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Open research questions in Gun Ownership and Violence Research

93 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 2,090 Gun Ownership and Violence Research papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Although regional data is a key factor of this study, it prevents generalization of our findings to other populations. Addition- ally, data lacked location information, preventing any analyses of urbanicity/rurality, which would be valuable considering PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0335813 May 18, 2026 7 / 11 the higher COVID-19 case and mortality rates among rural areas [59] such as the Appalachian communities included in this study. The cross-sectional identity of these data prevents causal claims. Registry data is subject to variability, consid- ering the large area and variety of institutions serviced by COTS.

    Dual pandemic of firearm injury and COVID-19 in Central and Southeastern Ohio: An interrupted time series analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • To date, limited research has examined whether firearm purchaser licensing laws, which mandate a more robust screening process for firearm purchases, impact rates of firearm IPH.

    Association of Firearm Purchaser Licensing Laws with Intimate Partner Homicide · 2025 · DOI

  • laws and institutions have privileged White men with firearm access over minoritized individuals, but little is known about whether racial disparities exist in DVPO firearm relinquishment orders.

    Disparities in court orders to relinquish firearms in civil domestic violence protection orders · 2025 · DOI

  • Although mass shootings have fueled calls for large-scale changes in gun ownership and concealed carry legislation over the past thirty years, few studies have evaluated whether permissive gun policies actually deter mass shootings, and none have determined if their effects are the same on firearms homicide in general.

    Comparing the Impact of Household Gun Ownership and Concealed Carry Legislation on the Frequency of Mass Shootings and Firearms Homicide · 2020 · DOI

  • Although studies have analyzed the effects of “stand your ground” (SYG) laws on violent crime, the question of why states are more likely to take measures to allow gun violence (albeit in self-defense) in the public sphere remains understudied in the literature.

    Expanding the Castle: Explaining Stand Your Ground Legislation in American States, 2005–2012 · 2019 · DOI

  • Although details are still sparse, the perpetrator appears to be a 19-year-old man with a well-documented history of behavior disturbing enough to invoke referrals to mental health treatment, but not so disturbing as to warrant either commitment or even arrest.

    How the 21<sup>st</sup> Century Cures Act Can Mitigate the Ever Growing Problem of Mass Incarceration · 2018 · DOI

  • We find little evidence that CAP laws deter school-associated shooting deaths, but these estimates are insufficiently precise to reach a policy conclusion.

    Child-Access-Prevention Laws, Youths’ Gun Carrying, and School Shootings · 2018 · DOI

  • Word Count: 330 While the broad relationship between violence, poor health outcomes and firearms is well-established, there is limited research in the public health field on the source of guns collected by police departments, many of which are used for violent crime that results in injury or death.

    Gaps continue in firearm Surveillance: Evidence from a large U.S. city Bureau of Police · 2016 · DOI

  • The current study addressed this gap in the literature by using kinship data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to estimate the genetic and environmental effects on gang membership, handgun carrying, and the covariance between the two.

    Guns, Gangs, and Genes · 2014 · DOI

  • However, conclusions and generalizations must be qualified based on the small number of studies, variability in study design and analytic strategy across the studies, pre‐intervention differences between intervention and comparison areas, and limited data regarding factors such as implementation, crime displacement, and long‐term impact.

    Police strategies to reduce illegal possession and carrying of firearms: effects on gun crime · 2012 · DOI

  • The findings suggest that (1) significant diversion of handguns to illegal markets occurred in the United States during a recent period, (2) industry marketers varied widely in their use of safeguards against this diversion but, on average, engaged in few countermarketing and demarketing measures, and (3) the safeguarding efforts engaged in were found to reduce both diversion and its resultant crimes.

