Center for Gun Policy and Research

Legal Issues
Legal Issues
The Center monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of major gun laws, including those related to: "Saturday night special" handguns; handgun registration and licensing; child access prevention; and minimum purchase and possession age. More
Gun Trafficking
Gun Trafficking
The Center is committed to studying and reducing illegal firearm trafficking. The Center's work in this area focuses on the role of gun dealers, straw purchases, and firearm theft in the transfer of guns from legal to illegal markets. More
Domestic Violence
Domestic Violence
The Center studies policies and behaviors related to gun violence perpetrated by domestic violence offenders. Center research seeks to identify whether current legal practices effectively keep guns out of the hands of batterers. More
Keeping Guns from Youth
Keeping Guns from Youth
The Center studies policies and behaviors related to gun access and carrying among youth. Center research focuses on trends and prevention of youth homicide, suicide, violence, and unintentional injury by firearms. More

Legal Issues

The Center has long examined the use of law as a tool for the prevention of gun violence. Center faculty analyze and evaluate legislation or regulation intended to help prevent gun deaths, injuries, and crime. The Center also studies other legal issues, including the pros and cons of litigation as a violence prevention strategy, and constitutional issues regarding gun laws. With public health lawyers among its multi-disciplinary faculty, the Center is well positioned to consider new legal approaches, based on sound science, to address gun violence.

Center Research

KEEPING GUNS OUT OF THE HANDS OF ABUSERS: HANDGUN PURCHASES AND RESTRAINING ORDERS
Vittes KA, Sorenson SB
American Journal of Public Health 2008;98:828-831

AVAILABILITY OF LITIGATION AS A TOOL FOR FIREARM INJURY PREVENTION: COMPARING GUNS, VACCINES, AND MOTOR VEHICLES
Vernick JS, Rutkow L, Salmon D.
American Journal of Public Health 2007;97:1991-1997

THE ETHICS OF RESTRICTIVE LICENSING FOR HANDGUNS: COMPARING THE UNITED STATES AND CANADIAN APPROACHES TO HANDGUN REGULATION
Vernick JS, Hodge JG, Webster DW
Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 2007; 35: 668-678

REGULATING FIREARMS DEALERS IN THE UNITED STATES: AN ANALYSIS OF STATE LAW AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Vernick JS, Daniel DW, Bulzacchelli MT
Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 2006;34:765-775

For more research on legal issues related to firearms, click here to browse the database of scholarly works by Center faculty.

Highlighted Research

J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2010 Jan;19(1):93-8.
Women with protective orders report failure to remove firearms from their abusive partners
Shootings are the most common method by which women are killed by an intimate partner in the United States. More
Am J Public Health. 2010 Oct;100(10):1856-60.
Fatally flawed study yields misleading results
A widely publicized study of the relationship between gun shows and gun violence is being cited in debates about the regulation of gun shows and gun commerce. We believe the study is fatally flawed. More
J Urban Health. 2010 May;87(3):352-64.
Risk factors for criminal use of handguns recently purchased under conditions that suggest trafficking
Our findings should help law enforcement's illegal gun units to consider which of the thousands of crime gun traces to follow up with an investigation of possible trafficking. More
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