Lunch & Learn Webinar Series

In August 2020, we launched a new monthly virtual webinar series highlighting emerging research on gun violence through the Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform Program. Each webinar is free and open to the public, join the mailing list to receive invitations for future webinars in this series.

The series builds on the Joyce Foundation’s long history of funding research on gun violence with new data and the latest findings on emerging topics, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gun violence. See our 25 Years of Impactful Grant Making report to learn more about the Foundation's Gun Violence Prevention work.

The recordings of all the past webinars are available below.

Dr. Garen Wintemute, the Baker-Teret Chair in Violence Prevention at the University of California, Davis, and Julia Schleimer, Research Data Analyst with the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis discussed new research released in July on gun violence trends during the COVID-19 pandemic, which found that the surge in firearm purchases during the pandemic is linked to higher rates of firearm violence in the U.S.

The slideshow presented by Julia Schleimer can be found here.

Thomas Abt, author of Bleeding Out and Senior Fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, and Eddie Bocanegra, senior director of the Heartland Alliance, shared research on efforts to stop violence in our cities and how that research plays out on the ground.

Dr. Arielle Sheftall, of Nationwide Children's Hospital, discusses trends in suicide rates, and David Studdert, of Stanford University, discussed the increased suicide risk associated with handgun ownership, drawing from research findings released this summer in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Links to the slideshow presentations:

• Suicide Deaths by Firearm in Children and Adolescents by Dr. Arielle H. Sheftall
• New evidence on the relationship between handgun ownership & suicide risk by David Studdert

Daniel Webster and Cass Crifasi, both of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy, discuss how the design and implementation of firearms background checks policies matter by drawing from their new research released this summer in the American Journal of Public Health that compares changes in purchaser licensing laws in CT and MO with comprehensive background checks laws in MD and PA.

The slideshow presented can be viewed here.

The Polling Memo: Key Findings on Public Support for Firearms Licensing mentioned during the webinar can be viewed here.

Featuring guest speakers Catherine Barber, MPA, Senior researcher, Harvard School of Public Health’s Injury Research Center; Shani Buggs, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor, University of California, Davis; and April M. Zeoli, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University.

Speakers shared their perspectives on key issues in gun violence prevention research, including domestic violence, community-based gun violence, and firearm suicide.

The Next 100 Questions: A Research Agenda for Ending Gun Violence report discussed in the webinar can be viewed here.

Dr. David K. Humphreys and Dr. Michelle Degli Esposti discussed their new research on states that have enacted Stand Your Ground policies and demonstrated this policy’s impact on physical injury, violence and crime in those jurisdictions.

The slideshow presented can be viewed here.

To learn more about the Stand Your Ground Research Project, click here.

Featuring speakers: Dr. David Hureau, Dr. David E. Olson, Dr. Theodore Wilson, II.

There is a robust debate underway about the appropriate role of the criminal legal system and its response to gun violence. Concerns about over policing and over incarceration in communities of color are grounded in the lived experience of many Americans. At the same time, data about the system’s response to gun crime is not readily understood or available.

During this webinar, the speakers presented and answered questions on new research on the criminal justice system’s response to gun crime in Illinois and New York.

The slideshow presentation can be viewed here.

Learn more on Illinois data here:

• Gun possession arrests in Illinois
• Gun possession arrests in Cook County (Chicago) Illinois

Speakers: Dr. Shannon Frattaroli and Josh Sugarmann

In the U.S., the majority of women murdered by intimate partners are killed with guns, and firearm availability makes abuse far more lethal. Given the role that firearms play in this type of violence, states have responded by enacting laws to restrict abusers’ access to guns. But localities vary in their implementation and enforcement of these measures.

During the webinar, we discussed what the evidence tells us about the lethal connection between intimate partner violence and firearms and examine new research on how four states are trying to mitigate this risk.

Speaker presentations and related resources:

• Slideshow Presentation by Josh Sugarmann
• Violence Policy Center Reports:
  • Data: Female Homicide Victimization by Males
  • Report: When Men Murder Women
  • Report: Firearm Justifiable Homicides and Non-Fatal Self Defense Gun Use
• Slideshow Presentation Shannon Frattaroli
• Frattaroli Research Study on Implementation and Enforcement Best Practices
• News Story: FBI Crime Data Could Go Away For One In Four Police Agencies

Speakers: Dr. Deborah Azrael and Dr. Matthew Miller

Since March 2020, 3.6 million NICS checks have been conducted per month – a 50% increase over the average monthly rate in 2019. In this month's Webinar, researchers from Northeastern and Harvard Universities shared their national survey's preliminary data to answer critical questions about these recent gun buyers, including how many people have become new gun owners over the past year, their demographics, how many and what types of guns they bought, and the reasons why they decided to buy guns.

The slideshow presentation can be viewed here.

Join our mailing list to receive more information on future sessions.