Armed with Reason: The Podcast - Episode 13
Armed with Reason: The Podcast - Episode 13
This week's topic - GVPedia's Data Visualization Tool has arrived!
In this episode, GVPedia founder Devin Hughes and Executive Director Caitlin Clarkson Pereira introduce GVPedia’s new Data Visualization Tool that just went live last week. This game-changing, interactive tool offers quickly accessed maps, charts, and fact sheets — with stats down to street level — for gun violence prevention activists and legislators to utilize in the fight against America’s gun epidemic.
In the often reactive world of gun violence prevention, the Data Visualization Tool offers a chance to proactively gather hard numbers and helpful information in an instant. For this podcast, Devin and Caitlin offer a primer on the tool, how it can be utilized, and it’s ever-evolving future.
You can listen to the chat via our channel on Spotify as well as watch on YouTube, or read the transcription below.
We hope you’ll tune in and let us know not only what you think, but what you’d like to hear more about in the future. And if you are interested in recommending a guest, or even being one yourself, please let us know!
Given the abundance of gun violence in our country, it is critical to have the ability to discuss and advocate for a safer community. This podcast is one more way for the movement to do just that.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION:
Caitlin: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us here on the Armed With Reason podcast, brought to you by GVPedia. Last week, after nearly five years of planning, designing, building, re planning, redesigning, we were able to release our new Data Visualization Tool. And what this tool is, is using a decade worth of Gun Violence Archive data. It allows anyone to generate a specific data set for gun violence, and it generates this on a map all the way down to the street level. And it also has a function where a user can generate state factsheets for various categories of shootings, for example mass shootings, accidental shootings. As well as charts and graphs with specific data. It's very satisfying for us to see the data visualization up and running. We were anticipating this for quite a while, and now it's living and breathing out on the internet, and people are having the opportunity to play around with it and to put their own parameters in there to create whatever data set is important for to them. And we're excited to start getting feedback from our users on the tool. So Devin and I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a couple minutes this week on the podcast and really just do a bit more of a deep dive into the data visualization, the thought process behind it, maybe a little bit more about how you as a user can use it. And just with the the hope that this gets people thinking more about the opportunities for what the data visualization can provide. So, Devin, for the beginning, to start off, why don't you tell us more about what the data visualization can be used for.
Devin: Hi everyone. It's me again, as usual.
Devin: Yes. Yeah. So we hope that the data visualization can fulfill a number of needs. And I also think it's important to point out, kind of at the outset, that this is merely the first iteration of the data visualization. While it took us five years to get to this sort of step one like it is still a step one. We plan on incorporating even more data, adding more functionality and usability based off of feedback from everyone who uses it. So if you're using the data visualization tool and are like, Wow, I really wish it could do this, let us know! And we could very well incorporate that if it's actually possible to do so. So the great thing about the Data Visualization Tool is that it's taking a robust data set, Gun Violence Archive's data for the past decade. And we'll continue to update that data as future data comes in. So we'll probably update it once every quarter, potentially even once every month, as we get the process streamlined. So there'll be new data always coming into it. And the great thing about Gun Violence Archive data is that it's close to real time data, unlike the CDC and FBI where you might have to wait 1 to 2 years to figure out how many shootings there have been. In the Gun Violence Archive it's each day, each week the numbers are updated. And it also allows you to access the data down to the very street level, whereas most other gun violence data is congregated at the state level. Here you can type in your address, which is one of the many features we have, and put a radius around it -- one mile, five miles, ten miles -- and see how many gun violence incidents are near you. And I think that's a powerful, one of the many powerful tools to have, because a lot of people in the gun violence debate, particularly on the pro-gun side, tend to be, Oh, well, gun violence isn't really something that happened to my community; it's something that happens to people over there. And you can pull out this tool and put a radius around where you're at. And unless you're in the middle of Montana, where there's not another person around for 100 miles, there're going to be gun violence incidents near you. And just showing the ubiquity of gun violence is super important. So that's one area of the tool that I think is super impactful. Another area is being able to sort gun violence incidents by their type of incident, whether it's child involved shootings, mass shootings, gang shootings, unintentional shootings -- whatever category you're looking for that the Gun Violence Archive tracks, you're able sort the data by that functionality and see what the trends are in your state or even near you. Another great aspect are the state-based fact sheets that Caitlyn mentioned, where you can look at the entire U.S. or your state and then search by the type of gun violence and see how the trend has gone over the past decade, or even a shorter period of time if you want to do so. You're basically able to customize the years, the type of gun violence in the state, and the fact sheet will be automatically generated based on what you're looking for in your specific needs, and provide charts and graphs based on that. And I think this is quite important for people going to state houses where, if there's a bill that's going to impact a certain type of gun violence, somebody can quickly search for that type of gun violence and have a custom made fact sheet for them ready to go that you can download into a PDF, and then you can even take screenshots or use the Snipping tool on your computer to take out some of the charts and put in your own presentation. Like all the data is freely available and accessible, and we hope to add even more functions in the future to make it even more so. And one of the last things I want to mention that will lead into a question of my own here, is that we have the functionality now to look at gun violence data at the congressional district level. So if you want to know, between 2018 and 2023, how many female teenagers were killed in Oklahoma Congressional District five, you're able to get to that level of functionality. And if you just want to learn about all gun violence incidents in Oklahoma Congressional District five or Connecticut Congressional District one, you can do so. And it will provide the numbers for the years that you select. I think that's an incredibly impactful tool when you're visiting your congressperson. And if they're potentially opposing a bill and arguing that, well, gun violence really doesn't happen here, you can pull up their exact congressional district and say, yes it does, and what are you planning about doing? What are you planning on doing about all this gun violence in your district? And so the question I wanted to ask you, Caitlin, as you're someone who ran for political office, is how do you see this tool impacting constituents and their elected officials?
Caitlin: So that's a question that I'm sure if I sat down and thought about all the ways that somebody could use this, if they were running for office, or if they won that race and were officially sworn into their elected office, it would be a rather lengthy list, which is exciting, right? That's one of the reasons why this tool is so important for the movement to have. But for me, I think about, unfortunately, the gun violence prevention movement has to be relatively reactive, right? I think we like to aspire to be proactive. In some ways we have we are successful. We have been successful in that. But typically we will see reactions to tragedies happening. And depending on the tragedy right here, specifically in Connecticut, let's take Sandy Hook, that led to this effect of, all right, we had this terrible school shooting. And in the suburbs, right when the proverbial place like this, it will never happen here. And what happens next? How do we make sure this doesn't occur here in Connecticut again? And that resulted in people drafting legislation, legislation being called to the floor, voted on, and and positive change happening here. So if you are in that elected office, see if you are a staffer doing research, or an advocate, somebody lobbying on the floor, it's a great tool to have because in live time you can just go and say, all right, we're wondering, you know, how many mass shootings have happened, you know, in, you know, the past five years, let's say. And instead of guessing or googling it quickly and hoping that somebody else has already done the work for you -- granted, those are numbers that might be a year old, two years old, five years old, what have you -- you can generate the map with all of those incidents. And the ability to create PDFs from the state-based fact sheets are great to be able to hand out, whether it's at an event, or to fellow legislative members. The possibilities really are endless. And I think as the tool grows and we get feedback from individuals, we hope that people who hold elected office will reach out to us and say, you know, this one time in this committee meeting, I really needed information on xyz. Is this something that you can have the data visualization create for us? And, you know, with a little bit of time and magic behind the scenes, hopefully those are things that we can create and that will come to fruition. So, it really just becomes an opportunity to share real numbers and to prove the impact that gun violence has. Not just use these, you know, sort of phrases, you know, like this happens so much or very often or, you know, just sort of grasping at whatever numbers you saw on a catchy graphic somewhere that's been circulated. They have the ability to draw down real numbers in very specific spaces, whether a congressional district, an entire state, whatever it might be. To me, it really changes the game. And it's hard for somebody to push back against real numbers. And that's really the most beneficial piece to this is math doesn't lie, right? Two people killed here plus three there plus four there plus one here, you know, times however many incidents equal how many gun deaths or injuries. And you just have those numbers that you can provide right then and there. And it really does generate them that quickly. Today I was playing around with it for another reason, and I was pulling up numbers in Texas and New York, and it took like 12 seconds to generate all of the incidents of gun violence for a decade. It wasn't just a short period of time, it was it was for ten years. So it is exciting, and I'm looking forward to having opportunities to speak with staffers and letting them know that this is one of the parts about the tool that we hope will be the most beneficial, so that they can pass it along. And people who are responsible for drafting legislation and calling it to the floor will have this tool at their fingertips. So it is, you know, it's one of those things is unfortunate that we need to have it, but we know this is the reality of the world that we live in. So now that it's here, let's be excited about using it and get other people excited about using it as well. So, for me, I brought up being here in Connecticut and Sandy hook, which for a lot of people, they say that Sandy Hook was the incident that motivated them to get involved in the gun violence prevention movement. Maybe they were paying attention before, but this was really what drove them to learn more and to push back against the gun lobby. So in order for you to create a tool like this, there had to be motivation behind that. So can you tell us a little bit about the motivation that drove you to design the Data Visualization Tool?
Devin: Yeah. So I'm going to kind of give a multi-part answer here. What motivated me to get involved in gun violence prevention in the first place was the Sandy Hook tragedy.
Caitlin: See, there you go.
Devin: Yeah. Growing up, I was surrounded in gun culture. I was born in Jones, Oklahoma, which is an exurb of Oklahoma City. And on weekends, we would hear not semiautomatic fire, but automatic fire coming from the creek bed near our place. My parents had a rifle and a shotgun. But neither of those were seen as for defense against other people. Like the rifle was to prevent wild dogs from getting in with the horses. And the shotgun was for other critters. For any threat to have two legs we had a big German Shepherd to handle that. But I grew up in a sort of gun culture, as it were, but not the gun culture that goes into Walmart with an AR-15 and is terrified of the burrito aisle, but kind of standard where guns were tools. And before joining the gun violence prevention movement, I did not know anybody who had been personally impacted by a gun violence tragedy. Now, that very quickly changed after I joined the movement and realized just how bad the problem was. And it was in the days, weeks, and months after the Sandy Hook tragedy of doing consistent research and trying to find the answers and solutions, and figure out the scope of the problem. Then I realized that there really need to be a centralized hub of this information. Answers that would take days of research before, now with the Data Visualization Tool, you can answer with basically two clicks in a couple seconds. And just making that sort of looking through the information process easier. One of the main reasons I founded GVPedia was as sort of the central data hub of both research and empirical data such as this, and for the Data Visualization Tool itself to make the process easier. One of the examples that springs to mind, is a good friend and colleague in one of the state groups was compiling the state-based reports of, like all the gun violence incidents in her state. And the end product would be like 100-something pages, and would take about six months to produce for the previous year. And it was a process that was quite impressive, but also shouldn't have been necessary because all that data -- she wasn't asking for behind-the-scenes data or stuff that wasn't publicly accessible -- it was just data that should be there, but was extremely hard to access all in one place, and took a lot of time and effort to fully calibrate and get the solutions. Looking at this, I realized, wow, like we have computers. We're in the 21st century here. There should be a tool out there that makes this almost automatic for somebody. And it was that motivation of taking that Herculean amount of impressive effort and trying to make it as automated as possible. So rather than spending time digging through incident by incident and compiling it into an Excel spreadsheet, that you could then turn into a chart that you'd have to continuously update and check to make sure that the data was accurate, and then compare that to another Excel spreadsheet and other forms of data tabulation -- it'd just be all done for you, and then you could spend all that time being used on that to go to the state House and show that data off, and provide presentations, and convince people -- and really take a lot of that time and effort being spent there and shifting that to better advocacy. And that's what I hope we've done with the Data Visualization Tool, is taking stuff that would take days, weeks, and months and brought it down to seconds.
