News & Facts

Improving Gun Safety in Michigan

Improving Gun Safety in Michigan MCPGV Board Chair Christopher E. Smith discussed gun safety at a recent forum hosted by the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan ...
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Gun Policy Challenges: Reminders in the News

We see news about gun violence every day. Literally every day. We read. We turn the page, often without really noticing. It is all too routine and numbing. At this ...
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Moving Forward

Those of us at MSU, as well as huge numbers of people across Michigan and the nation, are still coping with last week’s tragic shooting. One week after the shooting, ...
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Reflections on MSU and the Aftermath

It remains impossible for me to avoid thinking almost continuously about this week’s horrific tragedy. As an instructor who teaches in Berkey Hall, my close proximity to the site of ...
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Last night’s shootings at Michigan State University serve as another sobering reminder that gun violence is not something that happens to “other people.” Gun violence is all around us—sometimes unseen ...
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And Now for the Bad News About Gun Safety Legislation

The recent election results that brought both houses of the Michigan state legislature into alignment with the governor are generating expectations about the prospects for common sense gun safety laws ...
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A Promising Moment

I have been waiting for the flood of information about last week’s elections to subside so that we can pause for a moment and assess where we stand with efforts ...
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American Gun Violence in the News

I recently spent a weekend in Canada. In the breakfast area at the hotel, the television was tuned to a Canadian news network that briefly highlighted story after story after ...
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Can We Make a Commitment to Educate the Public with Facts?

NBC’s evening television news presented a story about a surge in threats to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) offices following statements by certain elected officials, media figures, and partisan operatives about ...
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The Hero with the Gun? Be Wary and Beware

The recent mass shooting at the mall in Greenwood, Indiana, understandably generated significant news media attention to the shopper who used his concealed weapon to kill the shooter and thereby ...
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Add Highland Park to the List and Think About the Costs We Seldom See

Highland Park. Yet another place name that will be tragically associated with horrific gun violence. Uvalde. Buffalo. Oxford. And those are only the most recent mass shooting locations to gain—at ...
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A Monumental Day for Law and Policy on Guns

June 23, 2022. A date that will live in history—and perhaps infamy—for gun law and policy. One development was expected. Namely, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to expand the Second ...
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A (Possible) Step Forward. Yet, Not Enough Progress As Opponents Push Ahead

The latest news reports tell us that a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Michigan’s Sen. Debbie Stabenow, have issued a statement of agreement concerning proposals related to gun violence ...
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The Price of Easy Firearms Access and the Path Ahead

On too many mornings, when I briefly check the TV news, the lead stories are about gun violence. Monday morning was especially awful. Ten mass shootings around the country over ...
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Striking News Stories in a Week That Struck the Nation with Outrage and Sadness

Thursday’s New York Times presented photos of the nineteen fourth graders and two teachers gunned down at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. As happened a decade ago after the ...
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History Repeats Itself in the Worst Possible Way

In December 2012, a twenty-year-old gunman entered an elementary school Connecticut and killed twenty-six people, including twenty young children. In May 2022, an eighteen-year-old gunman entered an elementary school in ...
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Dangers and Our Democracy

Even in a time of war and economic troubles, eye-opening news stories about gun violence still continuously present themselves for our consideration. Do we let the implications of these events ...
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#Enough: Plays to End Gunviolence

The Collywobbles Theatre Co. presents #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence. Listen to community theatres around the country present readings or performances of plays about gun violence written by high ...
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The Bad, the Good, and the Useful

On any given day, it is easy to look at the news and see stories about the risks and harms of violence. At this moment in world history, we see ...
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Accelerating Action in the News. Waiting for Action by Policy Makers.

We seem to be at a moment when it can be difficult to keep up with the news. So much is happening in the wider world that it might be ...
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The Threat Posed to Democracy by Citizens’ Access to Firearms

We enter a new month greeted with the tragic news of fatal shootings at a college in Virginia and a high school in Minnesota (Lukpat and Jimenez, 2022; Vigdor and ...
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Stopping to Notice Small News Items

The dawn of a new year brings published assessments of the recent past. In recent weeks, I noticed news stories about the Centers for Disease Control’s final data on gun ...
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The Year in…Review or Preview?

