GUNSThe National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research: Five Years On
What are the effects of red flag laws? What risks do people face when living with gun owners? What influences young people to carry guns? Just five years ago, little scientific evidence existed to answer to these questions because Congress barred federal funding of for research to find answers to these and other questions.
What are the effects of red flag laws? What risks do people face when living with gun owners? What influences young people to carry guns?
Just five years ago, little scientific evidence existed to answer to these questions. That’s because for two decades research on gun violence prevention had been largely unfunded at a federal level. The 1996 Dickey Amendment, which prohibited the use of federal research funding to promote gun control, had halted most funding for gun policy research.
RAND’s extensive Gun Policy in America initiative, first released in 2018, showed the dire effect of that funding drought. Despite gun violence being among the leading causes of death in the United States, there were many gaps in basic evidence. That sparked recognition of the fact that to develop fair and effective gun policies, policymakers needed a shared set of facts to work from.
Shortly after RAND released its initial findings, the Houston-based philanthropic fund Arnold Ventures agreed to support continued work on the Gun Policy in America initiative. Arnold Ventures further asked RAND to establish and manage a National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research (NCGVR), a private philanthropy with a mission to fund and disseminate rigorous scientific research to broaden agreement on the facts associated with gun policy. Arnold Ventures contributed $20 million to this new organization, which was planned to complete its work within five years.
NCGVR later attracted additional support from funders including Wells Fargo Bank, Missouri Foundation for Health, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. NCGVR’s funding priorities, and decisions on each funding round, were made by a high-level advisory committee led by Frank Clark.
Growing the Evidence Base
NCGVR’s first request for proposals, released in early 2019, attracted almost 250 submissions of interest, resulting in 17 funded projects totaling $9.8 million on topics including suicide, school violence, officer-involved shootings, and firearm safety.
Since then, through five more rounds of grantmaking, NCGVR has allocated more than $24 million to fund 57 research projects nationally on gun violence prevention. These projects have produced important scientific knowledge about firearm violence that is likely to affect personal firearm decisions and public policymaking.
