The Gun Violence Archive [GVA] was established in Fall of 2012 as an independent research and data collection group to provide comprehensive data for the national conversation regarding gun violence. GVA worked with several groups which collected statistics of the 2013 toll of deaths by gun violence. When GVA consolidated these projects in late 2013, the mission was expanded to also document the tens of thousands of gun related injuries and other gun crime.  The overall goal of GVA is to provide the best, most detailed, accessible data on the subject to add clarity to the ongoing discussion on gun violence, gun rights, and gun regulations. Our mission is not confined to the debate on gun rights vs gun regulations, it is equally focused on understanding crime at a street level, providing crime statistics broken down to the Congressional District, State legislator district level.

GVA began with the goal to provide a database of incidents of gun violence and gun crime. To that end we utilize automated queries, manual research through over 2,000 media sources, aggregates, police blotters, police media outlets and other sources daily. Each incident is verified by both initial researchers and secondary validation processes. Links to each incident are included in the incident report to provide further information on each incident for researchers, advocate groups, media and legislative interests. The incident reports provide a starting point for researchers, media and legislative interests to add texture to our raw data.

Rather than just collecting incidents of death, GVA also catalogs incidents where a victim was injured by shooting or by a victim who was the subject of an armed robber or home invader. Incidents of defensive gun use, home owners who stop a home invasion, store clerks who stop a robbery, individuals who stop an assault or rape with a gun are also collected. The overall goal is to provide information on most types of gun violence, and gun crime, no matter where it is on the political table. The two exceptions to the near real-time collection are suicides by gun which are collected quarterly and annually due to differing distribution methods by government agencies and armed robberies which are collected in aggregate with law enforcement quarterly and annual reports. They are a lagging index, rather than near real time.

Incidents of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BAFTE) and local Law Enforcement involvement in recovering illegal or stolen weapons as well as incidents where guns were reported stolen from homes, vehicles, and businesses are recorded as well. We also collect TSA data of guns illegally taken through airport security points.

Each incident is annotated to its associated cause -- murder/suicides, hate crimes, domestic violence, gang involvement, drug involvement, police action, robbery, defensive use, accidents, brandishing and nearly 100 other possible variables. This enables GVA to both provide aggregate numbers in near real time to improve the debate on gun violence by showing real numbers and to provide raw data for research to dig deeper into the subject. There is not just one type of gun violence or gun crime, there is not just one cause of gun violence or gun crime. GVA data will provide researchers, journalists, legislators, and other interested parties with information to better understand this subject.

GVA will continue to research the best methods of providing unbiased, unfiltered data on gun violence in America. To that end, we will, by necessity alter methodology if need arises and announce those changes here. Our goal, however will not change, providing the most comprehensive, verifiable data on the subject of gun violence without bias. The raw numbers, and their underlying information are tools for researchers to interpret.

The real time Summary Ledger counter is a summary. It reflects the most requested data that is accumulated from the database. It does not, by necessity include all of the nearly 100 potential variables of each incident. The raw source material is linked through each incident report that is reflected in the Summary Ledger's accumulated numbers.

This general description of methodology is intended to provide an overview of how we do work and how we support what we present. A more specific, detailed methodology is in place using research best practices to govern our work.

Some Frequent Methodology Questions

What GVA considers Gun Violence...and why

Our definition of gun violence is intended to be fully inclusionary of disparate elements of gun related incidents...in that, all types of shootings are included, whether OIS, accidental, children shooting themselves, murders, armed robberies, familicide, mass shootings, DGU, Home Invasions, drivebys and everything else. We derive our definitions from CDC, FBI, NIH, and other organizations who have established standards.

Only by being totally inclusionary in our definitions is our data accurate, allowing the researcher to decide which parts of the complete dataset they need for their work. Our goal is to provide a complete picture of impact. Users then glean what they need from the whole. We intentionally have no GVA POV on the subject... but put in more real terms, GVA is against gun violence, not guns or gun owners and in that we strive to provide an unbiased, complete view of the subject.

Does GVA use Crowdsourcing?

No, we have learned through experience that both Crowdsourcing and "internet bots" provide limited results and cause unreliable statistics. GVA has a dedicated, professional staff which sweeps law enforcement and media resources daily and logs incidents with up to 120 potential incident variables.

Suicides

Because of the way Law Enforcement and Coroners report suicides, they cannot be collected in near real time so they DO NOT appear on our Daily Summary Ledger. They ARE added to our End of Year totals in AGGREGATE when they become available.

AirSoft/BB Guns

We collect incidents where Airsoft or BB guns are used AS weapons, not where they are used in general vandalism or delinquency. Those collected ARE NOT included in our Incident Totals on the Daily Summary Ledger

Categories On The Summary Ledger

GVA collects over 100 different shooting variables. Not all can be included on the Daily Summary Ledger so we chose those which were most requested.

Total Shot or Killed doesn't add up to Total Incident count

GVA collects over 100 variables on gun violence incidents.  Some incidents have more than one person shot or killed [a few up to 100] and other incidents do not have injuries - such as neglegent discharges, car jackings, domestic violence events, and other incidents were a gun was used improperly but did not injure...they are all documented in their incident reports.

Why GVA numbers differ from FBI and CDC.

GVA numbers are found through 2,000 LEO, government and media sources daily...our numbers are based on provable reported individual incidents. While CDC utilizes death certificates for gun deaths, they, and the FBI rely on a sampling of sources and extrapolate those numbers to provide aggregate totals that reflect the calculations within their methodologies.

Collection of Personal Characteristics

GVA does not collect or distribute victim or subject-suspect characteristics such as race, religion, mental health status, nationality, or political affiliations.

Some Basic Definitions

NOTE: Defensive Gun Use is logged for any incident which can be verified by law enforcement or media sources. Included incidents may or may not have had a firearm fired.

Sources: Each incident in the database is independently linked to source material which was used to build the incident report.  To view any source material, simply go to an incident and you will see source links at the bottom of the report.

You can also get to each incident source material from the associated table [such as Killed or Mass Shooting]. Follow the VIEW INCIDENT link.