It’s hard to discuss guns in our country without touching off an explosive debate. However, it’s possible to look past entrenched positions of “gun control” and “gun rights” to a vast middle ground, where most Americans can agree to interventions that save lives. The fact is, most gun deaths can be prevented if we look past the polarized political landscape.
More than 30,000 people are killed every year with firearms in the United States, on par with the number killed in car accidents. Two-thirds of gun deaths are suicide — often connected to mental illness. One-third are homicides — usually in urban communities, where a cycle of violence and retaliation spreads from person to person. Among the nearly two dozen high-income nations in the world, 82% of gun deaths happen in the United States, and Americans are ten times more likely to be killed by a gun than people living in these countries.
Although this is a major national health challenge, federal gun policy is at a stalemate: the last bill to pass Congress with regards to gun safety was in 2007 (to improve the federal database used to screen gun buyers). Yet most Americans, including most gun owners, support expanding background checks to include private sales, and preventing those with mental illness or on the no-fly list from purchasing firearms.
Despite low likelihood for federal policy change in the near future, there are significant opportunities that both sides of the aisle can agree on. In reality, almost everyone agrees about the need to reduce unnecessary, gun-related death and injury.
Our Approach
As a country, we have focused mainly on reducing gun violence through policy change: by regulating the means, the gun itself, and access to it. Easy access to guns is a key driver of gun violence in the United States. But in addition, individual, societal, and community factors create an environment that motivates gun violence. This includes factors such as mental illness; a breakdown between communities and law enforcement; poor re-entry of formerly incarcerated individuals into society; and lack of investment in economic opportunities and social services for at-risk communities. When easy access to guns coincides with these “human side” motivators of violence, gun death and injury occur.
Nearly every major societal movement our country has experienced over the past several decades achieved sustained change by addressing this human-side of the equation at the same time as focusing on the means. The best example of this is car safety: deaths from vehicle accidents have fallen by 30% since their peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s even while number of miles driven has dramatically increased. Car safety didn’t achieve this just by focusing on the means - the car itself - through technological innovations such as seat belts, airbags and auto braking. Those things were a factor, but car safety advocates also focused on changing individual behavior and societal norms, for example young driver regulation and drunk driving campaigns, such as the now-famous “designated driver”.
Similarly, our approach for Gun Safety will build on the successes of public health and social change movements of our country’s recent history, by addressing the human side of gun violence as well as the safety of guns themselves and those who access them.
Our Focus
We have identified three areas where we have the potential to make the greatest impact:
Responsible Access. Gun violence can be prevented. By understanding the factors associated with gun suicides and homicides, recognizing signs and symptoms, and using new and existing policies to keep firearms out of the hands of people who are most likely to turn a gun on themselves or others, we can save lives while maintaining access for those with safe intent.
Safer Communities. Thriving communities with strong social networks, positive relationships with law enforcement, and supporting services for those at risk can break the cycle of violence plaguing communities of color in urban centers. In this area, we will focus on urban communities in California.
Safer Guns. There are high-tech and low-tech ways to make guns safer. Supporting innovation in smart gun technology and building a market for these technologies could begin a shift to a marketplace that demands technology-driven safety. At the same time, changing norms and behaviors around handling and storing the 300 million+ firearms already in U.S. households could save lives.
California occupies a unique and important position when it comes to gun safety. It is the only state in the U.S. to receive a grade “A” for our gun policies. Most recently, Proposition 63 was approved by a wide margin of the electorate to further improve gun safety. Gun deaths in California have reduced by 56% since 1993; nevertheless, around 3000 gun deaths still happen in California every year.
This means that California has a unique opportunity for innovation; we can explore new approaches and develop models for the rest of the country. As such, our Safer Communities area will focus exclusively on urban centers in California.
Read Next Topic: Responsible Access →
RESOURCES
- Centers for Disease Control. National Center for Health Statistics.
- Harvard School of Public Health. U.S. firearm death rate ten times higher than other high income countries. 2016.
- Grinshteyn; Hemenway. American Journal of Medicine. Violent Death Rates: The US Compared to Other High-Income OECD Countries. 2010.
- Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Federal Law on Background Checks.
- Pew Research Center. America’s Complex Relationship with Guns. 2017
- U.S. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 2015.
- Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Gun Law State ScoreCard. 2016
- Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The California Model; 20 Years of Putting Safety First. 2013.
- Centers for Disease Control. Firearm Mortality by State.