My new coauthored paper in the Journal of Social Science & Medicine analyzes 20 years of school shootings with an index value measuring changes in state gun laws over time.

Certain laws are more consistently associated with reductions in school shooting incidence than others. We found the strongest state-level predictors of reduced school shooting rates are:

• assault weapon bans

• permit requirements

• prohibitions on firearms on elementary school campuses

• criminal liability statutes for negligent storage

Our results suggest that the extremely permissive firearms laws in certain U.S. states may contribute to a higher rate of shootings on k-12 school campuses. Our findings broadly suggest that state firearm legislation can function as a structural determinant of child and adolescent firearm risk. This supports moving beyond individual risk factors (e.g., red flag laws, background checks, threat assessment model) to a more systematic, policy-based approach for reducing gun injuries and deaths.