Gun safetyLarge-scale study on gun-policy effects finds gaps in existing research, with a few exceptions

Published 5 March 2018

The United States has the highest gun ownership rate in the world, with estimates suggesting that Americans own as many as 300 million guns. More than 36,000 people died of gunshot wounds in the U.S. in 2015, and Americans are 25 times more likely to die by gun homicide than residents of other wealthy countries. One of the largest-ever studies of U.S. gun policy finds there is a shortage of evidence about the effects of most gun laws, although researchers from the RAND Corporation found there is some persuasive evidence about the effects of several common gun policies.

One of the largest-ever studies of U.S. gun policy finds there is a shortage of evidence about the effects of most gun laws, although researchers from the RAND Corporation found there is some persuasive evidence about the effects of several common gun policies.

The findings are from RAND’s sweeping Gun Policy in America initiative, which also evaluated the views of gun policy experts with opposing perspectives on the likely effects of gun laws to identify where compromise might be possible.

RAND says that RAND researchers evaluated thousands of studies to assess the available evidence for the effect of thirteen common gun policies on a range of outcomes, including injuries and deaths, mass shootings, defensive gun use, and participation in hunting and sport shooting. The strongest available evidence supports the conclusion that laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of children reduce firearm self-injuries, suicides, and unintended injuries to children.

There is moderate evidence to support conclusions that background checks reduce firearm suicides and firearm homicides, and that laws prohibiting the purchase or possession of guns by individuals with some forms of mental illness reduce violent crime, according to the analysis. There also is moderate evidence that stand-your-ground laws, which allow people to use guns to defend themselves without requiring that they first attempt to retreat, if possible, may increase state homicide rates.

The RAND Gun Policy in America initiative is intended to provide new nonpartisan information to national and local discussions about gun policy.

“The goal of this project is to help build consensus around a shared set of facts about gun policy by demonstrating where scientific evidence is accumulating,” said Andrew Morral, the project’s leader and a behavioral scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

Out of the thousands of studies evaluated, the RAND analysis identified sixty-two that investigated the causal effects of gun polices on any of the outcomes RAND investigated, including those of concern to gun owners and the gun industry, as well as violence, suicide and injury. Most other studies demonstrate only an association between gun policies and outcomes, which offers less-persuasive evidence that the policies caused changes in the