Analyzing the Effectiveness of Gun Laws in the United States

Gun violence is one of the most concerning issues facing our society today. We hear about mass shootings regularly in the news media. In 2021 which is the last year for which we have complete data, 48,830 people died in the US from gun-related injuries. Fifty-four percent of those deaths were suicides and 43% were murders. Eighty-one percent of all murders in the US in the same year involved firearms. Between 2012 and 2021, gun-related homicides have increased by 73% and gun-related suicides have increased by 19%. The US has only 4% of the world’s population but 44% of the world’s gun suicides. Estimates are that we have between 18 and 25 times the amount of gun-related deaths per capita as compared to other wealthy nations and the leading cause of mortality of children in the US is death by a gun.

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Our purpose is to share an interactive visualization and modeling tool that uses advanced statistical analytics techniques and natural language processing to provide insights into which gun laws appear to be effective in reducing gun-related violence. Go to the Gun Law Effects and Recommendations tab to begin using the tool.