Reducing Gun Violence through Enforcement Strategies

1. Reducing Gun Violence through Enforcement Strategies Jens Ludwig University of Chicago Crime Lab February 1, 2011

2. Firearms facts • ~250 million in private hands, 1/3 handgun • Ownership quite concentrated • 1/3 of households, ¼ of adults • Annually: 30,000 gun deaths, 80,000 injuries, 500,000 gun crimes • Guns: 52% of suicides, 68% of homicides, 25% of personal robberies

3. The challenge for research & policy • Whatever you think of current regulations politics make big changes unlikely • State / local regulations undermined by across-state gun transfers • Federal politics are what they are • Courts striking down gun bans in DC and Chicago, uncertainty w/ other regulations • What can we actually do that would help?

4. Alternative strategies for reducing gun use in violence If guns are going to become more prevalent, what steps are available to reduce negative consequences? Two general strategies: USE: Change incentives for using a gun ACCESS: Make it harder for youths and criminals to obtain guns and ammo

5. USE: Make guns a liability to criminals (swift, certain punishment) • Anti-gun policing (key role of gun carrying) • Most homicides in US involve guns, most victims discovered outside • NYPD does a lot of this, studies of Pittsburgh (Cohen & Ludwig) suggests this helps reduce gun violence • But challenging to implement appropriately • Swift, certain punishment for carrying guns • Police complains about slap on wrist for illegal gun carrying (“real crime” vs. probabilistic harm) • Seems like promising margin but little direct evaluation evidence (& implementation?)

6. USE: Make guns a liability to criminals (swift, certain punishment) • Rewards for tips about guns • Venkatesh: Lots of teens carry guns for status • Rewards for tips inverts incentives to show off • NYPD pilot project, but never evaluated • Direct communication of gun priority to gang members, group sanctions (Boston) • Is this as promising as we hope? (And can it work in areas w/ weakly organized gangs / drug mkts?) • Less promising: Long prison terms • All people short sighted (criminals especially)

7. ACCESS: friction and price Surprise: many high-risk people have difficulty in obtaining guns (the Chicago story, from Cook / Ludwig / Venkatesh / Braga 2007 Economic Journal) • Large price mark-ups relative to legal mkt. • Substantial wait times • System of “retail brokers” has developed • Large share of purchase attempts unfulfilled • Different for guns than drugs b/c durable goods?

8. Tactics for increasing friction / price in gun market • Reduce theft through locks & liability • Investigate “point” sources (both FFL and in the underground market • ATF trace data important for this activity • Provide arrestees with incentives to share information @ gun sources (NJSP) • Don’t bother with gun buybacks

9. We have far more promising ideas than proven ideas • National Academy of Sciences – very little known about what actually helps • Consistent with data showing we’ve made very little long-term progress • We need to do a better job learning from experience • More experiments, like in medicine (goal of University of Chicago Crime Lab) • Lack of learning / progress is a second tragedy, compounds all the lives damaged by gun violence