Australia, the relationship between mental illness and gun violence, and law enforcement approaches to community violence reduction.

Firearm Injuries and Children Position Statement of the American Pediatric Surgical Association

This literature review from The American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) (https://eapsa.org/)  includes their position statements on firearm injuries and children. The APSA notes that a public health approach to gun violence will be able to reduce the mortality rate of children caused by firearm violence. Their position statements include support for universal background checks, restrictions on assault weapons, strict child access protection laws, and making the firearm purchase age a minimum of 21 years. The APSA opposes attempts to stop physicians from counseling children and families about firearms and calls for more research to confront this issue.

Leading with Action: Addressing Gun Violence with Executive Authority

This report from  Brady (https://www.bradyunited.org/) advocates for the reduction of gun violence through executive authority. The publication consists of recommendations on a variety of topics such as background checks, gun industry oversight, the illegal market, accountability and reform, and public health and safety. For each broad topic, BRADY has several recommendations backed by research. For example, preventing domestic abusers from accessing guns. They cite research to support their recommendation that reveals that since 1980, homicides between non-married partners have risen from 27 to 49 percent. This is one of many research-based recommendations that BRADY provides to reduce gun violence through executive authority.

Keep the Kids Inside? Juvenile Curfews and Urban Gun Violence

In this study from The Justice Tech Lab, researchers Jillian Carr and Jennifer Doleac explore juvenile curfew laws and their impact on urban gun violence. They find that curfew laws are ineffective for reducing gunfire incidents and may actually serve to increase gun violence. Utilizing advances in audio sensor technology, the authors measure how gunfire incidents are affected by changes in the seasonal curfew times in Washington DC, where curfew switches from 11 p.m. to midnight between July and September. Contrary to the intended effect of the curfew laws, the study finds that when the curfew is one hour earlier, there is an increase of seven gunshots per week between 11:00-11:59 p.m. in the four police districts included in the study, an increase of 150%. The authors suggest that curfews actually increase the number of gunfire incidents because they decrease bystander deterrence; the more crowded the streets, the less chance a gunshot would go unnoticed.

These effects of curfew laws have been difficult to examine with accuracy due to biases in traditional reporting methods, such as 911 calls or police reports. Likewise, homicide reporting does not account for gun injury data.ShotSpotter is a technology that utilizes audio sensors placed around the city that detect the sound of a gunshot and triangulate the location. After being verified by human technicians, the location and time are sent to the police. While this advance in technological reporting allowed accurate tracking of gunfire incidents, the study did not track the number of gunshot victims or other crimes committed during curfew hours, nor does it assess other costs or benefits of curfew laws. Therefore, more research is necessary to determine appropriate policies regarding juvenile curfew laws and their efficacy.

Youth Gun Violence Prevention in a Digital Age

In this article appearing in Pediatrics Perspectives, Patton and colleagues use a case summary of a 17-year-old female gang member from Chicago to suggest social media’s usefulness in recognizing and preventing youth gun violence. Calling attention to the contagious nature of violence in face-to-face interactions, the authors discuss how social media interactions are now spreading violence just as quickly. Through ‘internet banging’ on a ‘digital street’ social media is contributing to threats, aggression, and retaliation among gang-involved youth. With the public nature of social media, anyone in the community can access these violent messages, as well as varying degrees of personal information about the people involved. The content of these posts can also contribute to the spread of trauma to other children and non-violent members of the community not directly involved.

The authors warn that using social media data in this way presents a significant risk to misdiagnosis and criminalization of vulnerable populations. As such, it should not be taken lightly. Further, best practices, situated in an ethical standard, need to be developed and implemented to protect high-risk populations from mistakes in analysis or the misuse of data. Cure Violence gave their credible messengers in New York a violence interruption toolkit to assess risky social media posts. Their efforts paid off, and providing similar tools to pediatric caregivers could further help prevent violent ideas from becoming violent behaviors.

