The Impact of Mass Shootings on Gun Policy

Michael Luca (), Deepak Malhotra () and Christopher Poliquin
Additional contact information
Michael Luca: Harvard Business School, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit
Deepak Malhotra: Harvard Business School, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit

No 16-126, Harvard Business School Working Papers from Harvard Business School

Abstract: There have been dozens of high-profile mass shootings in recent decades. This paper presents three main findings about the impact of mass shootings on gun policy. First, mass shootings evoke large policy responses. A single mass shooting leads to a 15% increase in the number of firearm bills introduced within a state in the year after a mass shooting. Second, mass shootings account for a small portion of all gun deaths, but have an outsized influence relative to other homicides. Our estimates suggest that the per-death impact of mass shootings on bills introduced is about 80 times as large as the impact of individual gun homicides in non-mass shooting incidents. Third, when looking at enacted laws, the impact of mass shootings depends on the party in power. A mass shooting increases the number of enacted laws that loosen gun restrictions by 75% in states with Republican-controlled legislatures. We find no significant effect of mass shootings on laws enacted when there is a Democrat-controlled legislature.

Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2016-05, Revised 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pr~ and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/pages/download.aspx?name=16-126.pdf Revised version, 2016 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of mass shootings on gun policy (2020)
Working Paper: The Impact of Mass Shootings on Gun Policy (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hbs:wpaper:16-126

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