Caitlin: Yes. And when you think about it, from six months to collect data to less than 30 seconds really changes the game for sure. So how do you envision the data visualization will grow in the future? As you mentioned in the beginning, this is the first iteration; I'm sure it will take on, there will be different parts of it that will grow over time, but what do you feel are some of the goals or where you hope this will end up in a year, five years from now?
Devin: Yeah. So to go from the short term to long term to I really hope in the future this would be great to have. So in the short term, one of the limitations that step one of the data visualization has is it's really meant for somebody with like a laptop, or desktop, or possibly a tablet at the very least. Loading 350,000 incidents over ten years takes a lot of computer effort. Like while the map is very quick for states, and even regions, it does stutter a bit when it comes to loading all of the gun violence that has occurred over the past decade. And I do think in one way that highlights just how massive a problem it is, that even with today's technology, like the scope of America's gun violence epidemic causes the fastest computer programing in the world to, like, have a moment of shock at what you're asking it to do and finally process it. That being said, one of the next iterations is going to be creating an application or a phone app for this data. It won't necessarily use the map, but it will use the incident summaries. So you'll be able to quickly click in, let's say your state congressional district or your address, and it'll pop up how many incidents there were, how many deaths, how many injuries. And really simplifying the process to where if you're just on the road or somewhere and having a conversation, you can quickly pull up, [say], How much gun violence is there near me? And while there will definitely also still be the ability to download PDFs of the state-based fact sheets and stuff, it will really try to simplify the process so you'll be able to get the quick solutions, whereas the data visualization is really tailored to providing not only the relatively quick solutions, but also the more in depth. I and if you go to the advanced page of the filters, for the data map -- and one of the things I hope everybody discovers rather quickly is the filters page, because that's where all the magic is -- you'll find dozens of different bars and slides that you can use to tailor the data to fit your exact specifications. However, to fitting all of those bars and slides and such takes a computer screen, not just a phone screen. And so trying to make the data even more accessible while simplifying some things is going to be one key component going forward. Another key component is adding to the charts and graphs. So right now we have two charts, like we have a pie chart, and a line graph, and then the incident summaries. We hope to add to that substantially going forward. I mean, right now, I will fully admit they do look a little bit lonely there...
Caitlin: They're a great starting place though. Don't sell yourself short.
Devin: Yeah, and we plan on adding even more tools to help visualize the data, not just on a map, but in charts and graphs. That's going to be another thing -- on the state fact sheets, we provide the information using the Giffords Law Center on what the state law rankings are. We hope to, on the map, have filters that show, like, what the state rankings are and like maybe how they've changed over the years to provide that overlay in terms of the gun violence data, also providing more per capita data. So you can see that, say, in Alaska, for example, like child shootings, while their number might be low on a per capita basis, they're actually extremely high in highlighting problems there. Another thing that we plan on adding in the near future are, well, I say near-to-moderate future, is stuff like CDC data as well. So people have the option to look at either the Gun Violence Archive or the CDC. And the great thing about CDC data is it also provides information on suicides. We plan on including an ability to compare states. So right now with the data visualization, if you want to compare, say, Texas and California, right now you have to pull up Texas' information, draw down or download the PDF, and then pull up California's information, and then kind of compare the two on your own screen and kind of put them together. We hope to have tools that will allow you to do that sort automatically; and also compare all of the A-rated gun violence states versus all the F-rated states and material like that just to make, the people doing their own research, making that process a whole lot easier. In the 5 to 10 year range, the goal for the GVPedia data visualization is to become an AI of sorts. Now, the term AI has been bandied about to talk about like literally everything these days. But to highlight this is to ask GVPedia a question. Say, Okay, GVPedia, tell me about defensive gun use. And the GVPedia website will respond, hopefully in a voice that's not mine. But you know, like we don't want to bore people too much here. GVPedia will respond, Okay, so over the past decade, from the Gun Violence Archive, here's all the incidents of defensive gun use that have been collected. Here's the academic studies on defensive gun use. Here's