o gun-free zones prevent mass shootings, or encourage them? The truth is, no one has enough good evidence to say for sure.
America spends more research money studying hernias and peptic ulcers than it does studying gun violence. As a result, we don’t know whether assault-weapon bans reduce homicides, or whether better background checks might prevent accidental shootings. We don’t even know how many guns are circulating in the United States right now.
A two-year study of gun policy in America by researchers at RAND found the following:
- The evidence for or against most major gun policy proposals is weak, inconclusive, contradictory, or entirely nonexistent. We don’t even have a shared set of facts on basic questions. How many mass shootings were there in 2015? Depending on the definition, estimates range from 7 to 371.
- The strongest evidence supports safe storage laws meant to keep firearms out of the hands of children. But even there, the lack of research makes it hard to anticipate any tradeoffs, such as hindering defensive gun use.