Rand Corporation, the think tank with origins in Cold War military planning, recently issued its latest update on gun policy research. Rand has been sifting through gun research, offering generally conservative assessments of its utility and findings, since 2018. As strictures on gun violence research have fallen, and more such research has been conducted, Rand has had more to sift. As a result, it has been venturing more definitive conclusions in a few areas where data, by its measure, have achieved critical mass.
As the nation goes through another ritual response to another mass shooting, it's worth taking a look at the state of gun violence research, and asking why even conclusive research seems to have so little influence in so many crucial places, such as the U.S. Supreme Court and many state legislatures.
Rand grades the quality of research as well as analyzing the findings. Of the 18 gun policies that it evaluates, it characterizes the research as "inconclusive" in most areas. For example, data on the effectiveness of extreme risk protection orders -- "red flag" laws -- is deemed "inconclusive" despite a growing body of research suggesting that the orders contribute to harm reduction.
So it's significant that Rand has reached decisive conclusions about the research in three key areas: child access prevention laws, concealed-carry laws and stand-your-ground laws. The research organization found child access prevention laws "reduce firearm self-injuries (including suicides), firearm homicides or assault injuries and unintentional firearm injuries and deaths among youth."
It's a measure of the peculiar madness of U.S. gun culture that research is even required on some of these issues. Is it really necessary to ask whether it's a good idea to prevent a 6-year-old from getting access to a firearm?
Likewise, Rand found sufficient evidence that "shall-issue concealed carry laws increase total and firearm homicides." ("Shall-issue" laws make it difficult for authorities to prevent concealed carry by, for example, requiring gun owners to articulate a specific self-defense need to carry in public.)
The notion that people carrying a gun are more likely to fire a gun, leading to death or injury, does not seem especially revelatory. The collective experience of the entirety of Europe, where firearms are strictly controlled, suggests this is very likely the case. But gun industry propagandists have long maintained the opposite.
Finally, Rand found that stand-your-ground laws, which encourage people to shoot rather than back away from confrontation, or flee from situations that cause them to be afraid, "increase firearm homicides."
It's important for credible researchers to address complex social problems such as gun violence. It's important for serious policy makers to understand, as best they can, the cause and effect of specific laws. But for the foreseeable future, the application of research to the problem of gun violence will continue to be a blue-state phenomenon. Millions of conservatives have convinced themselves, with the help of propagandists and politicians, that no evidence is necessary to confirm preposterous allegations of voter fraud. And just as the absence of evidence is no hindrance to fantasies about elections, an avalanche of evidence will not soon alter a different set of fantasies about guns.
Blue states have been enacting more gun regulations -- many backed by research. But state borders, like gun culture, are porous. So red-state laws inevitably influence what happens in other states. Over time, however, the accumulation of research can still have an effect. If nothing else, it's helpful to know what's real.
Bloomberg