Constraints on Research Regarding Gun Ownership and Violence

Cathy O’Neil, a colleague and collaborator on the Sandy Hook Project, pointed me to this article in the New York Times.  I think this powerful quote highlights the primary reason I started work on the Sandy Hook Project:“In the absence of reliable data and data-driven policy recommendations, talk about guns inevitably lurches into the unknown, allowing abstractions, propaganda and ideology to fill the void and thwart change.”What limited data and analysis that exists is often misrepresented and abused, and is given much less attention than anecdotal evidence.  It is relatively simple to produce a handful of cases that support either side in this debate.  What we really need is to understand the true impact of guns on our society.  Push back by the NRA that any such research would be “political opinion masquerading as medical science.” is unacceptable.  We can only make intelligent decisions when we have the fullest picture possible.