This is the moment each year when non-profit organizations look back at developments and accomplishments over the past twelve months. In Michigan, the tragic school shooting in Oxford is fresh ...
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Guns and Schools

The tragic shooting at Oxford High School has produced significant discussions about the responsibility of schools and school officials for the prevention of shootings by students. It has also generated ...
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Thoughts and Prayers—and more(?)—for Oxford

The tragic shooting at Oxford High School last week is generating a variety of communications to our organization, including requests for media interviews and messages of support from individuals. As ...
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The Oxford High School Shooting: Tragedy in Our Midst

Our state is reeling from a firearms tragedy affecting the most vulnerable among us. Schools are supposed to be places of discovery, new experiences, social development, and learning. We require ...
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Extreme Risk Protection Orders

Note: We are grateful that two early-career scholars from Michigan State University have shared with us research-based information about an important issue that deserves consideration by Michigan’s legislators By Jennifer ...
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Awaiting the Supreme Court’s Next Declaration About Gun Rights

Significant news media attention this week is directed at the oral arguments heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in the much-anticipated case of New York State Rifle & ...
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Learning, Worrying, and Wondering ‘What If?’ While Reading the News

The news reports appear every day. More shootings. More heartache. More silence and inaction from those legislators who block consideration and discussion of statutory initiatives that might reduce risk and harm ...
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Suicide and Firearms among American Youth: Two Problems Intrinsically Linked

Note: Gun violence prevention requires attention to a variety of underlying issues and problems. Suicide, in particular, represents a major component of harm from firearms. In typical years, two-thirds of ...
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Let’s not permit the issue of Gun Violence to be used for OTHER policy agendas…

Pick a day, any day. News reports—at the local, state, and national level—tell us about troubling and tragic incidents of gun violence. We know that our pandemic era has led ...
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Day After Day, The Not-So-Happy News

Our fifteen-month pandemic experience gave us intensified problems with gun violence. We do not know the precise cause of the rise in gun violence that plagues our country. We can ...
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We Sit Still. But the Problems Do Not.

I sit down at the computer on a quiet Sunday afternoon intending to briefly check the day’s news. After typing the name of the news service, up pops the webpage ...
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Looking for Lessons Within Reports of Multiple Mass Shootings

A news report recently presented this disturbing headline: “There Were At Least 11 Mass Shootings Across the US This Weekend” (Silverman, 2021). Critics often express concern that the news media’s ...
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Imagining What Is Possible

In recent weeks, I have received messages from different people comparing gun policy in the United States with laws, policies, and the relative lack of gun violence problems in other ...
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Looking for Insight Amid Repetitive Reports of Gloomy News

Boulder. Indianapolis. Austin. The list of cities with publicized mass shootings grows with disturbing frequency. We notice—momentarily. We mourn—momentarily. And then the next event happens. Much like new email messages ...
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Numbness and Numbers

Tragedies produce numbers. This is true of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and other events that take lives and, at least momentarily, grab the news media’s attention. These numbers include dollar amounts ...
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Every “Oh No, Not Again!” Is a Call for Legislative Action

Scholars who study public policy focus on the stages of the processes for developing laws and policies to address society’s problems. Such policy-process stages include “problem definition” and “formulation” of ...
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New Bills Begin to Move Forward in Congress

LEGISLATIVE ACTION: Enhanced Background Checks Act, Violence Against Women Act, and more!On March 11, the U.S. House of Representatives approved two bills that seek to reduce the risk and harm ...
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Guns in the News: Sobering Reminders and Protective Actions

With news media coverage dominated by so many important developments concerning COVID, economic relief for struggling Americans, and investigations of the domestic terrorists’ attack on the U.S. Capitol, it can ...
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Parkland, a New President, & a New Session of Congress

As noted in recent news reports, Valentine’s Day marked the third anniversary of the horrific mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Using the same type ...
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What a Difference a Year Makes (and Not in a Good Way)

One year ago, a majority in the Virginia state legislature aligned with their governor to take actions intended to reduce the risk of gun violence. The members of that state’s ...
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The Latest Developments: The State Capitol Commission & the MI Legislature

In the aftermath of the violent invasion of the U.S. Capitol, the members of Michigan’s State Capitol Commission unanimously approved a prohibition on citizens’ openly carried firearms within the Michigan ...
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The Michigan State Capitol Commission’s Modest “First Step”

On Monday, the Michigan State Capitol Commission voted unanimously to support a limited prohibition on citizen-carried firearms inside the state Capitol. It had appeared that the majority of commissioners wanted ...
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The Invasion of the U.S. Capitol: Implications for Michigan

Wednesday’s shocking, shameful invasion of the U.S. Capitol by domestic terrorists will long be remembered as one of the worst days in the political history of our democratic republic. Obviously, ...
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Our Moment of Risk… (And Opportunity?)

