Research aims
- What are the public’s views on gun laws and gun violence?
- How much gun violence is there in the USA?
- What has worked to reduce gun violence?
Research methods 1
My first method was…
My first method was to conduct primary research by creating a quetionaire to collect data on people’s views on gun violence in the USA.
Research methods 2
Questionnaire
First advantage
The first advantage of this that it let me to ask specific questions about my topic.
This means I get data on the questions I thought were most important.
Research methods 3
Questionnaire
Second advantage
The second advantage was it enable me to ask both open and closed questions.
Closed questions allowed me to collect quantitative data.
This means I could calculate what percentage of people were worried about gun violence and what were the most important reasons for why people were concerned.
Research methods 4
Questionnaire
First disadvantage
A disadvantage of the questionnaire was that I only sent it to people in the UK who may have little knowledge of the gun crime levels in the USA.
This means the results do not have the views of the people most affected by gun violence though one of my respondents said they had been.
Research methods 4
Questionnaire
Second Disadvantage
A second disadvantage was that it was quite a small sample size of people, mostly from one school. This means my results might not be representative of the wider public.
Research methods 5
Questionnaire
Improvement
An improvement I could make would be to send it to several UK and US schools.
This would allow me to consider if views were different in countries that have various levels of gun ownership and gun violence.
I could also send it to school in different states to see if views differed between states with various levels of gun ownership.
Research methods 6
Source
Second method
The second method I used was secondary research looking at studies about gun use that had been conducted by other people. This is source 6.
Research methods 7
Sources
First advantage
An advantage of this source is that it was done by the RAND organisation which is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organisation.
The work was done by professional researchers who use objective research methods to generate data for public policy rather than any individual company or political party.
This means it is less likely to be biased than studies supported by organisations or companies on one side of the debate or the other making it a trustworthy and reliable source.
Research methods 8
Sources
Second advantage
A second advantage is that the report aims to collect together and summarise information from all the scientific literature that exists on the effectiveness of gun policies.
They only consider causal studies and update this regularly with any new studies that become available and it was last updated in January 2024.
This means it draws together all the available, reliable evidence at any particular time on how different policies affect gun violence.
Research methods 9
Sources
First disadvantage
A disadvantage was that many studies were found to be inconclusive.
This made it more difficult to get information to answer my aim about what has worked to reduce gun violence even though it looked at many studies about the effectiveness of gun policies.
Research methods 10
Sources
Second disadvantage
A second disadvantage is that the resource was limited to existing policies in the USA.
It didn’t consider wider initiatives that may reduce gun violence such community initiatives to reduce gun crime or new policies as banning the right to bear arms that has been tried in other countries.
This means the source limited my ability to fully answer my aim of what has worked to reduce gun violence.
Research methods 11
Sources
Improvement
An improvement I could make would be to see how additional policies both in the US and in other countries have reduced gun violence.
For example, after the Dunblane massacre in Scotland the UK introduced a near-total ban on private gun ownership.
By comparing the effectiveness of these additional policies when applied elsewhere I could have more fully answered my aim.
Research findings 1
What is public opinion about gun violence and gun laws in the USA?
I found that 9/14 (64.3%) thought the primary cause of gun violence in the USA was related to the availability of guns or relaxed gun laws.
The rest 5/14 (35.7%) said social issues including poverty, mental health, social media, and the US political system were the primary cause.
I found that 13/14 (92.8%) thought other countries handled gun violence better than the USA and 12/14 felt gun violence was an issue.
One person (7.2%) thought gun gun violence was an issue in the UK and another person 1/14 (7.2%) thought knife crime was more of an issue in the UK than gun crime.
Research findings 2
How much gun violence is there in the USA?
Source 3 shows that the United States has the highest number of firearms per capita and the highest number of homicides compared to other developed countries.
Source 4 also shows that levels of gun violence varied across States. The highest in 2023 was the District of Columbia with 30.6 deaths per 100,000 and the lowest was Massachusetts with 3.7 deaths per 100,000.
Research findings 3
What has worked to reduce gun violence?
Source 6 also shows that policies that limit both gun ownership and gun use may be effective in reducing the number of deaths and injuries caused by guns.
Source 7 shows the study looked at programmes across 264 cities and found for every 10 additional nonprofit, crime reduction programs per 100,000 residents there was a 9% reduction in homicide and a 6% reduction in violence.
Research conclusions Intro
I believe that evidence suggests that there should be stricter gun laws in the US. Although many Americans believe in the second amendment which is the right to bear arms, many people are also concerned about gun violence and there could be stricter laws to make holding guns safer without affecting people’s rights.
Research conclusions
Aim one public opinion
It is clear that there is a high level of gun violence in the US, but that opinions vary across the survey that I sent out.
These opinions suggest, the debate about gun laws has become a political one as well as a safety one.
My recommendation is to find common ground between both sides to try and find actions that can be supported by both sides.
Research conclusions
Aim two level of gun violence
It is clear the United States has a bigger issue with gun violence than other countries.
This can be seen in the level of gun ownership and gun related deaths.
My recommendation would be to look at supply of guns and limit the number of guns a person can hold.
I would also suggest looking at the gun laws in other developed countries that have lower levels of gun violence to see what they do differently.
Research conclusions
Aim three - what worked
It is clear that more research is needed to provide good evidence of what measures work and what measures don’t work.
However, correlations between strict gun laws and lower levels of gun violence suggest this is an important part of any solution.
I would also recommend community initiatives to address social and economic difficulties as this would seem important for reducing gun violence but would also probably help on many other fronts too.
