Home

On December 14, 2012 27 people, including 20 children, were killed when a heavily armed gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School. This horrific act once again opened the debate in the US between advocates for gun control and those who view gun control as an infringement on their second amendment rights.

A large number of statistics and graphs have been produced to demonstrate the relationship between firearms, firearm control laws and violence. Some seem to indicate that gun ownership leads to high levels of violence. Others indicate the exact opposite. Very few of these statistics and graphs provide an explanation of their methodology or demonstrate the level of rigor employed to produce them.

The purpose of this project is to use hard data and rigorous analysis to evaluate these statistics and determine if they are correct and accurate. This project is designed to be a repository of data and tools that explore the relationships between mortality rates, crime rates, density of gun ownership and gun control laws to support quantitative analyses of the impact of firearms in US society. My hope is that the use of this data will help people of the US make informed decisions regarding the control and ownership of guns.

Project Index