Recent research on the prevalence of defensive gun use has prompted growing concern that government efforts to regulate gun ownership and use may be counterproductive. Estimates of defensive gun use from the National Crime Victimization Survey (on the order of 100,000...
The epidemic of youth violence that began in the mid-1980s has been demographically concentrated among black male youths: the homicide-commission rate for this group increased by a factor of about 4.5. A number of patterns stand out: one of every four or five serious...
The case for focusing regulatory and enforcement efforts on the illegal supply of firearms to criminals rests on the belief that a supply-side approach has the potential to reduce the use of guns in violence. The case against this focus follows from the belief that...
Over 30,000 deaths each year result from gunshot wounds. Two decades of systematic research on weapons and personal violence indicate a pervasive influence of weapon type on the patterns and outcomes of violent encounters. The likelihood that an assault will result in...
In this essay I provide an account of how research on gun violence has evolved over the last four decades, intertwined with personal observations and commentary on my contributions. It begins with a sketch of the twentieth century history of gun control in the United...
