EconHack 2023 — Mass Shootings in America
2nd Annual EconHack @ Pace University.
The Problem: Mass Shootings in America
Mass shootings have rapidly been on the rise over the past 20 years. As the issue is becoming more politicized, solutions to this grave issue are becoming difficult to resolve in the legislature.
Your task is to come up with a novel policy that will tackle at least two concerns:
- Federal gun regulation (that still adheres to the Second Amendment)
- Prevention of mass shootings at schools and educational institutions
- Prevention of mass shootings and active shooters
Requirements: Use data to back up your policy advice (this can be a graph, a regression, statistics). Be sure to cite any claims that you make with reputable sources.
Context
The Second Amendment of the US Constitution states:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Over the past 20 years, mass shootings (where at least 4 people have been fatally shot) have sharply increased, yet few policies have been enacted to address this problem at any legislative level. At the federal level, the only requirement to obtain a gun is to pass an instant background check that considers criminal convictions, domestic violence, and immigration status (New York Times, 2019). This requirement is waived if the gun is purchased at a gun show (around 4–9% of total gun sales) or through private sales (~33% of owners). Gun-related deaths among Americans are 25 times more likely than in any other high-income country.
Some policy makers suggest that mental health is what is at the helm of mass shootings. However, prior research has found that only 15–17% of shootings involve an offender with diagnosed psychotic disorders (Stone, 2015; Fox and Fridel, 2016). Furthermore, mental illness contributes to only about 4% of all violence, and the contribution to gun violence is even lower (National Alliance on Mental Illness, California). While these two issues are often linked in the media, there isn’t sufficient evidence that mental illness increases the likelihood of mass shootings.
Resources
- RAND — Mass Shootings analysis
- Giffords Law Center — gun violence statistics
- Everytown Research — gunfire on school grounds
- Gun Violence Archive
- BBC — US gun control in charts
Presentations
1st Place — Team Sharp
2nd Place — Team LuisAngels
3rd Place — Team Panthers
Other teams in the competition: