Lisa Singh Receives Grant from National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research

Posted in News Story

Lisa Singh was awarded a $569K grant by the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research (NCGVR) to investigate the use of data from social media posts to measure gun-related outcomes in cities or states.

One of the key factors limiting gun policy research is a lack of good data on a number and range of gun-related outcomes, including gun ownership, the stock and flow of the supply of guns, defensive gun use, and non-fatal injuries associated with guns, among others. The specific aims of this exploratory project are to use social media data to (1) develop estimates of gun-related mortality and benchmark these against existing estimates based on National Vital Statistics Systems (NVSS) data; and (2) develop algorithms to predict gun ownership status. This project represents important foundational work for understanding how social media data may be used by itself or in conjunction with existing or other data resources through data blending to improve gun policy research.