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When the Shooting Stops: The Impact of Gun Violence on Survivors in America

February 3, 2022

This report is divided into five sections discussing bereavement and grief from gun death, healing after gun injuries, living in fear of gun violence, the impact of persistent gun violence, and recommendations for how to better support survivors and prevent violence.We strive to center the experiences of survivors, and through this work we hope to honor them by providing a deeper understanding of who they are, what they have experienced, and how we can better support them.

A More Complete Picture: The Contours of Gun Injury in the United States

November 2, 2021

Nonfatal gunshot wounds account for an enormous portion of the gun violence epidemic in America but they have not been an integral part of the conversation. This is, in part, because there is no centralized system for tracking nonfatal firearm injuries and no place to look up the number, type, and location of these injuries as a basis to analyze the data and use it to shape effective responses. Everytown has filled this critical gap with data and analysis using several federal datasets that are not readily available to the public.

How Can We Prevent Gun Violence in American Schools?

September 20, 2021

This fact sheet lays out research-backed approaches for creating safer schools and ending gun violence. School leaders and policymakers must cultivate school environments that foster openness and safety for all students. This includes supporting and implementing strong gun safety laws and school-based interventions that can work to intervene in problems before shootings happen.

Preventable Tragedies: Findings from the #NotAnAccident Index

August 30, 2021

This report provides a deeper understanding of where, when, and how unintentional child shootings occur. And while the statistics are deeply distressing, the report also outlines the clear, effective steps we can take to save children and teen lives. This includes secure gun storage practices, public awareness campaigns, and laws proven to reduce unintentional injuries and deaths. 

Armed Assembly: Guns, Demonstrations, and Political Violence in America

August 23, 2021

This collaboration between the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund (Everytown) presents quantitative research on demonstrations in the United States during the 18-month period from January 2020 through June 2021, documenting 560 events where demonstrators, counter-demonstrators, or other individuals or groups were present and carried or brandished firearms. While most demonstrations in the country have remained peaceful, analysis of the data reveals clear patterns and characteristics that raise the risk of violent or destructive activity during public gatherings, including easy access to firearms. 

Funding Summer Youth Programming Prevents Gun Violence

June 30, 2021

Investing in young people should be a priority for cities as we begin on the path to COVID-19 recovery. Summer youth development and employment programs provide young people with educational and mentorship opportunities, prepare them for the workforce, add income to their homes, and are proven to reduce violence. Last year, as cities adapted to the public health and fiscal realities of COVID-19, many cities chose to pause or scale back programming that directly benefited Black and Latino communities. Among the impacted programs were summer youth engagement and employment initiatives. These programs are especially important because they not only provide economic opportunities for young people and their families, but they are also a demonstrated means of reducing gun violence.

Update Background Check Laws

June 22, 2021

Updating federal and state laws to require background checks on all gun sales is a common-sense way to keep guns out of the wrong hands and keep our communities safe. 

Alternative Dispatch Programs: A Strategy for Improving Emergency Responses and Reducing Police Violence

June 4, 2021

Approximately 240 million calls are made to 911 every year in the United States. Only a small fraction of these calls are for serious or violent crimes. Even in communities with high homicide rates such as Baltimore, Camden, New Haven, and New Orleans, fewer than 4 percent of 911 calls are related to violent crimes. Instead, the majority of these calls are related to incidents of disorderly conduct, noise complaints, suspicious people or cars, mental health issues, substance use, and homelessness.Programs that deploy public health professionals and crisis workers to situations involving mental health, substance use, and homelessness—referred to as alternative dispatch programs—offer an emerging solution that can save lives and provide critical services to those in need. Alternative dispatch programs utilize first responders who are specifically trained to resolve the emergencies that most commonly arise in communities with methods that address root problems and minimize the risk of force or deeper involvement with the justice system. These programs provide communities with a critical means for addressing crises, while also freeing police to focus on preventing and solving serious crimes.

Invisible Wounds: Gun Violence and Community Trauma among Black Americans

May 27, 2021

This report is an effort to begin to address this less-studied, yet equally damaging, phenomenon, sometimes referred to as "community trauma." And the focus for this exploration on community trauma will be on Black communities in America. This is because persistent gun violence is harming too many Black communities across the United States, contributing to individual, family, and community-level trauma. Community trauma is not only the sum of the hurt and suffering of individuals who have had traumatizing experiences. It is also a collective trauma experienced in communities with elevated levels of violence.

Gun Violence and COVID-19 in 2020: A Year of Colliding Crises

May 7, 2021

The United States has seen the collision of two major public health crises over the past year: COVID-19 and gun violence. We still don't fully understand how damaging this collision has been, and we don't yet fully know how it will continue to affect Americans. But what we do know is the effects have been far-ranging. For one, the pandemic has had a pronounced impact on gun violence in the United States as both homicides and unintentional shootings increased to record levels in 2020.

American Rescue Plan for Gun Violence Reduction

April 5, 2021

For over a year, local officials have been on the front lines responding to the dual public health crises of COVID-19 and gun violence. The pandemic has exacerbated the structural circumstances in which both a virus and city gun violence thrive: racially disparate access to resources, chronic underinvestment, and entrenched poverty. As a result, not only has COVID-19 disproportionately impacted Black and brown communities in our cities, 2020 recorded the highest number of gun deaths in at least 50 years, making gun violence another part of COVID's tragic legacy.

A Deadly Year in Cities -- And How Policymakers Can Respond

December 18, 2020

While the long-term effects of COVID-19 still aren't fully clear, it is evident that cities are experiencing historic levels of violence this year. Some cities, like Memphis, Cincinnati, Trenton, and Greensboro, are approaching or have set new homicide records in 2020. Other locations, like Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, are reaching city gun violence levels not seen in a decade or longer. The Police Executive Research Forum Survey shows the surge in gun homicides is not isolated to municipalities in a specific region, but rather is an upward trend that is being felt in communities across the nation.