Reducing Gun Violence: What Works, and What Can Be Done Now

By The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF)

  On Wednesday, February 14, 2018, shortly after 2 p.m., the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in U.S. history began, at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In a period of approximately six minutes, 17 students and school staff members were killed, and another 17 were injured. Understandably, the Parkland shooting dominated the news for months, pushing other news about gun violence off the front pages. But mass shootings are only one aspect of the gun violence problem in America. To get a sense of the broader picture, let’s look at a few of the other gun violence incidents that occurred in the days before the Parkland shooting: • Suicide of 23-year-old woman: One day before the Parkland school shooting, on February 13, 23-year-old Samantha Harer of Channahon, Illinois died from a single gunshot wound to her head. The death was investigated and ruled a suicide. • Barricaded gunman in Detroit killed after shooting six people: On Monday, February 12, a barricaded gunman in Detroit fatally shot three women and injured three police officers with gunfire before fatally shooting himself. Executive Summary: Gun Violence Is 4 Different Problems, with Different Causes and Solutions • Ohio officers killed responding to domestic violence call: On Saturday, February 10, two police officers from Westerville, Ohio were fatally shot after responding to a domestic violence call. The incidents cited above are a random sample of gun violence incidents. The only thing they have in common is that they occurred within a few days of each other. But they illustrate a main point of this report: that “the gun violence problem” in the United States is actually several different problems, with different causes, different perpetrators, different victims, and different solutions.  

Washington DC: PERF, 2019. 72p.