Patrick Sharkey (Virtual Seminar) - Princeton
Some Hopeful Evidence on Guns in the US
Date: 09/22/2022 (Thu)
Time: 3:30pm- 5:00pm
Location: Seminar will be held on-site: Gross Hall 270
Organizer: Chris Wildeman
Meeting Schedule: (Not currently open for scheduling. Please contact the seminar organizer listed above.)
All meetings will be held in the same location as the seminar unless otherwise noted.
3:30pm - Seminar Presentation (3:30pm to 5:00pm)
Additional Comments: Abstract: Although recent news about gun deaths, gun ownership and gun legislation is disheartening, a slightly longer time horizon provides more promising news. From 1991 to 2016 most states implemented more restrictive gun laws, and the US experienced a decline in household gun ownership and a drop in gun deaths. This article examines whether changes in the household firearm ownership rate (HFR) from 1991 to 2016 within US states are associated with changes in the rate of gun deaths. We then assess whether state gun policies over the same period are associated with reductions in gun mortality. We find that HFR is strongly related to gun mortality, and restrictive policies have a substantial impact on gun deaths. Based on our results, we estimate that restrictive state gun policies from 1991 to 2016 averted over 3,800 gun deaths in 2016 alone. Patrick Sharkey and Megan Kang