For 25 years, the U.S. government funded little research on firearm violence prevention. Although some dedicated researchers made important discoveries over this period, the scale of the research effort was not commensurate with the problem. Recently, however, there has been an unprecedented surge in research funding: the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, a private philanthropy, has awarded more than $21 million since 2018; the federal government has committed $25 million per year since 2019; and some states and other philanthropies have recently invested in such research programs.
The new opportunities this funding creates to understand and prevent firearm violence come at a critical moment.…
The remainder of this commentary is available at science.org.
Andrew Morral leads the Gun Policy in America initiative at the RAND Corporation, and is director of the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research. Rosanna Smart is an economist at RAND and a contributor to RAND's Gun Policy in America initiative.
