Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence
Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-10-03

Total Pages: 121

ISBN-13: 0309284414

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In 2010, more than 105,000 people were injured or killed in the United States as the result of a firearm-related incident. Recent, highly publicized, tragic mass shootings in Newtown, CT; Aurora, CO; Oak Creek, WI; and Tucson, AZ, have sharpened the American public's interest in protecting our children and communities from the harmful effects of firearm violence. While many Americans legally use firearms for a variety of activities, fatal and nonfatal firearm violence poses a serious threat to public safety and welfare. In January 2013, President Barack Obama issued 23 executive orders directing federal agencies to improve knowledge of the causes of firearm violence, what might help prevent it, and how to minimize its burden on public health. One of these orders directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to, along with other federal agencies, immediately begin identifying the most pressing problems in firearm violence research. The CDC and the CDC Foundation asked the IOM, in collaboration with the National Research Council, to convene a committee tasked with developing a potential research agenda that focuses on the causes of, possible interventions to, and strategies to minimize the burden of firearm-related violence. Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence focuses on the characteristics of firearm violence, risk and protective factors, interventions and strategies, the impact of gun safety technology, and the influence of video games and other media.

Firearms and Violence
Firearms and Violence

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2005-01-13

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0309091241

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For years proposals for gun control and the ownership of firearms have been among the most contentious issues in American politics. For public authorities to make reasonable decisions on these matters, they must take into account facts about the relationship between guns and violence as well as conflicting constitutional claims and divided public opinion. In performing these tasks, legislators need adequate data and research to judge both the effects of firearms on violence and the effects of different violence control policies. Readers of the research literature on firearms may sometimes find themselves unable to distinguish scholarship from advocacy. Given the importance of this issue, there is a pressing need for a clear and unbiased assessment of the existing portfolio of data and research. Firearms and Violence uses conventional standards of science to examine three major themes - firearms and violence, the quality of research, and the quality of data available. The book assesses the strengths and limitations of current databases, examining current research studies on firearm use and the efforts to reduce unjustified firearm use and suggests ways in which they can be improved.

Gun Violence and Mental Illness
Gun Violence and Mental Illness

Author: Liza H. Gold, M.D.

Publisher: American Psychiatric Pub

Published: 2015-11-17

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 1585624985

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Perhaps never before has an objective, evidence-based review of the intersection between gun violence and mental illness been more sorely needed or more timely. Gun Violence and Mental Illness, written by a multidisciplinary roster of authors who are leaders in the fields of mental health, public health, and public policy, is a practical guide to the issues surrounding the relation between firearms deaths and mental illness. Tragic mass shootings that capture headlines reinforce the mistaken beliefs that people with mental illness are violent and responsible for much of the gun violence in the United States. This misconception stigmatizes individuals with mental illness and distracts us from the awareness that approximately 65% of all firearm deaths each year are suicides. This book is an apolitical exploration of the misperceptions and realities that attend gun violence and mental illness. The authors frame both pressing social issues as public health problems subject to a variety of interventions on individual and collective levels, including utilization of a novel perspective: evidence-based interventions focusing on assessments and indicators of dangerousness, with or without indications of mental illness. Reader-friendly, well-structured, and accessible to professional and lay audiences, the book: * Reviews the epidemiology of gun violence and its relationship to mental illness, exploring what we know about those who perpetrate mass shootings and school shootings. * Examines the current legal provisions for prohibiting access to firearms for those with mental illness and whether these provisions and new mandated reporting interventions are effective or whether they reinforce negative stereotypes associated with mental illness. * Discusses the issues raised in accessing mental health treatment in regard to diminished treatment resources, barriers to access, and involuntary commitment.* Explores novel interventions for addressing these issues from a multilevel and multidisciplinary public health perspective that does not stigmatize people with mental illness. This includes reviews of suicide risk assessment; increasing treatment engagement; legal, social, and psychiatric means of restricting access to firearms when people are in crisis; and, when appropriate, restoration of firearm rights. Mental health clinicians and trainees will especially appreciate the risk assessment strategies presented here, and mental health, public health, and public policy researchers will find Gun Violence and Mental Illness a thoughtful and thought-provoking volume that eschews sensationalism and embraces serious scholarship.

