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Firearm purchaser licensing laws that require an in-person application or fingerprinting are associated with an estimated 56 percent fewer fatal mass shootings in states that have them, according to a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Keywords: Firearm Purchase, Firearm Purchaser Licensing Laws, Fatal Mass Shootings, mass shootings, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School Of Public Health, gun violence prevention

The public has long thought that handguns are more responsible for human deaths, including suicides, than long guns such as rifles and shotguns, which have been believed to be more commonly used for hunting or protection from wild animals. But now, in an analysis of data from 16 years of gun suicides in Maryland, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found that long guns were used more often in suicides by kids and teens than by adults, and were more commonly used in suicide by people in rural counties.

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Keywords: Paul Nestadt, Suicide, Shotgun, Long Cane

A new study by researchers at Case Western Reserve University examines how lawmakers could improve guidelines and policies to keep animal abusers from slipping through the cracks. Researchers also zeroed in on the well-established link between animal abuse and interpersonal violence.

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Keywords: animal abuse, Neglect

The number of political candidate television advertisements that refer to guns increased significantly across four election cycles in U.S. media markets, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study, to be published in the February issue of Health Affairs, analyzed more than 14 million televised campaign advertisements that aired for candidates running for president, U.S. Congress, governor, and state legislatures in 210 U.S. media markets over four election cycles in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018. The researchers found that the number of political ads aired that referenced guns increased by 369,600, an eightfold increase from one percent of candidate-related television political ads aired in 2012 to 8 percent in 2018. Among the televised political ads aired that referenced guns, the share with gun regulation-oriented messages that were focused on reducing gun violence increased almost threefold over time–from 10 perce

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Keywords: Political Ads, guns, guns violence, election cycles, Health Affairs, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School Of Public Health, gun regulations

A mix of factors is involved in Chicago’s declining black population and others aren’t well defined, but inequality stands out as a leading element, according to a new report from the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Keywords: Chicago, Population, Blacks, Black population, Racial Inequality, Racial justice, Migration, Segregation, Disinvestment, Neighborhood, Neighborhoods, Race, Public Policy

About 47,000 Americans die by suicide annually; more than half are by firearm. Now, researchers at Florida State University have found that certain clinical steps that encourage basic firearm safety could reduce that number.Their study, published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, focused on young adults with a history of suicidal thoughts and who reported firearm familiarity, such as gun ownership, access or intention to obtain a firearm.

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Michael Anestis, a public health psychologist and expert on firearms and suicide risk, has been appointed as executive director of the New Jersey Center on Gun Violence Research led by Rutgers University.

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Keywords: Gun Violence

A new study finds that active shooter incidents off campus and politics are key factors that led state legislators to pass laws allowing concealed weapons on college and university campuses between 2004 and 2016.

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Keywords: Educational Policy, Governance, Higher Education, longitudinal studies , Postsecondary Education, regression analysis, Violence, Gun Control, guns and legislation, State Legislature, Guns on campus, College, Weapon

A study led by Jennifer Hoffmann, MD, from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, found that higher county-level poverty is associated with increased youth suicide rates among children 5-19 years old in the United States in 2007-2016. Children and adolescents from counties where 20 percent or more of the population lives below the federal poverty level were 37 percent more likely to die by suicide, compared to communities with the lowest poverty concentration. Youth suicide by firearms was 87 percent more likely in areas with the highest poverty levels. Findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Channels: Children's Health, Mental Health, Poverty, Psychology and Psychiatry, Guns and Violence, JAMA, Embargoed Feed - hidden, All Journal News,

Keywords: Suicide, Children, Adolescents, Poverty

Roughly one-third of young males and 1 in 10 females in rural communities have carried a handgun, reports a new University of Washington study. And, the study found, many of those rural kids started carrying as early as the sixth grade.

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Keywords: Handguns, University of Washington, Rural Adolescents, , Adolescent handguns