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Gun Violence

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Essay
How to Prevent, Prepare for, and Respond to Mass Attacks
A new step-by-step guide can help communities prevent shootings and other mass attacks before they happen, and save lives when they do. It's written for a variety of public- and private-sector audiences—everyone from emergency responders and school officials to security personnel and community leaders.
Aug 30, 2022
Project
Informing the Gun Policy Debate
RAND's Gun Policy in America initiative provides information on what scientific research can tell us about the effects of gun laws. Our goal is to establish a shared set of facts that will improve public discussions and support the development of fair and effective gun policies.
Jan 10, 2023

Explore Gun Violence

Periodical
RAND Review: March-April 2023
The cover story describes how K-12 schools can build trust with students to increase threat reporting and strengthen school safety. The Q&A with Ashley Woo explores how restrictions on race- and gender-related topics are affecting teachers.
Mar 22, 2023
Blog
A Look Back at the War in Afghanistan, National Secuirty Risks, Hospice Care: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on why the United States “stayed the unfavorable course” in Afghanistan, the Ohio train derailment, state data on gun deaths, and more.
Mar 3, 2023
News Release
Online Tool Allows State-by-State Analysis of Firearm Policies and Death Rates
States in the northeast and the coastal west region of the United States have among the lowest firearm death rates in the nation, while states in the south and mountain west have firearm death rates that are especially high.
Feb 23, 2023
Tool
Visualizing Firearm Mortality and Law Effects: An Interactive Web-Based Tool
This tool provides users with information about the distribution of firearm deaths across states and demographic subgroups. Users can explore how those deaths might be affected by the implementation of a set of commonly enacted state firearm laws.
Feb 23, 2023
Commentary
Addressing Gun Violence Requires Better Means of Measuring It
Proposals to reduce firearm violence in the United States are often controversial, sometimes because there are no data demonstrating their effectiveness. The federal government has many of the requisite tools in place to collect the data, and it does it well on a wide range of other problems. Shying away from measuring this problem may also make it more difficult to fix it.
Feb 13, 2023
Blog
State of the Union 2023: Insights from RAND
In his second State of the Union address, President Joe Biden covered a wide range of issues facing the United States at home and abroad, including police violence, gun policy, Russia's war in Ukraine, and U.S. competition with China.
Feb 8, 2023
Commentary
Responding to the Firearm Violence Crisis: Are Some Newly Enacted Laws Making Things Worse?
Persuasive scientific evidence is accumulating for several commonly implemented laws. Where the science is strong, lawmakers would be wise to consider it when making decisions about how to protect public safety while preserving civil liberties, including the right to bear arms.
Jan 25, 2023
News Release
Evidence About Effects of Gun Policies Grows and Supports Laws Intended to Restrict Child Access to Guns
There is now supportive evidence that child-access-prevention laws reduce firearm homicides and self-injuries among youth, and that shall-issue concealed-carry laws and stand-your-ground laws increase levels of firearm violence.
Jan 10, 2023
Report
Gun Buyback Programs in the United States
Gun buyback programs compensate individuals who turn over firearms to a public agency or private organization. This essay provides an overview of gun buyback programs in the United States and concludes with an exploration of policy considerations.
Jan 10, 2023
Report
Latest Findings from RAND's Gun Policy in America Study
The third edition of RAND's report on gun policy synthesizes scientific evidence for the effects of various policies on firearm deaths, violent crime, suicides, the gun industry, defensive gun use, and other outcomes.
Jan 10, 2023
Commentary
Ten Things That Inspired Me in 2022
It would be impossible to capture all the important work that RAND does in a year. But RAND president and CEO Jason Matheny has compiled ten times he was inspired by RAND's efforts to bring insight to some of the biggest policy stories of 2022.
Dec 15, 2022
Commentary
Historic Research Conference Combats the Rise in Gun Violence
With new funding for gun violence prevention research, projects are beginning to produce findings. To capitalize on the new findings and help integrate the growing field of researchers working on gun violence prevention, RAND partnered with other research programs to organize the 2022 National Research Conference on Firearm Injury Prevention.
Dec 9, 2022
Commentary
Better Data, Less Gun Violence
If the United States is serious about fixing the escalating problem of gun violence, the government needs to measure it. Research that is supported by new funding is overdue but will be hampered until federal and state firearm violence data systems improve.
Oct 5, 2022
Commentary
A New Era for Firearm Violence Prevention Research
Despite many remaining obstacles, the United States may soon have research that clarifies many of the unanswered questions about firearm violence and its prevention. Many critical research questions, neglected for decades, may now benefit from recent federal and private research funding that has supported a surge in research.
Oct 4, 2022
Periodical
RAND Review: September-October 2022
The cover story is a profile of RAND's new president and CEO. Other features explore how teachers and principals have been faring in the COVID era and how to improve media literacy among middle schoolers.
Sep 8, 2022
Tool
Using National Instant Criminal Background Check Data for Gun Policy Analysis: A Discussion of Available Data and Their Limitations
In this tool, researchers provide detailed information about data associated with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and discuss the data's strengths and weaknesses for various gun policy evaluation objectives.
Sep 8, 2022
Q&A
Reducing Police Violence: Q&A with Melissa Labriola
A succession of high-profile police killings has prompted some departments and communities to seek change. But data is sparse, and research is thin. Melissa Labriola helped lead a study of police violence and developed a road map for future research that could move the field forward.
Sep 1, 2022
Testimony
The Role of Assault Weapons in Mass Shooting Incidents: State of the Science: Addendum
Document submitted August 10, 2022, as an addendum to testimony before the U.S Senate Committee on the Judiciary on July 20, 2022.
Aug 18, 2022

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Researcher Spotlight

Sierra Smucker

Policy Researcher

Sierra Smucker (she/her) is a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her research focuses on family health and wellbeing and protecting families' most vulnerable members. To that end, Smucker works in a range of topic areas including gun violence and substance misuse prevention, and domestic…
Kyleanne M. Hunter

Senior Political Scientist

Kyleanne Hunter is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. She came to RAND from the United States Air Force Academy where she was director of the Strategy and Warfare Center, associate director of the Institute for Future Conflict, and a professor of military and strategic…

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