News reports tell us that 2020 is a record-setting year for sales of firearms. The 17.2 million gun-purchase background checks conducted this year already exceed the previous record of 15.7 ...
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Guns at the Capitol: Setting the Default Switch Toward Risk Reduction and Safety

In recent days, the nation’s attention has been appropriately drawn to an important election. As the dust settles in the aftermath of that partisan battle, we need to return Michiganders’ ...
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Michigan State Capitol Commission—Where Are You?

It is long past time to ban firearms in the possession of anyone other than law enforcement officers in the State Capitol and on Capitol grounds. Will we learn any ...
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Concert Across America

LEARN MORE ...
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Dreading the Unexpected and Pondering Possibilities for Prevention

Two unexpected events have captured my attention in recent days. First, national news reports, including police video, depict officers taking Brad Parscale into custody. Until recently, Parscale was President Trump’s ...
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Concert Across America

We’re very excited for this year’s Concert Across America to End Gun Violence and Celebrity Auction. Musical legends including Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, John Fogerty, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz ...
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Never-Ending News & the Essential Elements of Democracy

News reports continuously remind us of the varied nature of risks and harms from gun violence, as well as debates about beneficial courses of actions. Recent weeks have been no ...
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Gun Violence Prevention & Background Checks

Accidental Shootings and Safe Storage ...
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Unsettling News About Second Amendment Law

On August 14, a three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in California issued a 2-to-1 decision striking down California’s ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines that hold ...
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Guns & the Cycle of Fear

Nearly every week brings grim reminders of the continuing problems of gun violence that plague our nation. Little more than one week ago, we marked the one-year anniversary of two ...
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What if we were Committed to what we say about Gun Violence?

“No mother should ever have to cradle her dead child in her arms simply because politicians refuse to do what is necessary….” (President Donald Trump, July 22, 2020). Virtually all ...
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The Harms of Reflexive Gun Use

American law traditionally excuses threats and violence that would otherwise be treated as crimes when the perpetrators have a justification of self-defense. As instruments with lethal power, guns should not ...
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Can We Talk? Dividing Lines & Limiting Gun Violence

A major challenge in the effort to address gun violence is cultivating the ability to listen and discuss issues across a cultural divide. Each week, there are events that remind ...
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U.S. Supreme Court & the 2nd Amendment: 2020

During the final days of June each year, the U.S. Supreme Court announces its remaining decisions for the annual term that runs from October through June. For those interested in ...
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Extreme Risk Protection Order- What you need to know.

ERPO legislation can save lives. We must act now. EXTREME RISK PROTECTION ORDERS will allow families and law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily suspend a person’s access to ...
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MI Ranks #7 for Black Homicide Victimization

91% of Black Homicide Victims in Michigan were Killed with Guns. Michigan has the 7th highest black homicide victimization rate in the nation with a rate of 28.55 per 100,000 ...
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Block the NRA’s Dream Bill – Sign the Petition

The National Rifle Association's dream bill is moving through Congress. It pushes concealed carry reciprocity, an extremely dangerous policy that would undermine state efforts to protect residents from gun violence ...
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Tavon Tanner, a bullet, and what happened on the streets of Chicago

Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune wrote about Tavon Tanner, one of 24 children 12 or under who have been shot in Chicago this year. He wanted to see the ...
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Black Homicide Victimization in the US

VPC: Concealed Carry Killers

Click on the image below to view the interactive map. Source: VPC: Concealed Carry Killers ...
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Speaker’s Bureau Informational PowerPoint

Sandy Hook Promise PSA

Courtesy of The Trace- Jolting Ads from 1968 Catalyzed the Modern Gun Debate

The Trace featured an article by Olivia Li on Ads (Courtesy Advertising Age) from 1968 that are relevant to today's Gun Debate. After the assassination of three American icons, a ...
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Make Your Voice Heard!

Every. Other. Day.

Thats how often a child dies from an accidental shooting at the hands of other children or adults. USA TODAY and AP conducted a study that revealed that the number ...
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Guns and Domestic Violence.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), there have been 487 gun related domestic violence fatalities since the beginning of this ...
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Suicide Prevention: Learn the facts. Save Lives.

Learn the facts Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among teens and young adults and the 10th leading cause of death among all Americans. On average, 4 teenagers ...
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