POV: Studying Gun Violence to Save Lives
Too little data is holding back progress, and legislation
The tragedy in Orlando June 12 was both extraordinary and all too ordinary. It left more people dead than any previous mass shooting in modern American history. Yet in that way it also exemplified what Americans have come to expect from the regular, appalling acts of gun violence visited upon us: no horror so great it cannot be surpassed by the next.
The United States experiences an elevated level of gun violence, some 25 times the gun homicide rate of comparable nations. Mass shootings are hardly typical of this—they account for just one percent of our country’s gun homicide victims—but their frequency is another measure of the problem we face. Orlando marked the 9th mass shooting with four or more gun homicide victims so far this year and the 150th since 2009.
Because these events occur so publicly and are experienced so collectively, they also speak to a deeper truth: gun violence in the United States can occur anywhere, affect any of us. It seems that each new shooting leaves another space that ought to feel safe—a school, a movie theater, a church, a dance club—irreparably scarred.
Americans increasingly recognize that we have a shared responsibility to address this shared problem, and are mustering to it. Millions of supporters across the country have closed ranks to call on Congress and state lawmakers to enact stronger laws. That the US Senate held a vote just a week after the Orlando shooting is a sign of the gun violence prevention movement’s strength. And while the senators failed to pass the common-sense measures that were considered—one allowing the Justice Department to block suspected terrorists from buying guns, and another requiring an instant criminal background check for every gun sale—that just shows that, as usual, Congress will be the last institution to recognize our society’s need for change. Voters will remember their inaction in November.
But preventing gun violence is not just a question of building political power to topple the gun lobby—it’s a complex phenomenon that demands innovative changes in law and policy to match. A shooting perpetrated by a young man on a city street, an impulsive suicidal act by an older person in his home, a child who finds an unsecured gun and fires it unintentionally, the deadly fatal chapter in a pattern of domestic violence—each springs from a different set of factors and needs to be isolated and understood in order to be prevented.
This is why the lack of research in this area has been so harmful. Two decades ago, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began establishing a pattern of reliable study in this area, the gun lobby enlisted its allies in Congress to attack the agency, and ultimately intimidated it into silence. As a consequence, whereas firearm injuries claim more than 30,000 American lives each year, research into their prevention receives nearly no federal funding. This has set back researchers in universities and elsewhere, who depend on grants to support their work.
Today there is still too little research, but that is changing. President Obama has called on the CDC to reengage, and while it has not taken up the charge, the National Institute of Justice has earmarked funding specifically for research on firearm violence from a criminal justice perspective. States are also acting: earlier this month, California legislators set aside $5 million to support a new gun violence research center, a measure that states like Massachusetts might emulate.
My organization, Everytown for Gun Safety, also tries to fill the gap in a number of ways. We document unintentional child shootings nationwide in the most comprehensive database of its type. We measure how strong state gun laws affect gun violence. And most recently, we gathered case studies from cities across the country to illustrate strategies mayors can take to address urban gun violence. We’ve also provided grants to researchers doing basic science to better understand gun violence, including a recent study of crime guns recovered in Boston.
And many dedicated scientists have never given up on seeking a better understanding of gun violence. Boston University’s School of Public Health is one such example, where a group of longtime researchers is focused on this with new intensity.
When it comes to gun violence, what we don’t know can kill us. Universities and knowledge-makers will be at the front lines of pushing the darkness back and illuminating new solutions.
Ted Alcorn is the research director for Everytown for Gun Safety, a not-for-profit grassroots organization seeking to end gun violence and build safer communities. He can be reached at talcorn@everytown.org.
“POV” is an opinion page that provides timely commentaries from students, faculty, and staff on a variety of issues: on-campus, local, state, national, or international. Anyone interested in submitting a piece, which should be about 700 words long, should contact Rich Barlow at barlowr@bu.edu. BU Today reserves the right to reject or edit submissions. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University.
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