If We Allow Scientists to Study Gun Violence, What Aspects Should be Studied and What Will We Learn?

General Discussion
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Ah…hate to burst your bubble guys but scientists have been studying this issue for decades - FBI keeping UGCR stats since Moses was a baby & CDC since the 80’s and a lot more since;
…you should brush up on the subject matter - if you are looking for a start on cross cultural comparisons of gun ownership and crime you can’t get a much better overview than David Kopel’s “The Samurai, the Mountie and the Cowboy.”

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I didn't realize the NRA had lobbied for years to prevent scientific study of gun violence. I read an article to this effect a while back and now, of course, one of the president's exec orders involves more study of the issue. So what aspects should we study? Me, I'm a data guy. I'd like to see more good data. Who's shooting who? Is it mostly crooks on crooks or crooks shooting civilians? How often is a gun actually used by a private person to defend themselves? And of those times how often was a gun the level of force that was necessary to prevent the perceived threat? Could the person have just ran away? We hear that if we outlaws guns "only the criminals will have them." Is that actually true? I see countries like the UK and Australia with very restrictive gun laws and very low firearm homicide rates. Do the crooks have guns but maybe they're just not killing people with them? Or do most of the crooks just not have guns? If not, how was that accomplished in those countries? And what is the true correlation between private gun ownership and violent crime rates. I've seen conflicting data. So what are your thoughts? What other aspects should we examine? Mental health, video games? Chris
Chris, Criminologists have been doing studies on gun violence for years. Not all of your questions are addressed though. Would you like to provide you with a list of some peer reviewed articles to check out? Stacy
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Unfortunately Stacy, Chrisan hasn’t been on the site since last June, so he probably won’t see your offer.
Occam

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I didn't realize the NRA had lobbied for years to prevent scientific study of gun violence. I read an article to this effect a while back and now, of course, one of the president's exec orders involves more study of the issue. So what aspects should we study? Me, I'm a data guy. I'd like to see more good data. Who's shooting who? Is it mostly crooks on crooks or crooks shooting civilians? How often is a gun actually used by a private person to defend themselves? And of those times how often was a gun the level of force that was necessary to prevent the perceived threat? Could the person have just ran away? We hear that if we outlaws guns "only the criminals will have them." Is that actually true? I see countries like the UK and Australia with very restrictive gun laws and very low firearm homicide rates. Do the crooks have guns but maybe they're just not killing people with them? Or do most of the crooks just not have guns? If not, how was that accomplished in those countries? And what is the true correlation between private gun ownership and violent crime rates. I've seen conflicting data. So what are your thoughts? What other aspects should we examine? Mental health, video games? Chris
Chris, Criminologists have been doing studies on gun violence for years. Not all of your questions are addressed though. Would you like to provide you with a list of some peer reviewed articles to check out? Stacy I would be interested in seeing that list Stacy...thanks.