By Elizabeth P. Shulman, Jordan Beardslee, Adam Fine, Paul J. Frick, Laurence Steinberg & Elizabeth Cauffman

  Objective: To examine whether at-risk male youth experience increases in anxiety, depressive symptoms, and aggression during years when they are exposed to gun violence, adjusting for relevant covariates. Method: Participants were 1,216 male, justice-involved adolescents who were recently arrested for the first time for a moderate offense. They were interviewed 9 times over 5 years. Fixed effects (withinindividual) regression models were used to estimate concurrent associations between exposure to gun violence and three outcomes: depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and aggression (both overall and separately for proactive and reactive aggression). The reverse direction (anxiety, depressive symptoms, and aggression predicting gun violence exposure) was also modeled. Results: After controlling for covariates, exposure to gun violence was significantly associated with increases in reactive aggression and, to a lesser extent, increases in proactive aggression. In addition, gun violence exposure was associated with increased anxiety but not depressive symptoms. We found no support for the reverse direction. Conclusions: At-risk males experienced significant increases in anxiety and aggression (particularly reactive aggression) during years when they are exposed to gun violence, even after accounting for several potential confounding factors. The greater impact on reactive aggression suggests that exposure to gun violence may affect self-regulation and/or social information processing. The analyses shed light on the less-visible damage wrought by gun violence and underscore the importance of mental health screening and treatment for youth who have been exposed to violence – especially gun violence – both to assist individual youths and to disrupt cycles of violence.  

Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 50:3, 353-366, 2021.,

By Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium

As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, the United States was rocked by the news of another school mass shooting, this time at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen fourth-grade students and two of their teachers were killed when an 18-year-old former student entered the school through an unlocked door, made his way to his former fourth-grade classroom, and opened fire during a 77-minute rampage. Seventeen others were injured in the attack. The tragedy in Uvalde conjured up memories of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Nearly 10 years earlier, 20 first-grade students and six of their educators, including the school’s principal, were killed after a 20-year-old shot his way into the building. Two others were injured during the six-minute attack.

In the aftermath of the shooting in Uvalde, administrators and policymakers struggled to implement policies and procedures that would prevent a similar attack in their schools or minimize the loss of life if one did occur. These included, but were not limited to, increases in the numbers and presence of school resource officers, authorization to arm teachers, and even supplying schools with ballistics shields, despite the lack of evidence to suggest these measures would achieve their intended goals in situations like Uvalde. Amid growing fear and apprehension about another Sandy Hook or Uvalde happening and the proliferation of purported school safety measures, two questions occupy the minds of many: Are schools a safe place for children to be? And what actually works to make them safer?

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  As policymakers, school administrators, and other vested stakeholders continue to grapple with these questions, it is critical to plan for every instance of firearm violence on school grounds. In doing so, it is important to implement strategies that are based in research where evidence supports their efficacy in achieving prevention and/or harm mitigation. At the same time, it is imperative to consider not only the short-term effects but also longer-term impacts of both gun violence and the associated strategies for prevention and response on students. Researchers will be key in cultivating this evidence and must continue to work closely with policymakers, school administrators, and the public to protect children from the harmful effects of gun violence.

Albany, NY: Rockefeller Institute of Government, 2022. 64p.

By Alexander D. McCourt,  Cassandra K. Crifasi, Elizabeth A. Stuart, Jon S. Vernick, Rose M. C.Kagawa, Garen J. Wintemute and Daniel W. Webster

Objectives. To estimate and compare the effects of state background check policies on firearm-related mortality in 4 US states. Methods. Annual data from 1985 to 2017 were used to examine Maryland and Pennsylvania, which implemented point-of-sale comprehensive background check (CBC)laws for handgun purchasers ; Connecticut. which adopted a handgun purchaser licensing law; and Missouri, which repealed a similar law. Using synthetic control methods, we estimated the effects of these laws on homicide and suicide rates stratified by firearm involvement. Results. There was no consistent relationship between CBC laws and mortality rates. There we re-estimated decreases in firearm homicide (27.8%) and firearm suicide (23.2%–40.5%) rates associated with Connecticut’s law. There were estimated increases in firearm homicide (47.3%), non-firearm homicide (18.1%), and firearm suicide (23.5%)rates associated with Missouri’s repeal. Conclusions. Purchaser licensing laws coupled with CBC requirements were consistently associated with lower firearm homicide and suicide rates, but CBC laws alone were not. Public Health Implications. Our results contribute to a body of research showing tha tCBC laws are not associated with reductions in firearm-related deaths unless they are coupled with handgun purchaser licensing laws. 

American  Journal of   Public Health.2020;110:1546–1552. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305822

By Cassandra K. Crifasi,  Alexander D. McCourt and Daniel W. Webster

There is a major flaw in federal firearm laws in the U.S. and in most states’ laws; prohibited purchasers can acquire firearms from unlicensed private sellers without subjecting themselves to background checks and record-keeping requirements. Violent criminals and traffickers exploit this weakness with fatal consequences. A logical and popular approach to fixing this flaw is to extend background check requirements and procedures used for transfers by licensed firearm dealers to transfers from private unlicensed sellers. Research shows that these so-called comprehensive background check (CBC) laws curtail the diversion of guns for criminal use, but have not resulted in significant reductions in firearm-related deaths. Fortunately, there is good evidence showing that when states augment CBC laws with mandatory licensing or permitting of handgun purchasers, lives are saved by lower rates of firearm-involved homicides6, and suicides. Why are comprehensive background checks more effective when augmented by handgun purchaser licensing? The most likely reasons center on the more direct interface between prospective purchasers and law enforcement and more robust systems for verifying the identity of applicants and their criminal records. In most states with handgun purchaser licensing, applicants must apply in person at a law enforcement agency and be fingerprinted. In some cases, applicants must also provide proof of completion of certified safety training. These procedures may deter individuals who might otherwise make impulsive decisions to acquire a gun to harm others or themselves, and in fact studies have found that the presence of licensing laws is associated with lower levels of gun homicides and suicides. Further, the licensing requirements may also deter straw purchases (when an eligible person buys a firearm for a prohibited person or for someone who does not want their name attached to the transfer).  

Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, 2019. 8p.

By Michael Siegel

In 2017, there were 14,542 firearm-related homicide deaths in the United States. Despite constituting only 13% of the U.S. population, Black persons made up 59% of these victims. Many states have addressed the problem of firearm-related homicide by enacting stronger firearm laws. While many studies have already been conducted on the effectiveness of various firearm laws in reducing overall population homicide rates, the vast majority of these studies do not distinguish between victims of different races/ethnicity. In failing to do so, these studies assume that state-level firearm laws produce homogeneous effects, even while Black communities continue to bear the undue burden of firearm violence. The purpose of this research was to fill this critical gap by rigorously evaluating the differential impact of state-level firearm laws on homicide rates among White, Black, and Hispanic populations. This project sought to answer two major research questions: (1) Is there heterogeneity in the effect of different state firearm laws on homicide rates by race/ethnicity? (2) To what extent are any differences in the impact of firearm laws by race/ethnicity explained by contextual differences in homicide victimization across urban vs. non-urban settings, as opposed to differences among racial groups per se?

Report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2020. 13p.

By The Philadelphia Interagency Research and Public Safety Collaborative (PIRPSC)

Firearm violence in Philadelphia is a public health crisis. In 2021, Philadelphia suffered a record number of fatal criminal shooting victims (501) and non-fatal criminal shooting victims (1,850). Philadelphia has also experienced extraordinary recent increases in arrests for illegal firearm possession and crime guns recovered, while the Commonwealth has recorded record gun sales in 2020. Despite this crisis in gun violence, shooting arrest rates remain low, conviction rates in illegal gun possession cases have been declining since 2015, and conviction rates in shooting cases declined between 2015 and 2019 and increased modestly in 2020 and 2021.

Firearm violence in Philadelphia is a racial justice crisis. Shootings disproportionately impact Black communities: in Philadelphia over 80% of shooting victims and 79% of arrestees have been Black since 2015. Both victims and arrestees overwhelmingly come from disadvantaged neighborhoods that are majority non-white, have high rates of poverty and unemployment, and less likely to have a high school degree or diploma. Endemic violence in these communities means that the vast majority of those arrested for gun violence have themselves been previously traumatized, often as a witness to previous violent acts; over 80% have previously accessed or been screened for behavioral health services through the City. Because the causes of gun violence are complex and varied, so are the solutions. Addressing the gun violence crisis requires a comprehensive strategy with elements of enforcement, intervention, and prevention to achieve both short-term and long-term reductions in gun crimes. Collaboration among city agencies, including law enforcement and non-law enforcement agencies is critical to successfully implement such a comprehensive strategy. Reviews of evidence-based practices, along with data analysis of local data, have helped us to come to key findings related to gun violence in Philadelphia and have informed recommendations to stem that violence. Readers are encouraged to read both the summary, below, as well as the report in its entirety to understand the context of our recommendations as well as the limitations in both our data and data analyses. 

Philadelphia: Philadelphia Interagency Research and Public Safety Collaborative (PIRPSC)    2022. 196p.  

By Giffords Law Center

The United States accounts for just 4% of the global population but a startling 25% of the world’s prisoners. The mass incarceration crisis that is bloating our nation’s prisons disproportionately affects Black and Brown Americans, tearing apart families and communities—often because of crimes that didn’t involve violence. Data has shown that this “tough on crime” mentality doesn’t actually reduce crime or enhance public safety. While the public is increasingly aware of the harmful impact of failed policies like the war on drugs, a lesser-known yet still significant driver of mass incarceration is the criminal legal system’s response to nonviolent illegal gun possession. Tens of thousands of Americans are arrested and incarcerated each year on nonviolent weapon possession charges. Given that the majority of violent crime in any city is driven by a very small percentage of individuals, we can improve public safety and reduce mass incarceration by rethinking our approach to nonviolent gun possession. This report explores prosecutor-led diversion programs and makes the case for expanding this promising alternative to incarceration.

Washington, DC: Giffords Law Center, 2021. 3 p,

By Rosanna Smart, Andrew R. Morral, Sierra Smucker, Samantha Cherney, Terry L. Schell

In this report, part of the RAND Corporation's Gun Policy in America initiative, researchers seek objective information about what the scientific literature reveals about the likely effects of various gun laws. In this second edition of an earlier work, the authors add five gun policies to the 13 examined in the original analysis and expand the study time frame to incorporate a larger body of research. With those adjustments, the authors synthesize the available scientific data on the effects of 18 policies on firearm deaths, violent crime, the gun industry, defensive gun use, and other outcomes. By highlighting where scientific evidence is accumulating, the authors hope to build consensus around a shared set of facts that have been established through a transparent, nonpartisan, and impartial review process. In so doing, they also illuminate areas where more and better information could make important contributions to establishing fair and effective gun policies.

Monterey CA: RAND, 2020. 412p.

 By Michael Siegel, Kathleen Grene and Amani Dharani 

  Gun violence continues to be a major persistent problem in the United States. According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. firearm homicide and suicide rates increased by more than 8% from 2020 to 2021. Approximately 47,000 gun-related deaths occurred in 2021,of which more than 21,000 were homicides. This fall we sought to examine whether there existed a new path on gun safety issues to reduce this high rate of gun violence and death. In Part One, released last month the research identified common ground between gun owners and non-gun owners based on the principle that gun safety policies should keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals. This report “Finding the Common Ground in Gun Safety: Part 2,” built off that common ground by identifying a new package of policies ensuring people at high risk for violence cannot access guns while protecting law-abiding gun owners' Second Amendment rights. This new research and overall package of policies comes at a critical juncture for gun safety issues in the United States. The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen opened the door for courts to potentially strike down “may issue” laws which give law enforcement wide discretion in evaluating permit applications. May issue laws in eight other states are at risk. At the same time recent legislative action at the federal level has shown that gun safety laws are no longer a third rail in American politics and that common ground exists. The “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” expanded background checks provided funding for red flag laws and strengthened prohibitions on domestic abusers and passed with bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. However key loopholes in regulation still exist that allow people who are at high risk of violence the ability to access guns. Against this backdrop and informed from the findings from Part One this study identifies gun safety policies that are effective, grounded in shared principles, and respect the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Together with Part One the overall research package identifies a new path forward for gun safety policies that can help save lives and meaningfully reduce gun violence in this country,

97 Percent, 2022. 35p.

By Michael Siegel, Kathleen Grene and Amani Dharani 

Gun violence is a serious problem in the United States. In 2021, there were approximately 47,000 gun-related deaths in the U.S., of which more than 21,000 were firearm homicides. Yet amid this clear and persistent problem, our institutions continue to grapple with how to address gun violence. The Supreme Court in the 2008 decision Heller v. District of Columbia established the constitutional right to keep a handgun in the home for self-defense. More than a decade later, this past June, the Court recognized the right to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense, opening up new challenges to restrictions on who can carry firearms and where. In the same week, Congress passed the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly three decades, with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act expanding background checks, providing funding for red flag laws, and strengthening prohibitions on domestic abusers. Against this push and pull, the perception of an intractable divide on gun policy – especially between gun owners and non-gun owners – persists. Yet as our previous research has demonstrated, there is a high level of support among gun owners for a number of gun violence prevention policies.  

97 Percent, 2022. 34p.

By The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions

Gun violence is an ongoing public health crisis in the United States that impacts the health and well-being of all of us. In 2020, gun deaths reached the highest number ever recorded. According to data released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 45,000 people died by gun violence in the U.S. As we struggled against the COVID-19 pandemic, a concurrent public health crisis intensified. Gun homicides rose dramatically across the country, increasing by 35% in just one year. Nearly 5,000 more lives were lost to gun homicide in 2020 than in 2019. Gun suicides remained at historically high levels. Guns were the leading cause of death among children and teens in 2020, accounting for more deaths than COVID-19, car crashes, or cancers.1 Coincident with the rise in gun-related deaths, 2020 was also a year of record gun sales. Millions of people, including many first-time purchasers, bought guns. Tens of thousands of these new guns turned up at crime scenes across the country—almost twice as many as in 2019.2 While it remains to be seen whether this surge in gun purchases contributed to the rise in gun violence over the long term, a strong body of research has identified drivers of gun violence—namely, easy access to guns and weaknesses in our country’s laws that create a patchwork of gun regulations. There are equitable, evidence-based solutions to prevent gun violence.

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  These solutions are supported by most people, including gun owners. In spite of their wide support, many policymakers have been unwilling to follow the evidence and enact policies that will save lives. The aim of this report is to illustrate the enormous toll gun violence has on our country. Ultimately, we strive to use these data to advocate for and implement life-saving policies and programs that will end the gun violence epidemic. This report builds off of “A Public Health Crisis Decades in the Making: A Review of 2019 CDC Gun Mortality Data” released by the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence in February 2021. Each year it is our mission to provide policymakers and the public the most accurate and up-to-date data on gun fatalities. This year’s report uses the CDC’s 2020 firearm fatality data, which only became available in late December 2021—an unacceptable delay that hampers potential responses to gun violence. We cannot solve a problem we cannot quantify. Without timely data, we lack the information we need to make the best possible decisions. Data collection and reporting related to gun violence must be more timely  

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, 2022. 40p.

Edited by Anna Sroka, Fanny Castro-Rial Garrone,  Rubén Darío Torres Kumbrián

This book addresses the issues of radicalism and terrorism, which are of exceptional importance and relevance in contemporary society. Each of the two phenomena are analyzed from a multidisciplinary perspective. The book contains articles which explore legal, political, psychological, economic and social aspects of radicalism and terrorism. A portion of the contributions are of a theoretical nature, they constitute an attempt at constructing analytical frameworks for studies on the two phenomena. There are also studies of particular cases, such as radicalism in Poland and in Spain, as well as within the European Union as a whole. This collective work is a response to the need for analyses of two issues which are increasingly responsible for determining the level of security which characterizes the contemporary world.

Frankfurt am Main ;  Peter Lang, 2016. 324p.

By Giorgos Charalambous

Is today’s left really new? How has the European radical left evolved? Giorgos Charalambous answers these questions by looking at three moments of rapid political change - the late 1960s to late 1970s; the turn of the millennium; and post-2008. He challenges the conventional understanding of a 'new left', drawing out continuities with earlier movements and parties. Charalambous examines the 'Long '68', symbolised by the May uprisings in France, which saw the rise of new left forces and the widespread criticism by younger radical activists of traditional communist and socialist parties. He puts this side by side with the turn of the millennium when the Global Justice Movement rose to prominence and changed the face of the international left, and also the period after the financial crash of 2008 and the rise of anti-austerity politics which initiated the most recent wave of new left parties such as Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece. With a unique 'two-level' perspective, Charalambous approaches the left through both social movements and party politics, looking at identities, rhetoric and organisation, and bringing a fresh new approach to radical history, as well as assessing challenges for both activists and scholars.

London: Pluto Press, 2022. 369p.

Edited by Jordan Landes and Richard Espley

Do archivists ‘curate’ history? And to what extent are our librarians the gatekeepers of knowledge? Libraries and archives have a long and rich history of compiling ‘radical collections’- from Klanwatch Project in the States to the R. D. Laing Archive in Glasgow, but a re-examination of the information professions and all aspects of managing those collections is long overdue. This new book shines a light on pressing topical issues within library and information services (LIS)- to encompass selection, appraisal and accession, through to organisation and classification, and including promotion and use. Will libraries survive as victims of neoliberal marketization? Do we have a responsibility to collect and document ‘white hate’ in the era of Trump? And how can a predominantly white (96.7%) LIS workforce effectively collect and tell POC histories?

London: University of London,  Senate House Library, 2018. 94p.