The Role of Epidemiology in Firearm Violence Prevention: A Policy Brief

In this policy brief, the International Network for Epidemiology in Policy (INEP) makes a case for the rigorous, interdisciplinary study of firearm violence in the US. Epidemiologists are uniquely situated in the field to offer interdisciplinary, cross-method analyses of the systemic factors contributing to a society entrenched in gun violence. Without considering the underlying societal circumstances that contribute to gun violence, policymakers are unable to make informed decisions for common-sense gun control.

The World Health Organization declared firearm death and violence a public health epidemic in 1996. Countries that study firearm data have consistently shown that firearms are a significant factor contributing to the lethality of injuries. Research has also shown these injuries and deaths to be largely preventable. The US has 10 times more firearm homicides than the next four wealthy countries combined (China, Japan, Germany, and the UK), with almost six billion dollars in annual revenue from firearm exports.

The authors advocate for evidence-based, community-level research targeting the systemic factors at play in US and global firearm violence. The prevalence of violence from privately-owned firearms indicates a social disease that must be studied the same as any other disease. The brief concludes that it is time for society to switch from reactive to proactive efforts to curb firearm violence and death and offers policy recommendations from the INEP.

In the Line of Fire: Human Rights and The US Gun Violence Crisis

Using existing data and research, Amnesty International (Amnesty) assesses the entire scope of gun violence in the United States. Framing gun violence as a human rights crisis, the report is extensive in its coverage of issues related to US gun policy. Amnesty also gives recommendations to remedy the associated human rights violations the US is obligated to fix under several UN treaties.

Chapter 3, section 2, of the report addresses youth gun violence specifically. In this section, Amnesty discusses the factors contributing to youth gun violence. Data on demographics, school shootings, unintentional firearm violence, domestic violence, and the effects of trauma are included. The shortcomings of federal law and state enforcement are also analyzed; as well as the status of funding devoted to the study of youth gun violence and its prevention.

Commonsense Solutions: State Laws to Expand Background Checks for Unlicensed Gun Sales

This report from the Gifford’s Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (https://lawcenter.giffords.org/) details how the unlicensed gun sale loophole in federal law can be exploited with dangerous consequences. The loophole allows gun sellers to avoid processing background checks, which gives people with a criminal record an opportunity to obtain a firearm. Only eighteen states have extended background check requirements for some unlicensed gun sales. This report notes how extended background checks can help prevent crime, and explains how the loophole is exploited at gun shows and over the internet. This report advocates for extended background checks and acts as a guide for legislators who want to close the loopholes.

Guns, Public Health and Mental Illness: An Evidence-Based Approach for Federal Policy

This report from the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence (EFSGV) (https://efsgv.org/) discusses evidence-based approaches to federal policy for reducing gun violence and protecting public and mental health. The report recommends two distinct routes for federal intervention. The first describes needed reform to the existing policies regarding mental health-based disqualifications for purchasing and possessing firearms, and the second looks at expanding temporary firearm prohibitions for people who meet certain criteria that heighten their risk of committing gun violence. The report provides evidence-based recommendations for strengthening federal firearm policy and decreasing deaths by firearms.

Extreme Risk Laws Save Lives

This report from Everytown for Gun Safety (https://everytownresearch.org/) looks at how extreme risk laws, also known as red flag laws, are a proven way to intervene in gun violence before it can take place. Extreme risk laws allow family members or law enforcement to petition a court for an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) to temporarily remove guns in dangerous circumstances. If the court finds that the individual does pose a threat of injuring others or themselves with a firearm, they are also temporarily banned from purchasing firearms. The report notes that nineteen states have these laws in place, and they have already prevented potential tragedies. The evidence presented in the report suggests that extreme risk laws are associated with reductions in suicide by firearm rates and have the potential to prevent mass shootings.

Preventing the Next Parkland: A Case Study of the Use and Implementation of Florida’s Extreme Risk Law in Broward County

This report from Gifford’s Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (https://lawcenter.giffords.org/) focuses on the use of extreme-risk laws to prevent school shootings through a case study of their implementation in Broward County, Florida. Extreme risk laws allow a family member or law enforcement to request an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) to temporarily remove or restrict firearm access. Florida passed its extreme risk law shortly after the Parkland school shooting in 2018. The report examined every ERPO requested in Broward County (where Parkland is located) within the first year of its passing to better understand the outcome of the law. The study found Broward County to have the second-highest number of ERPO requests within the first year, and that it prevented individuals that made credible threats of gun violence against themselves or others from having access to firearms.