    Countermarketing and Demarketing against Product Diversion: Forensic Research in the Firearms Industry · 2010 · DOI

  • This paper uses recent advances in statistical techniques to show that an age-adjusted homicide rate exhibits a significantly different trend than that of the conventional rate: (1) there was no structural break in the trend until the late 1980s; (2) until the early 1990s the trend was an increasing homicide rate; and (3) although the homicide rate has been decreasing since the mid-1990s, there is insufficient statistical evidence to suggest a new downward trend.

    Conventional Calculations of Homicide Rates Lead to an Inaccurate Reflection of Canadian Trends · 2003 · DOI

  • These limits include the relatively small number of crime guns that BATF traces, BATF's rules about what guns it will not even attempt to trace, and the limited information supplied by gun traces.

    Research Note: Firearms Tracing Data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms: An Occasionally Useful Law Enforcement Tool but a Poor Research Tool · 2000 · DOI

  • Nagin state that my article with David Mustard assumes that the effect of concealed‐handgun laws is constant over time, that the effect is the same across states, that the article does not control for local time trends, and that we did not investigate whether the results were sensitive to the missing values of the arrest rate.

    The Concealed‐Handgun Debate · 1998 · DOI

  • “Navigating Potential Pitfalls in Difference-in-Differences Designs: Reconciling Conflicting Findings on Mass Shootings’ Effect on Electoral Outcomes.

    The Diffusion of State Firearm Regulations · 2026 · DOI

  • Abstract Background Extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs) are used to disarm individuals making threats of interpersonal harm, but little is known about respondents’ pre- and post-order criminal behavior.

    Reduced incidence of arrest following an extreme risk protection order among respondents in California · 2026 · DOI

  • Although redlining has long been linked to higher rates of shooting, the contribution of current housing discrimination to these disparities remains uncertain.

    Evolving Mechanisms of Inequality · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite the growing prevalence of mass shootings, scarce research has examined their relationships with neighborhood-level attributes such as sociodemographic or environmental characteristics.

    An Analysis of Neighborhood Characteristics Associated with Single-Victim, Multi-Victim, and Mass Shootings · 2024 · DOI

  • We analyzed data from semistructured interviews, a two‐wave community survey, and police records of neighborhood violence, finding limited evidence of program effectiveness.

    Short‐term evaluation of Cure Violence St. Louis: Challenges, triumphs, and lessons learned · 2024 · DOI

  • But are they talking to their clients about firearms? Research on social workers’ firearm assessment or discussions with clients about safe storage is scarce.

    Firearm Access and Safe Storage · 2024 · DOI

  • We also suggest the potential for harm from such surveillance technology should be cautiously weighed, as it could exceed the benefits of using such technology, thereby warranting further examination and research.

    An interdisciplinary examination of a gunshot detection system: The public health context of a policing technology · 2024 · DOI

  • Although the research on school shootings is increasing, there is limited research on school shooters who attempt, threaten, or plan suicide or die by suicide in comparison to those who do not.

    School Shootings and Suicide: A Comparison of School Shooters Who Die by Suicide and Non-Suicide School Shooters · 2024 · DOI

  • While much is known about how violence activities and disadvantaged neighborhood environments harm youth's safe feelings in urban and high-crime areas, few studies have evaluated the extent to which environmental factors impact adolescents' perceptions of safety in rural areas.

    “Because anyone can misuse this (a gun) and they can use it for weapon”: A Photovoice Exploration of Reasons Why Female Adolescents Feel Unsafe in Rural and Suburban Communities · 2023 · DOI

  • Although safe firearm storage has been shown to reduce firearm injuries, little is known about how to culturally tailor such interventions for rural families in the United States.

    Firearm Safe Storage in Rural Families: Community Perspectives About Ownership and Safety Messaging · 2023 · DOI

  • With the widespread access to firearms and an increasing prevalence of gun violence, examining the experiences of occupational therapists in dealing with gun owners and gun violence victims is warranted.

    A Qualitative Study on Occupational Therapists’ Experiences with Gun Owners and Victims of Gun-Related Violence · 2023 · DOI

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93 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 2,090 Gun Ownership and Violence Research papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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