Statistical calculations on gun control how to#

Still other information comes from case studies, social experiments, and other one-time surveys conducted on special populations. Other information comes from administrative data, such as the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the trace data of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF). Some information on firearms and violence is found in probability samples of well-defined populations, such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the General Social Survey (GSS). Rather, there are many different sources of data that researchers use to draw inferences about the empirical questions of interest. No authoritative source of information exists to provide representative, accurate, complete, timely, and detailed data on the incidence and characteristics of firearm-related violence in the United States.

To study firearms and violence, researchers and policy makers rely on a patchwork of data sources collected for more general purposes of monitoring the nation’s health and crime problems. The existing body of research, as described in the other chapters of the report, has shed light on some of the most fundamental The committee does not wish to paint an overly pessimistic picture of this research area. For these reasons the committee urges a significant increase in methodological work on measurement in the area of firearms ownership and violence. Often, we find that the existing data are insufficient, but how and whether to develop alternative data sources remain open questions. There are no easy solutions to resolving the existing data-related problems.

Statistical calculations on gun control how to#

This chapter summarizes some of the key data collection systems used to assess firearms policies, describes some of the key properties of useful research data, and offers some suggestions for how to begin to develop data that can answer the basic policy questions. In the committee’s view, the major scientific obstacle for advancing the body of research and further developing credible empirical research to inform policy on firearms is the lack of reliable and valid data. Moreover, response problems are thought to be particularly severe in surveys of firearms ownership and violence. In firearms and violence research, the outcomes of interest, although large in absolute numbers, are statistically rare events that are not observed with great frequency, if at all, in many ongoing national probability samples. These obstacles are particularly difficult in firearms research. These include lack of relevant data, data that are error-ridden, and data that are not based on properly designed statistical samples (i.e., are unrepresentative) of the targeted population. Scientists in the social and behavioral sciences deal with many data-related obstacles in conducting empirical research. Data for Measuring Firearms Violence and Ownership