Throwback Thursday
Throwback Thursday
The Denver Accord Fact Sheets - Part 7: Reduce the Presence of Firearms in Public Places
This article was originally published on GVPedia.
The Denver Accord is a comprehensive gun violence prevention platform — led by GVPedia and supported by more than 40 organizations nationally — designed to guide policymakers’ efforts to reduce gun violence in the United States. It combines best practices from across the country with evidence-based research to create a comprehensive and effective set of policies and programs intended to stop the scourge of gun violence.
The Denver Accord includes four guiding principles and nine policy positions that, working in conjunction with each other, will stem the epidemic. This is the seventh entry in a series of fact sheets outlining those nine policy positions, which we will be highlighting across the next few Throwback Thursday posts.
There is no single solution to gun violence in America but it is clear that more guns do not make people safer. It is a multifaceted problem that requires a comprehensive solution.
The Denver Accord Part 7: Reduce the Presence of Firearms in Public Places
Carrying guns concealed or open (visible to the public) increases the threat of public violence
Guns in public can create confusion for law enforcement responding to a call, intimidate or suppress the First Amendment rights of others, and increase the likelihood that an argument will turn deadly.
To make communities safer, allow municipalities to ban concealed or open carry in public spaces, public building, and at events.
To create safe places for citizens to participate in the political process, restrict guns in public buildings with exceptions for on-duty law enforcement and military personnel.
State preemption laws threaten public safety because they mandate a one-size-fits-all approach to firearms regulation.
Twelve police officers were shot, five fatally, by a sniper in Dallas in 2016 during a protest. Dallas Police Chief David Brown said the presence of up to 30 people carrying rifles during the protest complicated law enforcement’s attempts to identify the gunman. (LA Times)
Repeal Stand Your Ground (SYG) laws
The most consistent finding of academic studies is that Stand Your Ground laws increase homicides.
The overwhelming majority of academic studies find no deterrence effect on crime.
The racial disparity in justifiable shootings significantly increases in Stand Your Ground states.
Florida’s Stand Your Ground law was associated with a 31.6% increase in firearm homicides and a 24.4% increase in overall homicide rates. The 2017 study observed no change in firearm suicide rates.
Using state-level monthly data, researchers estimate that at least 30 individuals are killed each month as a result of Stand Your Ground laws.
Prohibit firearms on public university or school grounds, with specific exceptions
A 2016 study from Johns Hopkins found that policies that allow people to bring firearms onto college campuses are unlikely to lead to fewer mass shootings or fewer firearm casualties.
The same study found that increasing gun availability on campus could increase acts of aggression or recklessness and make self-harm more lethal.
Reduce the Presence of Firearms in Public Places
Concealed carry laws do not deter mass shootings.
According to FBI investigations of 305 active shooting incidents between 2000 and 2019, 10 incidents were stopped by a concealed carry permit holder (3.3% of incidents), eight were stopped by armed guards (2.6%), and 35 incidents were stopped by unarmed civilians (11.5%). In at least three other cases (1%), a concealed carry permit holder attempted to stop the shooting, but was injured or killed by the shooter.
A GVPedia analysis of ten studies identified seven studies where Stand Your Ground laws were associated with negative effects, two with mixed effects, and one found a small beneficial effect from SYG laws.
A 2018 study found that Stand Your Ground laws were associated with a 7% increase in firearm homicides. Another 2018 study found that Stand Your Ground laws were associated with increased gun deaths in central cities and the suburbs.
The racial disparity in justifiable shootings significantly increases in Stand Your Ground states, and defendants who invoked self-defense after shooting a Black person were more likely to go free than those who shot a white person.
Compared to individuals in their mid-twenties, young adults are more impulsive, thrill-seeking, and vulnerable to negative influences such as peer pressure. According to multiple studies by Harvard’s Injury Control Research Center, college students who own firearms are more likely than their unarmed counterparts to binge drink, drive after binge drinking, to be arrested for driving under the influence, and damaging property after drinking.
When Texas passed campus carry legislation, many professors either stopped teaching controversial topics, refused to hold office hours out of concern for their safety, or simply quit.
Implementing campus carry can be a financial burden on public universities because security and insurance costs increase after passing campus carry.
Campus carry laws can create confusion for law enforcement responding to an active shooter call. When confronted with multiple people with guns, law enforcement can have difficulty differentiating which gunman is the perpetrator.
Conclusions:
People carrying firearms in public spaces and public buildings create unnecessary risks of intentional and unintentional shootings.
Allowing local legislative bodies to allow or prohibit guns in public spaces and municipal public proceedings preserves local control by recognizing that not all communities in a state are the same.
The overwhelming majority of academic studies find that Stand Your Ground laws increase homicides and have no deterrence effect on crime.
Stand Your Ground laws exacerbate racial discrepancies in whether a homicide is considered justifiable.
Research shows that guns on college campuses will lead to increased gun violence including unintentional shootings, suicides, domestic violence, and sexual assault.
Due to the high lethality of firearms, increasing the availability of firearms on college campuses will lead to more fatal suicides.
The full document can be found here: The Denver Accord Part 7: Reduce the Presence of Firearms in Public Places
Recommended Reading:
Do Guns Mix With Democracy? The Fight Over Firearms in Government Buildings
White Paper: Stand Your Ground Laws
More research finds “stand your ground” laws lead to more homicides
Firearms on College Campuses: Research Evidence and Policy Implications