A growing number of American children are exposed to gun violence at their schools, but little is known about the impacts of this exposure on their human capital attainment and economic well-being. This paper studies the causal effects of exposure to shootings at schools on children's...

Can gun violence be deterred at low cost? We report the results of a randomized experiment of a messaging intervention which was designed to reduce gun violence among individuals under parole supervision with a prior violent felony conviction or firearm arrest. The intervention consisted of a...

In this study, we estimate the cost of gun crime using a revealed preference framework by relying on an institutional change in Baltimore City, Maryland, that mandates public disclosure of the gun offender registry. We exploit the sharp localized change in perceived crime risk after gun...

In 2009 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives successfully traced over 145 thousand guns recovered at crime scenes in the U.S. Of these guns, more than 43 thousand were originally sold in a different state from which they were recovered. What factors may explain the interstate...

The United States continues to deal with school shootings. The most recent massacre occurred in 2012 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Several strategies have been used to try and prevent such tragedies from happening. These strategies have included tough gun laws,...

Recently a considerable popular debate has been dedicated to the issue of “police militarization”. We investigate whether the “1033 Program”, which allows local law enforcement agencies to acquire excess property of the US Department of Defense, affects crime rates. To identify the...

By using an over-inclusive definition, Statistics Canada has exaggerated the number of violent crimes that involve guns. The result is that gun violence appears to be four times more frequent than it really is. In 2013 (the most recent year statistics are available) Statistics Canada reports...

The purpose of this essay is to provide a foundation for understanding the "Great American Gun War," and to consider the next steps that could be taken in the search for an effective gun-control policy. We begin with a review of the more-or-less uncontroversial facts about trends in gun...