what GVPedia considers to be the best studies in the field. Here's the white papers and fact sheets that GVPedia itself has generated on this, and packaging all that material together to answer the question. And the answer can be in several stages. It can be in the very simple stage where it's like, here's the number of defensive gun uses that have been tracked by the Gun Violence Archive. It can be in a sort of moderate stage where it shows the resources, and sort of the controversy in the field. Or it could be in the advanced stage where it's like, Hey, here's 100 different pages of material that we've scraped together, all from GVPedia, good luck on your term paper sort of situation. And really providing information at the level that people are looking for, and doing so in a way that's conversational and able to respond to somebody in a matter of moments, whereas before you'd have to email somebody and then... like right now, if you want to learn all the information about defensive gun use, like you could email GVPedia, and I would put together an email with all the various resources in that data, and it might take me a couple of days to get back to you, depending on how thorough I was, and I'd have to provide all of the information, as it were. Whereas with a customizable AI, it could provide that in a matter of seconds and tailor the response to your specific needs far faster than somebody else could; and also be able to point you in the direction of other resources. So while GVPedia seeks to be a central data hub that fits as many of your needs as possible, we recognize that we're not the only data source out there, and there's other excellent websites out there as well. And so being able to tie people to the broader gun violence prevention community is also a goal of this to be like, Hey, we don't have the specific answer, but Giffords does, or the Gun Violence Archive does specifically here ,or basically being a being as useful as possible to people. And that's the central goal of GVPedia is to help people become better advocates, to become more, to help them educate themselves about the issue, as well as the educational efforts that we provide; and really empowering advocates across the country. And so with that somewhat long-winded response, I'll throw the question back at you. What do you want to see the data visualization do in the future?
Caitlin: I like the ending of what you just said. Right? The ability to direct individuals to other resources. We certainly do not have a monopoly on all the information that there is about concealed carry, right? So while we may have a healthy amount of studies or white papers or data, and we can procure that through the AI, the ability to say, hey, check out the information from this website and that website, I think that's really great. And something that the movement would benefit from, right? If we can work together as a unit, then it helps us all move ahead and make a greater difference and in a more efficient way. For me, I think. data tells a story, right? It takes you a little while longer to get from numbers to emotions, but it happens. It's in there. And the numbers. Every number represents a person, a human, right, someone's mom, dad, brother, sister, son, daughter. And I think if we have an opportunity to create, whether it's infographics or if/when the app becomes available, tying your social media to the app, the ability to share the story as efficiently as possible and in a way that doesn't really require much work on the user end. You think about Facebook or Instagram now, right? Like you see an article somewhere, there's a button, you know, you hit the little F button and it generates the post for you, and then you didn't even have to log into Facebook to have a post there, it just, you know, happened. So though the ability to communicate across platforms that we know people are really paying attention to these days with this ever-changing news cycle, I think provides a really important opportunity to share the story that that the numbers will help us provide. And it is the emotional pieces that we have heard from elected officials that really stick with them and really motivate them to push or to create something, or to really to, you know, change their mind about something related to gun violence, maybe something they were against previously but are in favor of now. And so just to humanize it a little bit, and I'm really not sure exactly how to do that. But hopefully as we use the tool more and we have other folks playing around with it and giving us some feedback, hopefully we can figure out the ways to do that because it's about the survivors, it's about the victims, and it's about making sure that whatever number exists today, that tomorrow the number is smaller, until the number is zero, and then we won't have jobs and that will be amazing. So I'm really hopeful that we can we can come up with ways to to help tell the story of gun violence in different parts of the country, different types of gun violence, over different time periods, because that's what moves the needle. So, I think that's pretty much it. I'm going to keep that my like short list for now. I don't really have a timetable on any of that, so I'm not going to get too overzealous. So we're just I'm just going to, as my wish list. I'm just going to pause the pause there.