Ghost Guns: How Untraceable Firearms Threaten Public Safety

This report from the Gifford’s Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (https://lawcenter.giffords.org/) explains how ghost guns, or untraceable firearms, can threaten public safety. Ghost guns are not fully furnished and are sometimes sold by unlicensed businesses without serial numbers. The report notes that ghost guns are dangerous because they are marketed toward to people who can not pass background checks. They also found that in states like California, 40% of the firearms recovered in crimes by the ATF were ghost guns. The report lists several recommendations for policy reform that would address the threat posed by ghost guns, such as expanding the definition of "firearm" to include unfinished frames or receivers under federal law, and many others.

Family Guide to Home Firearm Safety During COVID-19

This guide from the University of Michigan’s Injury Prevention Center (https://injurycenter.umich.edu/) focuses on firearm safety in the home during COVID-19, a time when many families are quarantined. This guide provides data about children having easy access to firearms and notes that one-third of U.S. homes with children under eighteen have a firearm, and 43% of those homes have an unlocked firearm. The guide notes that this leads to tragic consequences such as unintentional shootings, homicides, and suicide. It highlights easy ways to prevent these tragedies from occurring by making sure guns are locked, unloaded, and housed in a safe storage option.

Staying Safe at Home

This primer from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) (https://www.csgv.org/) details how to stay safe at home with firearms during COVID-19, noting that gaining access to firearms during this time significantly increases the risk of death or harm to those in the home. The guide provides data on suicide, homicide, domestic violence homicide, and unintentional firearm death when there are firearms in the home.

Parents’ Guide to Home Firearm Safety

 This guide from the University of Michigan’s Injury Prevention Center (https://injurycenter.umich.edu/) focuses on firearm safety in the home. It provides data on how children have easy access to firearms, noting that one-third of U.S. homes with children under eighteen have a firearm in the home, and 43% of those homes have an unlocked firearm. The guide highlights that this has led to tragic consequences such as unintentional shootings, homicides, and suicides. It shows parents easy solutions to this problem, such as asking if there are guns where their children play, and if there are to make sure they are locked, unloaded, and prevent access to them. It also illustrates safe storage options, such as gun safes and dismantling firearms.

Storage Practices of US Gun Owners in 2016

In this article from the American Journal of Public Health, researchers found that only 46% of gun owners surveyed practice safe gun storage with each of the guns in their household. The survey also finds that 34% of respondents have children under the age of 18 residing in the home where guns are present.

Safe gun storage involves limiting the availability of guns to those who are not authorized to use them by using gun safes, trigger locks, and/or storing ammunition away from the gun. Previous research has shown that households with guns have an increased risk of gun injuries and death, and safe storage practices are one of the most effective ways to reduce these risks. This study suggests that the credibility of those teaching gun storage practices affects whether and how gun owners store their guns.

The researchers also investigated the best means for persuading gun owners to safely store guns. They find that respondents consider physicians effective at teaching why guns should be stored safely but that they were the least influential in teaching gun owners how to safely store their guns. The most influential people to teach about gun storage practices were those with experience handling and using guns, such as law enforcement, official NRA communications, and/or family members. 43% of respondents expressed concerns about home defense, suggesting this is a major reason for the reluctance to adopt safe gun storage practices with every gun in the home.

Education Campaigns and Clinical Interventions for Promoting Safe Storage

This report from the RAND Corporation (https://www.rand.org/) focuses on the efficacy of educational campaigns and clinical intervention in promoting safe storage of firearms. The study analyzes the outcome of the relationship between firearm storage and both suicides and unintentional injuries and deaths and notes that safe firearm storage reduces the risk of those happening. It also examines the impact educational campaigns and clinical interventions have on safe firearm storage. The study found limited evidence that educational campaigns promote safe firearm storage, but found evidence that clinical intervention can influence behavior, especially when safe firearm storage items are given away for free.

