Gun violence is a public health crisis that needs more applied criminologists

Research SummaryGun violence was declared a "public health crisis” after shootings increased in many U.S. cities during the course of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The public health approach to gun violence prevention offers many advantages such as an applied research model, the mobilization of a wider range of stakeholders, and a commitment to harm reduction. Too often, however, the public health community seems unaware of criminological research on gun violence and avoids including criminal justice interventions in their comprehensive plans.Policy ImplicationsCommunities need immediate relief from the persistent trauma of repeated shootings. Criminal justice interventions represent important responses to outbreaks of gun violence that should be included among recommended public health programs intended to address proximate and upstream causes of gun violence. Gun violence prevention policy and practice would be strengthened by more deliberate attempts to foster complementary public health and criminology research and development collaborations. More applied criminologists need to become engaged in gun violence research to meet this call.

Privately manufactured firearms, newly purchased firearms, and the rise of urban gun violence.

Gun violence in many U.S. cities increased dramatically after the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic. Surges in criminal access to untraceable privately manufactured firearms and new guns purchased from licensed dealers have been suggested as risk factors associated with the pandemic increase in gun violence. Official data on 4593 guns recovered in Oakland, California between 2017 and 2021 that were submitted to ATF for subsequent tracing are analyzed to determine whether the sources of crime guns changed and whether privately manufactured firearms and fast time-to-crime traced guns were more likely to be used in violent crime during this time period. Descriptive statistics are used to summarize the characteristics of firearms recovered during the study period and the results of ATF tracing. Logistic regression models are then used to assess systematic differences between firearms recovered during the pre-pandemic years as compared to firearms recovered during the pandemic years, and determine whether certain firearms are more likely to be recovered in violent crime. These analyses estimated large increases during the pandemic in the odds that recovered firearms were privately manufactured and recently purchased. Recovered privately manufactured firearms were also more likely to be associated with violent crimes. These findings support recent efforts to regulate privately manufactured firearms and continued efforts to reduce the illegal diversion of firearms from lawful commerce.