Stricter gun laws, safer schools: What two decades of data reveal

Source citation:

Wippell et al. analyzed 20 years of data from all 50 states, to see whether stricter gun laws prevent K-12 school shootings in the US. They relied in part on the State Firearm Law Database: State Firearm Laws, 1991-2019 from NACJD. In each state, for each year, the database tracks the implementation of 134 different types of state gun laws and policies, like background check requirements, assault weapon bans, and safe storage laws. Wippell et al. used data for the years 2000-2019 and compared it to a separate database that recorded incidents of all types of school shootings, representing the same timeframe. They could then see what happened to school shooting rates within states before and after they changed their gun laws. The authors focused on seven major types of gun policy and found that when states put in place more restrictive gun laws, those states had significantly fewer school shootings the following year. While their study couldn’t prove direct causation, the authors noted that a consistent pattern across states and years provides strong evidence that thoughtfully designed gun policies could function as a public health intervention to protect children by helping to prevent school shootings. Check here for more publications that use the State Firearm Law Database.

Posted on April 2, 2026

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