Gun safety advocates hold signs during a rally to honor victims of gun violence on the steps of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver, 2013. AP/Brennan Linsley Jonathan Spiegler , Michigan State University and Jacob Smith , University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Gun violence remains a highly controversial issue in the wake of school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and other communities . At such times, politicians seem compelled to offer the public solutions. The two most prominent solutions put forth are stricter gun control laws and addressing mental illness . The frequency with which these two solutions are proposed might suggest that they are equally important. Yet, there is little research that directly tests the relative effectiveness of stricter gun control versus a mental illness solution. We are political scientists who have studied this issue. In a forthcoming paper from Policy Studies Journal , we report on our study ...
Sorting Through the Debris of Politics and Popular Culture