By Christina Parolin

Radical Spaces explores the rise of popular radicalism in London between 1790 and 1845 through key sites of radical assembly: the prison, the tavern and the radical theatre. Access to spaces in which to meet, agitate and debate provided those excluded from the formal arenas of the political nation–the great majority of the population–a crucial voice in the public sphere. Radical Spaces utilises both textual and visual public records, private correspondence and the secret service reports from the files of the Home Office to shed new light on the rise of plebeian radicalism in the metropolis. It brings the gendered nature of such sites to the fore, finding women where none were thought to gather, and reveals that despite the diversity in these spaces, there existed a dynamic and symbiotic relationship between radical culture and the sites in which it operated. These venues were both shaped by and helped to shape the political identity of a generation of radical men and women who envisioned a new social and political order for Britain.

Canberra: ANU Press, 2010. 352p.

Edited by Miriam Gani and Penelope Mathew

On 20 September 2001, in an address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American people, President George W Bush declared a ‘war on terror’. The concept of the ‘war on terror’ has proven to be both an attractive and a potent rhetorical device. It has been adopted and elaborated upon by political leaders around the world, particularly in the context of military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. But use of the rhetoric has not been confined to the military context. The ‘war on terror’ is a domestic one, also, and the phrase has been used to account for broad criminal legislation, sweeping agency powers and potential human rights abuses throughout much of the world. This collection seeks both to draw on and to engage critically with the metaphor of war in the context of terrorism. It brings together a group of experts from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany who write about terrorism from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including international law and international relations, public and constitutional law, criminal law and criminology, legal theory, and psychology and law.

Canberra: ANU Press,  2008. 440p.

By Haaz Rashid

As Muslim women continue to be a focus of media-led debate, Naaz Rashid uses original scholarship and empirical research to examine how Muslim women are represented in policy discourse and how the trope of the Muslim woman is situated within national debates about Britishness, the death of multiculturalism and global concerns over international terrorism. Analysing the relevance of class, citizenship status, and regional differences, Veiled threats is a valuable addition to the burgeoning literature on Muslims in the UK post 9/11. It will be of interest to academics and students in public and social policy, race equality, gender, and faith-based policy.

Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 2016. 224p.

By U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

From the Executive Summary: "Over the past two decades, acts of domestic terrorism have dramatically increased. National security agencies now identify domestic terrorism as the most persistent and lethal terrorist threat to the homeland. This increase in domestic terror attacks has been predominantly perpetrated by white supremacist and anti-government extremist individuals and groups. It is clear that the federal government is not adequately addressing this growing threat, but without better data, it is difficult to evaluate whether federal agencies are appropriately allocating resources and setting priorities. [...] This report is a culmination of three years of investigation by the Majority Committee staff for U.S. Senator Gary Peters, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) into domestic terrorism and the federal response. This report focuses on the rise in domestic terrorism, the federal response, the allocation of federal resources to addressing domestic terrorism, and the role of social media companies in the proliferation of extremist content."

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. 2022. 129p.

By United States. Department of Justice. Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

From the Preface: "Nine mayors whose cities have experienced mass shootings in recent years attended the Winter Meeting of The U.S. Conference of Mayors, held in January 2020 in Washington, D.C. Their presence in that meeting offered an opportunity for them, as a group, to share both their experiences and their personal feelings about what was required of them as mayors. Their goal in that session was to alert their audience to the need to prepare for a mass shooting; as many veterans of these tragedies agree, the question must not be if your city will experience a mass shooting, but 'when'. This report captures many of the key points offered that day by those mayors and later by key city staff involved in the response to one of the deadliest mass shooting incidents in our history. It is intended to provide guidance on the preparation that should take place in anticipation of an incident occurring, the critical importance of communication during the response to an incident, and the wide range of tasks that must be anticipated in the incident's wake. Sadly, while it is offered to all mayors in the hope that they will never have to call upon the preparation that is urged, it is likely that in the months and years ahead we all will be reaching out to some who will."

U.S. Conference of Mayors. Washington D.C. January 2020. 20p.

By Institute for Economics & Peace

From the Executive Summary: "This is the third edition of the Ecological Threat Report (ETR), which analyses ecological threats in 228 independent states and territories. Produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), the report covers over 3,638 sub-national administrative districts, or 99.99 per cent of the world's population, assessing threats relating to 'food risk, water risk, rapid population growth and natural disasters'. Many ecological threats exist independently of climate change. However, climate change will have an amplifying effect, causing further ecological degradation. The research takes a multi-faceted, multidimensional approach by analysing risk at the national, administrative district and city level, while also assessing these entities by ecological threats, societal resilience and levels of peace. Additionally, the research provides projections to 2050. To assist the international community in prioritising its focus, IEP has identified the countries, administrative districts and cities most at risk."

Institute for Economics & Peace. 2022. 81p.