Beyond Gun Laws—Innovative Interventions to Reduce Gun Violence in the United States

Abstract

In the US, the gun homicide rate is roughly 25 times higher and the gun suicide rate 8 times higher than in other high-income countries. 1 At times, gun violence may seem like a uniquely US crisis that we cannot remedy, insurmountably tied into the very fabric of the nation-in effect, a public health problem of constitutional significance. But simply knowing that the nation is a gun violence outlier among nations is not sufficient in moving the country closer to solutions.When we think of how to prevent or reduce gun violence, a first consideration is inevitably laws and law enforcement. In line with this public predilection, much of the scientific research to reduce gun violence in the US has, perhaps unsurprisingly, focused on estimating the outcomes of state and federal laws, such as assault weapons bans, background checks, red flag laws, and licensing requirements. There are good reasons to focus on laws; gun laws in the US are generally more permissive than in similar countries with far lower death rates from firearms, 1 and, if successful, laws could have a populationwide outcome on gun violence.However, passing firearm-associated legislation, especially at the federal level, has been illusive, and law enforcement has been divisive and often detrimental. For example, although it passed with 240 votes in the House of Representatives a year ago, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 has still not been brought to the floor in the US Senate, even though nearly all of the US population supports universal background checks. In the absence of federal legislative action, many states have worked on their own legislation, sometimes strengthening (eg, Massachusetts, California) but mostly relaxing (eg, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee) their gun laws. Variations in state gun laws create ripe opportunities for research, yet only select studies of state laws have rigorously shown reductions in gun violence, and the methodological quality of gun-law studies, as a body of science, needs to be considerably improved, 2 along with critical investigations of law enforcement practices.The public health, medical, and scientific research communities can no longer be at the mercy of US state and federal legislators, simply waiting for them to successfully passorrepeallawsastheonlysourceofscientificandpolicy innovation to prevent gun violence in the US. This is a weak and unidimensional forfeiture in the face of a complex and intransigentproblemforwhichtheUSpublicarerightlydemanding innovative, effective, and immediate solutions. Recentfundingallocationsforscientificresearchfromboth federal and private sources have opened new doors and legitimized gun violence research at major scientific agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which until very recently saw little if any such research as part of their VIEWPOINT

Defunding is refunding: Community investments, not policing, create safety

“…The movement calls for police abolition, including disarming and disempowering police institutions; indeed, public health authorities had declared policing (Deivanayagam et al, 2021) and police violence (American Public Health Association, 2018;2020) crises of public health when the movement gained prominence. In line with theories for police abolitionism, it includes often-overlooked calls for agents in systems of public safety that are nonviolent and democratic (such as community-based organizations; Branas et al, 2021). Thus, I-O psychologists can answer public calls to both prevent excessive police violence and increase public health and safety by supporting the change agents that are embedded within and informed about the needs of local communities.…”

“…An equity and systems approach explains that community-based organizations can effectively produce systemic outcomes that improve public safety and health. In fact, Branas et al (2021) found that for every 10 additional nonprofit community-building programs per 100,000 residents, there was a 9% reduction in homicide and 6% reduction in violence. These programs included community-led initiatives such as comprehensive early childhood education, youth development, emergency financial assistance in neighborhoods with many foreclosures, career services, and the arts.…”

Real-world Data—A Key Barrier to Building Out the Science of Firearm Safety

“…2 Although several policy barriers stand in the way of mobilizing the right data, poor data interoperability across health systems, states, and federal agencies is a critical roadblock as well. 3…”

School shootings are preventable, not inevitable

“…Beyond laws, we also know that in order to actually protect children in our society, we must invest in the upstream factors that prevent school shootings and other types of gun violence. We know that investing in neighbourhoods and the built environment through the creation of libraries, parks, community centres, and green spaces reduces gun violence and also has other positive impacts on children and the community 12. We know that non-profit, community led programmes, such as career development initiatives and art programmes, are associated with lower rates of gun violence 13.…”