Title:Gun violence in America

Content Warning: story contains mention of school shootings

Across the United States, more than 120 people die each day from firearm-related injuries, which are now the leading cause of death for children and teens 19 and younger. Georgetown faculty, students, and alumni are responding to this public health crisis through a number of approaches including research, education, and activism.

Last year the university joined the 120 Initiative, an effort launched by the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area that is focused on reducing gun violence in the United States through research-based, actionable solutions.

Contributing to the collaborative are a dozen Georgetown experts drawn from schools and programs across the university. They include faculty from the Center for Innovations in Community Safety at the Law Center, the School of Medicine and MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s Community Violence Intervention Program, the School of Continuing Studies, and the Health Justice Alliance.

After seven months of study and debate, this spring the group shared initial recommendations. These include more community engagement and violence interruption programs, gun violence prevention education campaigns, and more safety device use and training. Importantly, they noted that these efforts will take root if combined with supportive legislation, extensive mental health services, funding for more scholarship, and continued investment in addressing systemic inequities in American society.

Whether crunching statistics to improve policymaking or supporting communities affected by gun violence, Hoyas everywhere are striving to make a difference.

Supporting the development of ‘sound, evidence-based public policy’

Firearms policy research is limited by a dearth of quality data on factors such as gun ownership and nonfatal injuries from firearms. Georgetown’s Massive Data Institute (MDI) is trying to change that. Housed in the McCourt School of Public Policy, the institute is part of the university’s Tech & Society Initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration bringing together cross-campus centers that are involved in research, understanding, and action—all at the intersection of technology, ethics, and governance.

In April, MDI hosted a Fireside Chat on campus on the state of gun violence in the country. The discussion, facilitated by Georgetown faculty and students, centered on current research on gun violence, the impact of different policies, and strategies for addressing it from a public health perspective. Panelists also spoke about the effects of racism on firearms research and policy.

“It was a wonderful first conversation,” says Lisa Singh, MDI director and professor of computer science. “At MDI, we not only want to advance research, but we also want to grow the community that’s thinking about these issues and how they impact our campus and the greater Washington, DC, area. We want to engage with people at other local universities to tackle these problems in the District and have thoughtful conversations that may help us understand what is true and what’s not true about gun violence.”

The MDI hopes to address this and a wide range of social issues by bringing together experts to gather data, analyze it, and propose solutions.

“Our goal is not to focus on a particular policy, technology, or problem,” Singh says. “Our goal is to develop methods, approaches, and innovations that can support sound, evidence based public policy around issues like gun violence.”

Singh and co-collaborator Carole Roan Gresenz, a professor jointly appointed in McCourt and the School of Health, are leading an MDI team in developing innovative approaches to understanding the firearms landscape. For example they are investigating methods for determining firearm-related death counts and gun ownership in different locations around the country. They explore social media data as a measurement tool, developing machine learning classifiers to help predict gun-related outcomes. They use the X (previously Twitter) interface to search for nearly 200 hashtags, keywords, and phrases, such as #Don’tTakeMyGuns, #NotAGunOwner, and #suicideawareness to understand the types of conversations taking place and their value for approximating counts that are difficult to obtain in other ways.

Despite limitations, their research found that “in conjunction with traditional surveys, social media is promising as a way to understand public opinion,” Singh says. Funded by a grant from the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, they are continuing this work with the goal of building a stronger foundation for gun policy research.

Studying crime data to inform law enforcement strategy

At some police departments across the country, data analysts collect, compile, and study statistical data, such as crime and census reports, to help agencies evaluate crime trends, patterns, and locations. Brannon Green (G’16), a graduate of Georgetown’s Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, is a law enforcement analyst with the DC Metropolitan Police Department. As part of their Research and Evaluation Branch, he primarily collects and analyzes variables related to gun violence in the District. Those factors include a wide range of details about incidents, such as the events leading up to a shooting, patterns in shooting locations, suspect and victim demographics, the types of guns involved, and trends in how and where these guns are recovered. Looking at these factors, along with broader crime data collected by other researchers in the department, helps city leadership make informed, strategic decisions to reduce crime.

“Crime in any city is an ever-evolving problem,” Green says. “So it’s important to be constantly collecting data that gives us insight as to what the trends might be, and to provide a means of rethinking previous tactics and developing more focused solutions.”

At Georgetown, Green studied cognitive neuroscience and brain mapping. His interest in coding and data science led him to the field of applied data in criminal justice.

“As a Ph.D. scientist, I’ve been trained in how to ask questions and how to approach problems,” Green says. “I hope to use that problem-solving training to at least move the needle in helping to reduce gun violence—or violence in general.

“The more that you work in the field, the more you realize that gun violence is an interconnected problem related to a lot of societal factors that are outside of the police purview,” Green adds. “Figuring out how to understand the problem or fix the problem is a much more daunting task than some people realize.”

Portrait of gun ownership in America

Georgetown professor William English grew up hunting and participating in shooting sports, and decided to write a book examining the historical and social science aspects of the gun debate. Reviewing literature that had been previously published, he discovered that much of the existing data on gun ownership was outdated.

“I found that the most comprehensive survey of American gun ownership had been conducted back in 1994,” says English, an assistant professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy in Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business.

English set out to update the profile of gun ownership trends to include new data on types of firearms that are most popular now and how gun owners are using these weapons. The resulting 2021 National Firearms Survey is the largest survey of gun owners ever conducted, collecting information from more than 16,000 across the nation.

English found that about a third of U.S. adults—approximately 81.4 million people—own a firearm. On average each individual owns five firearms, and handguns are the most common type owned. The data showed that AR-15 style rifles have grown in popularity and are now owned by about 24.6 million people.