The Effects of Child-Access Prevention Laws

This research review from the RAND Corporation (https://www.rand.org/) focuses on the efficacy of child access prevention (CAP) laws. The review looks at how CAP laws affect gun use outcomes and finds that stronger CAP laws decrease suicides, unintentional injuries and deaths, and violent crimes. It includes a state-by-state analysis of states with stronger CAP laws, which make it illegal to negligently store firearms, versus those states with weaker CAP laws, which only make it illegal to recklessly provide firearms to children. The review concludes that stronger CAP laws are more effective because they substantially reduce children’s access to stored firearms.

Design Safety Standards

This page of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (https://lawcenter.giffords.org/) website summarizes federal and state laws pertaining to gun design and provides a list of policy options for stricter gun design laws. They note that having better gun designs, such as magazine disconnect mechanisms that prevent the gun from discharging if the magazine is not attached, can prevent accidental injuries and deaths. Elements such as design and safety tests and rosters of approved handguns can help create safer guns.

The Rise of Firearm Suicide Among Young Americans

The last couple of years has witnessed an astronomical increase in the suicide rates among young people in America with suicide now recognized as the third leading cause of death for young Americans. The rate of firearm suicide among young people has increased by 53% over the past decade. This report from Everytown Research & Policy highlights the impact of firearms on suicide rates and lays out some recommendations to mitigate these risks.

Reducing Suicides by Firearms

This policy statement from the American Public Health Association (APHA) (https://www.apha.org/) focuses on reducing suicides by firearms. It reviews evidenced-based strategies to address the issue and provides action steps for advocates and agencies to take to aid in the reduction. APHA notes that suicide is a public health problem, and that suicide rates have increased by one-third over the last twenty years. A few of the best evidence-based strategies to reduce suicide by firearm mentioned by the APHA are temporarily moving household firearms when a member is at risk for suicide, providing safe storage at home if relocating the firearm isn’t possible, and increasing screening for access to firearms.

Limiting Access to Lethal Means: Applying the social-ecological model for firearm suicide prevention

This special feature article in the journal Injury Prevention (https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/) from the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence (EFSGV) (https://efsgv.org/) focuses on applying the social-ecological model (SEM) to prevent suicide by firearm. The SEM is a framework created to show the interaction between individual and environmental factors for individual well-being. SEM considers the influence and interaction between four levels: societal, community, relationship, and individual. The article outlines an application of the SEM for suicide by firearm prevention through intervening at the four levels in order to decrease access to firearms. The authors (Allchin et al.) conclude that interventions at multiple SEM levels are a critical component of suicide by firearm prevention strategy.

Guns in Schools

Gifford’s Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (https://lawcenter.giffords.org/) dedicates a section of its website to the topic of guns in schools. Their mission is to reduce gun violence in K-12 schools and prevent homicide and suicides at colleges. This section has information that summarizes federal and state legislation regarding guns in K-12 schools and on college campuses. They feature a comprehensive chart that displays the list of states, if guns are allowed in K-12 schools, if concealed carry weapons (CCW) are allowed in K-12 schools, if guns are allowed on college campuses, and if CCW are allowed on college campuses. The page concludes with key legislative elements that provide a foundation for policy reform in order to prevent gun violence in schools.

Keeping Our Schools Safe: A Plan for Preventing Mass Shootings and Ending All Gun Violence in American Schools

This report from Everytown for Gun Safety (https://everytownresearch.org/) provides a plan to prevent mass shootings and bring an end to violence in U.S. schools. The report details how gun violence impacts students and schools by analyzing research, outlining a prevention plan, and discussing the need to prevent teachers from becoming armed. The plan has two parts, the first part focuses on preventing potential shooters from gaining access to firearms by establishing extreme risk laws and raising the age to purchase a semi-automatic firearm to 21. The second part focuses on encouraging schools to take part in evidence-based actions such as establishing threat assessment programs to identify individuals in a crisis that display warning signs. The report concludes by stressing the need to prevent schools from arming teachers and staff due to research proving it to be more harmful to students.