Giffords Law Center’s New Report Highlights Gaps and Opportunities in Gun Violence Research

Washington, D.C. — Today, Giffords Law Center published a first-of-its-kind survey of the gun violence research landscape. The report identifies trends in gun violence research publications in 2021 and gaps warranting further analysis—and additional resources—going forward. Today at 11:30 am ET, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Dr. Chethan Sathya of Northwell Health will join Giffords experts on a webinar to discuss the current state of gun violence research and the federal funding landscape.

More than 45,000 Americans were killed due to gun violence in 2020, and tens of thousands more suffered nonfatal injuries. Despite these shocking statistics, research into gun violence has been severely underfunded at the federal level for decades. 

“Historically, gun violence has received less than two percent of the federal funding it should have based on the scope and toll of the problem,” said Kelly Drane, Giffords Research Director and report author. “We have seen important steps taken in recent years to address these research funding deficits, but there is still work to be done to strengthen the gun violence research field. Conducting more and better research is an essential step to helping to keep our communities safe from gun violence. Given the unprecedented rise in gun deaths over the past two years, it is now more important than ever that we have actionable research to help us find and implement solutions to this crisis.” 

For this report, the Giffords Law Center research team analyzed 493 articles published in 2021. Our analysis of these articles included the following insights:

• Twenty-seven percent of articles provided specific focus on gun suicide—roughly half as many articles as those that provided specific focus on gun homicide, despite the fact that roughly three in five gun deaths in the US are gun suicides.
• Of articles that provided specific study of gun homicides, a roughly equal number focused on mass shootings (29%) and community gun violence (29%), despite the fact that community violence accounts for a far greater percentage of gun deaths and injuries each year.
• The majority (70%) of studies in our review were focused on describing the problem of gun violence and the factors that impacted the likelihood of gun violence occurring. 
• Very few studies examined specific policies (18%) or programs (16%) that are intended to prevent gun violence. Only three percent of studies in the total sample were policy evaluations that measured the impact of gun safety policy on firearm injury or death. 
• A quarter (25%) of studies tracked in 2021 focused on gun violence among children and youth. There were 10 times as many articles published on children and youth as older adults and the elderly. Sixteen percent of articles provided new data or specific analysis of gun owners. A smaller number (4%) of articles examined veterans. 
• One in seven studies tracked were produced by researchers at one of the nation’s three state-funded gun violence research centers. 

Our recommendations for the field of gun violence research include the following:

1. Increase overall funding for gun violence research
2. Improve gun violence data collection
3. Prioritize gun violence prevention policy and program evaluations
4. Publish more responsive research
5. Create more community-research partnerships
6. Make the field of research more accessible

Gun deaths have reached some of their highest levels ever in the past few years. We cannot prevent gun violence without research into its causes, consequences, and solutions.  The research field needs to be as strong and responsive as it can be to our current crisis. Despite all that is known, there are too many aspects of this epidemic not yet studied. 

We hope this review will help researchers, funders, policymakers, and stakeholders in their efforts to produce the kind of actionable, equitable research needed to help take action and save lives.