The survey asked extensive questions about defensive gun use. Findings included that 56.2% of gun owners sometimes carry a gun for self-defense, with 35% indicating that they frequently carry a handgun. Additionally, 31.1% of gun owners reported having used a firearm to defend themselves or their property.

Meanwhile, English says that “one of the more surprising findings, at least to me, was how diverse gun owners are.” The survey found that more than 42% of firearm owners are female. Among American racial groups, 19.4% of Asian people, 25.4% of Black people, 28.3% of Hispanic people, and 34.3% of White people own firearms. For AR-15 style rifles and magazines that hold over 10 rounds, the difference in ownership by racial group was narrower.

Student and alumni agents for change

For Alysha Orbach (SFS’23), the issue of gun violence strikes close to home. The Austin, Texas, native recalls an incident when she was 13 years old and visited a friend whose father kept a loaded rifle stored by the front door. Her friend picked up the weapon and held it to Orbach’s head as a prank. Knowing that many children have been killed at the hands of another child playing with a gun, Orbach feels lucky to have survived. But the traumatic incident motivated her to become part of gun violence prevention efforts as a Georgetown student.

After seeing reports of the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Orbach decided, “I’m not going to watch this happen anymore. I’m going to be a part of the solution.”

While at Georgetown, she became director of March for Our Lives DC, a national grassroots movement that emerged in response to the Parkland shootings. Orbach advocated for her fellow Georgetown students to become involved and find ways to bring about positive changes in the greater Washington, DC, community.

“We cannot say that we’re a bastion of education and an institution trying to effect change if we’re not even trying to bring about change in the places where we live,” says Orbach, who now works for Human Rights Watch, where she supports the U.S. program staff in its racial justice work. “Unfortunately, gun violence is a prevalent issue in DC that primarily affects people of color. It doesn’t affect the area immediately surrounding Georgetown and because of that, it’s easy for students to say, this is not my problem. As students of Georgetown, as alumni of Georgetown, it’s important that we become fully engaged members of our communities.”

Gun violence is a part of daily life for many DC residents, and Orbach says it’s important for members of a community of privilege, such as Georgetown, to connect with those most affected by gun violence—primarily people of color and those living in poverty.

“Gun violence against others tends to be concentrated in urban areas or in high-poverty communities where people are facing inadequate access to the daily means of survival,” Orbach says. “Those disparities tend to follow along racial lines.”

The fastest-growing gun safety problem in the United States is the prevalence of ghost guns, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest U.S. gun violence prevention organization. These homemade and untraceable weapons can be assembled in less than an hour using parts that can be purchased on the internet without a background check. Felons, gun traffickers, and even children are able to purchase these kits.

As director of litigation strategy and trials for Everytown, attorney Len Kamdang (C’98) managed a team that sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to change how ghost guns are regulated by the federal government. Additionally, his team represented the city of Los Angeles in a lawsuit against Polymer 80, the biggest ghost gun manufacturer in the United States. That case was recently settled for $5 million.

“We are litigators who take the battle for gun safety to the courts. That includes representing cities that pass common sense gun violence prevention laws, as well as representing shooting survivors and their families,” says Kamdang, noting that Everytown employs several Georgetown alumni. “Litigation is just one part of addressing the problem of gun violence. We are seeking accountability from the industry to reform their practices and hopefully make America a safer place.”

Kamdang credits his Jesuit education—both in high school and at Georgetown—for instilling in him the value of service to others. At Georgetown, Kamdang was involved in organizations such as DC Reads and the After School Kids Program. The Friends of Lorton tutoring project, started by Patricia O’Connor, associate professor of English, gave him a chance to work and learn with an incarcerated population.

“That was the biggest eye opener for me and set me on a path of social justice reform for the next 20 years,” Kamdang says.

Teaching peace and nonviolence

All of this work is grounded in the university’s Jesuit tradition of cura personalis, which emphasizes a sense of profound care and responsibility for one another.

In the classroom, this value comes to the fore through the offerings of Georgetown’s Program on Justice and Peace (JUPS). The transdisciplinary, cross-cultural community of students, faculty, staff, and community partners share a commitment to the university’s Jesuit mission of understanding and solving global problems, including gun violence.

Eli McCarthy, who teaches ethics and nonviolent communications in JUPS and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, also offers nonviolent skills training sessions focused on reducing gun violence, with topics such as “Active Bystander Intervention in Weapon Situations,” “Unarmed Civilian Protection Deployments,” and “Restorative Circles and Gun Violence.” “Nonviolence is essential to these conversations because it roots us in a way of life, a commitment to human dignity, and an imagination that forms us to engage conflict constructively rather than with guns,” McCarthy says. “The ‘just peace’ approach offers a vision, normative framework, and process that breaks cycles of violence such as gun violence and builds a more sustainable peace.” While the avoidance of war and the nonviolent resolution of conflicts is a central objective of JUPS, courses in the program also focus on understanding structural injustices that lead to violence. “Georgetown invites us to really strive towards flourishing and the greater good of all people, which is critical when it comes to breaking cycles of violence,” McCarthy says. “And the Jesuits, particularly with their emphasis on reconciliation, can help us see the link between dignity and nonviolence so that we become the kind of people that are able to engage conflict better and are less likely to resort to physical harm. If we’re really focused on saving every life in conflict, then we’re going to be less apt to lean towards weapons or violence to solve an issue.”

McCarthy also points to the value of Ubuntu, a traditional African philosophy that encourages ideals such as community equality, cooperation, sharing, and trust.

“This concept emphasizes the sense that we are all deeply connected, that we are human because we belong to each other,” says McCarthy. “And that deeper spiritual cultivation is critical for advancing nonviolent practices and having a more sustainable and just peace.”