Regulating Gun Sales
Regulating Gun Sales

Author: Daniel W Webster

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM

Published: 2013-03-26

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 1421411725

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This excerpt from the “masterful, timely, data-driven” study of the gun control debate examines the potential of stronger purchasing laws (Choice). As the debate on gun control continues, evidence-based research is needed to answer a crucial question: How do we reduce gun violence? One of the biggest gun policy reforms under consideration is the regulation of firearm sales and stopping the diversion of guns to criminals. This selection from the major anthology of studies Reducing Gun Violence in America presents compelling evidence that stronger purchasing laws and better enforcement of these laws result in lower gun violence. Additional material for this edition includes an introduction by Michael R. Bloomberg and Consensus Recommendations for Reforms to Federal Gun Policies from the Johns Hopkins University.

The Science of Gun Policy
The Science of Gun Policy

Author: Rosanna Smart

Publisher:

Published: 2020-08-30

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9781977404312

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In this report, part of the RAND Corporation's Gun Policy in America initiative, researchers seek objective information about what the scientific literature reveals about the likely effects of various gun laws. In this second edition of an earlier work, the authors add five gun policies to the 13 examined in the original analysis and expand the study time frame to incorporate a larger body of research. With those adjustments, the authors synthesize the available scientific data on the effects of 18 policies on firearm deaths, violent crime, the gun industry, defensive gun use, and other outcomes. By highlighting where scientific evidence is accumulating, the authors hope to build consensus around a shared set of facts that have been established through a transparent, nonpartisan, and impartial review process. In so doing, they also illuminate areas where more and better information could make important contributions to establishing fair and effective gun policies.

Why We Are Losing the War on Gun Violence in the United States
Why We Are Losing the War on Gun Violence in the United States

Author: Marie Crandall

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-12-09

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 3030555135

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This edited collection of data and perspectives takes a fresh approach to gun violence prevention by addressing the question, “why are we losing the war on gun violence in America?” Although successes and failures in the prevention of gun violence are examined, it is a war we are losing, due to restrictions on research funding, entrenched historical perspectives, structural violence, and perhaps differing priorities or views on what is right or wrong. Gun violence is a public health crisis. It remains politicized and has been paralyzed with inaction. In the chapters, the authors write candidly about the challenges that have thwarted gun violence prevention, as well as highlight possible strategies for progress to save lives. Critical areas explored among the chapters include: Gun Violence, Structural Violence, and Social Justice School Shootings: Creating Safer Schools Mental Illness and Gun Violence Understanding the Political Divide in Gun Policy Support The Second Amendment and the War on Guns The Impact of Policy and Law Enforcement Strategies on Reducing Gun Violence in America Youth Gun Violence Prevention Organizing Smart Guns Don't Kill People With this compendium, the editors and authors hope to bridge the growing gap between groups or ideologies, and create common ground to discuss workable solutions. Why We Are Losing the War on Gun Violence in the United States is essential reading for a broad audience including practitioners, academics, researchers, students, policy-makers, and other professionals in public health, behavioral sciences (including social work and psychology), social sciences, health sciences, public policy, political science, and law, as well as any readers interested in the path to decreasing gun violence in America.

Bleeding Out
Bleeding Out

Author: Thomas Abt

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2019-06-25

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1541645715

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From a Harvard scholar and former Obama official, a powerful proposal for curtailing violent crime in America Urban violence is one of the most divisive and allegedly intractable issues of our time. But as Harvard scholar Thomas Abt shows in Bleeding Out, we actually possess all the tools necessary to stem violence in our cities. Coupling the latest social science with firsthand experience as a crime-fighter, Abt proposes a relentless focus on violence itself -- not drugs, gangs, or guns. Because violence is "sticky," clustering among small groups of people and places, it can be predicted and prevented using a series of smart-on-crime strategies that do not require new laws or big budgets. Bringing these strategies together, Abt offers a concrete, cost-effective plan to reduce homicides by over 50 percent in eight years, saving more than 12,000 lives nationally. Violence acts as a linchpin for urban poverty, so curbing such crime can unlock the untapped potential of our cities' most disadvantaged communities and help us to bridge the nation's larger economic and social divides. Urgent yet hopeful, Bleeding Out offers practical solutions to the national emergency of urban violence -- and challenges readers to demand action.