Program History

Each year nearly 100,000 people are shot in the U.S., and nearly 30,000 of them die. The Joyce Foundation seeks sound, research-based strategies to reduce this toll. Starting with a prototype at the Medical College of Wisconsin in the 1990s, the Foundation helped establish a central database, the National Violent Death Reporting System, now a project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it has funded research exploring the relationship between guns and such problems as suicide, domestic violence, and risks to children.

Joyce has supported policy and advocacy by state groups, physicians, and law enforcement groups, and litigation strategies to defend existing gun laws in the wake of the Supreme Court Heller decision. Research shows that most Americans, including most gun-owners, favor reasonable laws to keep firearms away from criminals, domestic abusers, and people with mental illness, but the “gun rights” drumbeat has drowned out such common-sense approaches. The Foundation is continuing its work to educate the public, policy makers and the media about the toll of gun violence in American communities and potential solutions.

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