Out of 27,900 research publications on gun laws, only 123 tested their effects rigorously.
------------------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
Like us on Facebook:
Follow us on Twitter:
Reason is the planet’s leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to for a point of view you won’t get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
----------------
After reaching historic lows in the mid-2010s, gun violence rates in America have gone up in recent years, and they remain higher than in some other parts of the developed world. There are hundreds of laws and regulations at the federal and state level that restrict Americans’ access to guns, yet according to some advocates, social science research shows that a few more “simple, commonsense“ laws could significantly reduce the number of injuries and deaths attributed to firearms.
There has been a massive research effort going back decades to determine whether gun control measures work. A 2020 analysis by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, parsed the results of 27,900 research publications on the effectiveness of gun control laws. From this vast body of work, the RAND authors found only 123 studies, or 0.4 percent, that tested the effects rigorously. Some of the other 27,777 studies may have been useful for non-empirical discussions, but many others were deeply flawed.
We took a look at the significance of the 123 rigorous empirical studies and what they actually say about the efficacy of gun control laws.
The answer: nothing. The 123 studies that met RAND’s criteria may have been the best of the 27,900 that were analyzed, but they still had serious statistical defects, such as a lack of controls, too many parameters or hypotheses for the data, undisclosed data, erroneous data, misspecified models, and other problems.
And these glaring methodological flaws are not specific to gun control research; they are typical of how the academic publishing industry responds to demands from political partisans for scientific evidence that does not exist.
Not only is the social science literature on gun control broadly useless, but it provides endless fodder for advocates who say that “studies prove“ that a particular favored policy would have beneficial outcomes. This matters because gun laws, even if they don’t accomplish their goals, have large costs. They can turn otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals, they increase prosecutorial power and incarceration, and they exacerbate the racial and socioeconomic inequities in the criminal justice system.
For full text, links, and more, go to
Produced and edited by Justin Monticello. Written by Monticello and Aaron Brown. Graphics by Adani Samat and Isaac Reese. Audio production by Ian Keyser.
Music: Aerial Cliff by Michele Nobler, Land of the Lion by C.K. Martin, The Plan’s Working by Cooper Cannell, Thoughts by ANBR, Flight of the Inner Bird by Sivan Talmor and Yehezkel Raz, and Run by Tristan Barton.
Photos: Hollandse-Hoogte/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Robin Rayne/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Ted Soqui/Sipa USA/Newscom; YES Market Media/Yaroslav Sabitov/YES Market Medi/Newscom; Chuck Liddy/TNS/Newscom; YES Market Media/Yaroslav Sabitov/YES Market Medi/Newscom; Brett Coomer/Rapport Press/Newscom; Martha Asencio-Rhine/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Jebb Harris/ZUMA Press/Newscom; John Gastaldo/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Greg Smith/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Richard Ellis/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Matthew McDermott/Polaris/Newscom; KEVIN DIETSCH/UPI/Newscom; Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom; Michael Brochstein/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Sandy Macys / UPI Photo Service/Newscom; E. Jason Wambsgans/TNS/Newscom; Eye Ubiquitous/Newscom; Matthew McDermott/Polaris/Newscom
1 view
41
8
3 weeks ago 00:08:19 1
Чехов / ДОСУДЕБНАЯ СТАДИЯ - ФИНАЛ //
3 weeks ago 00:58:07 1
Cura El Daño En El Cuerpo • Flauta Curativos Tibetanos • Elimina Estrés, Ansiedad y Calmar La Mente
3 weeks ago 00:02:39 1
Updated! Can & Can’t // Action Verbs pt.7/11: Fun English grammar cartoon “WHAT CAN YOU DO?“
3 weeks ago 01:02:22 1
Das Ende der US-Finanzherrschaft ist da!
3 weeks ago 01:00:30 1
Autumn Magic: Celestial Healing Music for Body, Spirit & Soul
3 weeks ago 00:01:00 1
Memory In My! Nhớ thời học sinh quá à | Tin Nguyen x Ciin #shorts #tinnguyen #ciin
3 weeks ago 00:02:11 1
Raid - Certified Care (case study)
3 weeks ago 00:03:44 1
Dr. Dre & Eminem - Forgot About Dre | The Up In Smoke Tour
3 weeks ago 00:00:00 1
Deshazte De Toda Mala Energía | Flauta Curativos Tibetanos | Cura El Daño En El Cuerpo
3 weeks ago 00:00:00 1
432Hz- Alpha Waves Restore the Whole Body, Emotional And Physical Healing - Meditation Music #68
3 weeks ago 00:08:01 1
Пожертвовал ферзя в дебюте 💖 Рашид Нежметдинов - Олег Черников. Шахматы
3 weeks ago 02:25:00 1
432Hz- Alpha Waves Heal The Whole Body and Soul, Relieve Stress, Connect With the Universe
3 weeks ago 01:53:15 1
US Deploys Troops to Give Israel’s Genocide a Boost
3 weeks ago 06:04:05 1
6 hours Irregular verbs song – Learn 80 common Irregular Verbs in one song.
3 weeks ago 01:23:45 1
TOP 30 GUITAR MUSIC CLASSICAL - The Best Guitar Songs of All Time - Guitar Classical
3 weeks ago 03:41:12 1
Wonderful Mix 2024 ♫ Top 30 Songs: Chill Music, Gaming Playlist, NCS ♫ Best Of EDM 2024
3 weeks ago 00:00:55 1
A common question I get is how to install the silhouettes to my house -explanation in description ⬇️
3 weeks ago 00:04:43 3
Игра “Сапер“ на Python. Minesweeper in Python Tkinter Превью
3 weeks ago 00:17:54 1
💃🌺 ЭТО ВСЕ ИСПАНИЯ 🌺💃 Караоке для детей 🎤 TaDaBoom песенки 🎵 Маша и Медведь
3 weeks ago 01:02:01 5
Vintage morning oldies music to cheer up your day (1940s, 30s Warm & Cozy Autumn Jazz Songs)
3 weeks ago 01:44:51 1
Moho: софт для 2D-анимации в перекладке
3 weeks ago 01:59:46 1
Как научиться решать параметры к ЕГЭ 2025 по профильной математике? | Анна Малкова
3 weeks ago 00:02:46 4
The Jews Run The World! Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair
3 weeks ago 11:54:59 1
Alpha Waves Heal The Damage In The Body, Powerful Effect, Immediate Effect, Melatonin Release