Violence Policy Center

Causes: Crime & Law, Gun Control, Health

Mission: Each year, firearms kill nearly 30,000 Americans--more than all other household and recreational products combined. Yet firearms are virtually exempt from federal health and safety regulation. The overarching framework of the VPC's research, education, and advocacy efforts is "guns as consumer products" and the need to hold the gun industry's products to the same health and safety standards that virtually all other consumer products must meet. The VPC's twin goals are to aid the general public's understanding of firearms violence as a public health, rather than solely a crime, issue (the vast majority of gun death is not felony related), and to use the VPC's research and public education activities to shape public policy while involving individuals and organizations from affected constituencies--consumer, youth, domestic violence, civil rights, faith, and public health--in a national movement to reduce gun death and injury.

Programs: The VPC conducts research and educational activities on violence and related issues, including: the impact of firearms violence on specific populations, such as youth, women, and minorities; the link between firearms availability and rates of mortality and morbidity; and, the increasing lethality of weapons marketed by the firearms industry to the civilian population. VPC research shapes public debate and guides policymaking. Some highlights resulting from the VPC's work include: dramatically reducing the number of illegitimate gun dealers in the U.S.; terminating a federal program that re-armed convicted, often violent, felons at taxpayer expense; passing the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, which bans gun possession by individuals convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes; first identifying the threat posed by gun shows as a source of criminal gun trafficking; and, working to protect the legal rights of the victims of firearms violence and defective firearms. The VPC is also a leading resource for the press and is cited hundreds of times each year in leading publications and news outlets. At the state and local levels, VPC state-based studies looking at such issues as murder-suicide, female homicide victimization, black homicide victimization, and other violence-related issues increase public awareness and focus press attention on gun violence in areas of the country where policy issues regarding gun death and injury are less often addressed. At the same time, the VPC works with national and local organizations with interests beyond gun control to build the broadest possible base of support for violence prevention.