Are stricter gun laws associated with reduced school shooting severity in the U.S.?
Open Access
- Author:
- Styer, Clarissa
- Area of Honors:
- Geography
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Christopher Stiles Fowler, Thesis Supervisor
Brian H. King, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- School Shooting
Gun Laws
Geography
Zero-Inflated Poisson
School Shooting Severity - Abstract:
- School shootings have become a distressing reality, prompting urgent calls to policymakers for solutions from students, teachers, and parents. In this study, I investigate the impact of gun laws on school shootings, addressing two key questions: Do states with stricter gun laws experience fewer school shootings? Are school shootings less severe in states with stricter gun laws? Using methodology from Everytown.org, I created a gun laws strictness score and compared it to a school shooting severity score and school shooting rate using two models: a linear-regression model and a Zero-Inflated Poisson (ZIP) model. My linear-regression model showed a clear relationship between gun laws scores and school shootings. This indicated that when gun laws are stricter there are fewer school shootings. However, when including the zeros in my ZIP model there was no significant relationship seen. When a robustness check was done on the entire unrefined school shootings data there were significant results present, showing a relationship between school shooting counts and gun laws scores, population, and time (year). These results indicate that with a stricter definition of “school shooting” more in line with the general perception of school shootings in America, there is no correlation seen between gun laws scores and school shootings. However, when the definition of school shooting is broad and related to any gun violence in or around schools there is a clear relationship seen between school shootings and gun laws. This relationship shows us that school shootings relating to gun laws are more than just the statistical relationship, there are many factors to consider. For example, the definition of school shootings, the demographics of the surrounding area and school, the local gun laws rather than just the state gun laws, or the local mental health interventions.