Grantee Summaries
EMBARGOED UNTIL 12:00 A.M. ET THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2019

“Got the Hammer on Me”: The Socio-Cultural Roots of Gun Use in the U.S.
This study will interview 750 young people from Baltimore, Detroit, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and New
York City to gain a better understanding of why youth in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods get
involved with guns.
Grant Amount: $1,670,000
Investigators: Elise White, deputy research director, Center for Court Innovation, and Yasser Arafat
Payne, associate professor, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware.
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2022
Deploying Social Media Data to Inform Gun Policy
This study will investigate the use of data from social media posts to measure gun-related outcomes in
cities or states and improve the data available to support rigorous gun policy research.
Grant Amount: $569,970
Investigator: Lisa Singh, professor, Department of Computer Science, and research professor, Massive
Data Institute, Georgetown University
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2021
Harvard/Utah Suicide Database: Linking Data to Prevent Suicide
This project will expand and improve a database linking public health and public safety data to
investigate a series of questions about the circumstances of suicide.
Grant Amount: $643,150
Investigator: David Hemenway, economist and director, Harvard Injury Control Research Center.
Expected Date of Completion: Mid-2021
Determinants of How Firearms Are Stored in Households with Children
This study will use findings from a nationally representative survey to better understand the factors and
interventions that may increase the use of safe firearm storage practices and reduce the number of gunrelated suicides and injuries among children.
Grant Amount: $481,261
Investigators: Matthew Miller, professor of health sciences and epidemiology, Northeastern University,
and co-director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center; and Debora Azrael, director of research,
Harvard Injury Control Research Center
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2021

 Firearm-Related Mortality among Cohabitants of Gun Owners
This study will measure the risks and benefits of having a handgun in the home for people who reside
with handgun owners.
Grant Amount: $667,604
Investigator: David Studdert, professor of medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, and
professor of law, Stanford Law School
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2021
Comprehensive Background Check Polices and Firearm Violence: Identifying Effective Design,
Implementation, and Enforcement Strategies
This study of comprehensive background check and permit-to-purchase policies will estimate the
effectiveness of these policies at reducing firearm crimes, and examine how their design,
implementation, and enforcement may change their effectiveness.
Grant Amount: $612,673
Investigator: Rose Kagawa, assistant professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of
California, Davis
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2022
Effect of Concealed Carry Laws on Firearm Injury
This study will use hospital data to comprehensively describe the effects of changes in state concealed
carry laws on gun-related deaths and injuries.
Grant Amount: $238,237
Investigators: Julia Wolfson, assistant professor, Department of Health Management and Policy,
University of Michigan School of Public Health; Susan Parker, doctoral student, Department of Health
Management and Policy at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health; and Edward Norton,
professor, Department of Management and Policy and Department of Economics, University of
Michigan
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2021
Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation’s Know the Signs Programs in the
Los Angeles Unified School District
This three-year study will evaluate programs designed to reduce gun violence in schools by teaching
youth to recognize and report potential violence and mental health threats and by increasing social
inclusion at school.
Grant Amount: $710,189
Investigators: Marc A. Zimmerman, Marshall H. Becker Collegiate Professor, and Justin Heinze, assistant
professor, both in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan
School of Public Health; and Rachel Masi, research director, Sandy Hook Promise
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2022
Variability in Assaultive, Unintentional, and Self Gunshot Injury in U.S. States and State Policy
Opportunities for Prevention

 This study will use a “hot-spotting” model to explore how state and county firearm mortality rates have
changed over time and place, relative to implementation or repeal of state firearm policies.
Grant Amount: $707,181
Investigator: Douglas Wiebe, professor of epidemiology, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology &
Informatics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2021
Estimating the Impact of Three Categories of Gun-Related Laws
Using data from 50 states over at least 48 years, this study will assess the impacts of three types of
laws—background checks for gun-show sales, stand-your-ground and defense-of-habitation laws, and
assault weapon restrictions—on gun homicides.
Grant Amount: $57,042
Investigators: Carlisle Moody, professor of economics, The College of William and Mary; and Thomas B.
Marvell, lawyer-sociologist
Estimated Date of Completion: Late 2019
Advancing Gun Policy: Linking Multi-Source Data to Develop Micro-Longitudinal Trajectories of
Domestic Violence Offenders’ Gun Use and Impact on Victims
This study will capture the daily experiences of female domestic violence victims whose partners have
guns, with the aim of understanding the impact of exposure to guns used in threatening, coercive, or
intimidating ways.
Grant Amount: $2,102,887
Investigators: Tami P. Sullivan, associate professor and director, Family Violence Research, and codirector, Division of Prevention and Community Research, Yale University School of Medicine;
Christopher D. Maxwell, Professor, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University.
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2022
Situational Decision-Making: A Training to Improve Officer Decision-Making in High-Stakes Situations
In partnership with the Chicago Police Department, this project will develop and test a police training
program to improve officer decision-making in high-stakes situations for the safety of officers and
community members alike.
Grant Amount: $570,240
Investigators: Oeindrila Dube, Philip K. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies, University of
Chicago Harris School of Public Policy; Anuj Shah, associate professor of behavioral science, University of
Chicago Booth School of Business
Expected Date of Completion: Mid-2021
A National Survey of Police Officer-Involved Firearm Shootings
A national survey of law enforcement agencies will determine the number of police officer-involved
shootings—both shootings by officers of civilians and instances of officers being shot at—over the last
20 years, and the factors associated with these shootings.
Grant Amount: $649,869.84

 Investigators: Bruce Taylor, senior fellow, and Weiwei Liu, senior research scientist, NORC at the
University of Chicago
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2021

Dissertation Award: Deadly Decisions: Policing Organizations, Use of Force Policies, and OfficerInvolved Shootings
This project will assess how police agency organizational characteristics and use of force policies
influence rates of officer-involved shootings.
Grant Amount: $25,000
Doctoral Student: Matthew Thompson, sociology, University of California, Davis
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2020
Dissertation Award: The Association Between Substance Use Disorders and Firearms Suicides in North
Carolina Claims Data
This study will explore the association of both substance use disorder and long-term opioid therapy with
gun suicide among Medicaid-insured North Carolinians and assess whether certain mental health
diagnoses—especially depression and generalized anxiety disorder—affect this association.
Grant Award: $25,000
Doctoral Student: Josie Caves, epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2020
Dissertation Award: The Effects of Culturally Competent Messaging on Willingness to Engage in
Firearms Means Safety
This study investigates the impact of culturally competent messaging on gun owners’ willingness to
adopt firearm safety measures, such as storing firearms securely.
Grant Amount: $25,000
Doctoral Student: Sarah Butterworth, clinical psychology, University of Southern Mississippi
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2020
Dissertation Award: Perpetration of Interpersonal Violence, Incarceration, and Subsequent Risk for
Firearm Suicide
This study will investigate the relationship between incarceration and subsequent firearm suicide over
four decades in Washington State.
Grant Amount: $25,000
Doctoral Student: Erin R. Morgan, epidemiology, University of Washington
Estimated Date of Completion: Mid-2020