Devin: Yeah. And to kind of add something on to that, then I just kind of like whenever you look at the map and whenever the computer shutters and then provides the graphical data of the nearly 350,000 incidents reported, that's 350,000 red dots. And each of those dots, like on the data end is a number, is a dot. But we all know it's much more than that. It's a life that's either been lost or has been profoundly changed forever due to gun violence. And it's more than just that person, because each of those people have friends, family, loved ones, and a community around them that's also impacted by that. And one of the struggles that I continuously have personally is like, there's so many of those red dots that to try to go into each and every one of those stories is essentially an impossible task. Yet it's a task that we need to collectively do. And with the data visualization, it's not the end point. It's the starting point to where you can show the initial numbers, and recognize that behind each of those numbers is a story that can be written. And writing those stories and sharing those stories and telling those stories, and then being able to provide each of those stories with the context of how it fits into the broader tapestry of American gun violence is crucial. While data alone is not going to fix everything or potentially even anything, but neither is the pure emotional story. They need each other -- one without the other is not going to move the issue forward, but it's going to require both. And GVPedia recognizes that we're one half of that equation. We can provide the data, but it's up to everybody else using that data to be able to incorporate it into their stories. And that's where it's going to have the impact and what we're trying to support.
Caitlin: Right. That's that's a really important note. It's it's not the entire equation. And there's other pieces together that are critical and making sure that we can make progress in the gun violence prevention movement. So I hope you took, you know, maybe a couple hours to, like, breath in a sigh of relief once the data visualization was officially launched last week. And, you know, for better or worse, we didn't break the internet. So that's that's a positive thing. And if you go to GVPedia.org, you'll see the button right there front and center for the data visualization. And we really hope that people who are listening here will use it themselves, will tell their friends and their colleagues, and will keep checking back in with us here at GVPedia to see what updates we're making. And we will certainly share stories about individuals and organizations that find the tool useful, and maybe ask for some testimonials. No reason to reinvent the wheel, right? If someone has a great way to use the data visualization, why not share that? It might be a way that somebody else didn't think of.
We have been asking folks to make recommendations for podcast guests. We put a post up on our Instagram yesterday, so I'm just throwing that here at the end of this week's episode. If you know of somebody -- maybe they're a survivor, maybe they're somebody who's been involved in the movement, maybe it's you, maybe it's somebody who just has a really powerful story to tell -- please feel free to reach out to us. We are really excited about the prospect of doing a podcast every week. That is absolutely our goal, and we have some fascinating guests lined up for the near future. And then a little bit later down the road, and then there are some guests who we will absolutely ask to be repeat guests, because they do such a wonderful job when they're with us. But please just let us know. Send us a message. Send us an email. We would love to know who you would like to hear from and what topics are of interest to you. We are looking forward to continuing this podcast adventure. I think this is Episode 13.
Devin: Lucky 13.
Caitlin: Lucky 13. It asks me when I upload everything, you know, What season is this? And I just keep putting season one and, like, do we have to, like, have a season finale? Is that a thing? And then to restart, you know, season two.
Devin: We'll just invite Jennifer Mascia back. If you're listening, Jennifer, you've been booked for the season finale, whenever that is.
Caitlin: Perfect. You've been volunteered by Devin… So, yes. Please let us know what you would like to hear. And as always, we appreciate everything that all of our listeners do for the movement. And we look forward to checking back in with everyone next week. And thanks so much for your data visualization, Devin. I know it was a heavy lift, but it's out there, and I am confident that it will be a help to those of us who are trying to push forward in the movement -- I have no doubt.
Devin: Well, thank you and I hope everybody listening is able to find it useful and can provide recommendations for what to do with it. Again, it's all about you in the end.
Caitlin: Yes, yes. How the users are able to to make it work for them. All right. I'll see you later, Devin. Thanks everyone for listening.