A new book chapter serves as a great resource for anyone who works with gun violence data.
The chapter appears in a new book called Why We Are Losing the War on Gun Violence in the United States.
Chapter 3 provides a full accounting of federal data sources for gun violence statistics, and also discusses gaps in the data.
From the book:
The most glaring gap is an absence of a single federal data source on gun ownership. Estimates of gun ownership come from a variety of sources; none of which are derived from a federal agency’s data collection efforts. Due to the glaring data gap, NVSS firearm-related suicide data are sometimes used as a proxy to estimate gun ownership by state.
Recognizing that significant political barriers still exist that prevent robust gun violence prevention research from occurring at the federal level, below is a list of tangible recommendations for the current climate.
a) Create a dynamic federal data compendium of key indicators related to firearm manufacturing, commerce, and licensure; gun-related crime; health costs from firearm injury and prevalence of firearm-related deaths and morbidity. […]
b) Coordination of research and data collection activities across federal agencies […]
c) It would be helpful is there was a joint paper that discussed the various choices and the pros and cons of existing federal data sources
