Experts with the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium (RGVRC) address different facets of firearm violence from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. In this new series, get to know our experts and learn more about their contributions to better understand, prevent, and respond to the public health crisis of firearm violence. Meet Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, an affiliate scholar with the RGVRC and the Bartley Dobb professor for the study and prevention of violence in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington.

Why do you study gun violence? Why is this an important area of research, and how do you see your work helping to address this issue?

I began studying gun violence immediately after the December 14, 2012, mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Before then, I was an infectious disease epidemiologist with expertise in studying vaccine efficacy and safety. Shortly after I joined the University of Washington as a faculty member and began my teaching and exploring options for establishing a research program on vaccines, the Sandy Hook shooting happened. That event changed the lives and careers of many people around the country, and I was no exception.

Since then, I have continued to study gun violence as my main area of research because of the enormity of its impact on our society. I have learned that different forms of gun violence—including the “everyday gun violence” that happens on our streets and in our communities, firearm suicides, and unintentional shootings of our children—tear families apart and devastate communities. The burden of gun violence and the scope of exposure to it in our country is staggering and deeply affects the very fabric of who we are and how we feel, our daily activities, our community dynamics, and our social structure. For example, one in two US adults report that they or a family member have experienced a gun-related incident, and six in ten say that they worry at least sometimes about a loved one becoming a victim of gun violence.

I am also not aware of any other public health and public safety challenge that has a more striking pattern of racial and economic inequities than gun violence does. Decades of systemic disinvestment and structural violence have led to the incredibly high rates of gun violence victimization that we witness today, especially among Black and Brown communities. The trauma associated with these physical and psychological wounds transcends generations, and their harmful effects are compounded over time. My work seeks to find solutions for disrupting the processes that cause and perpetuate these harms.

What is your research focus related to gun violence? What are you currently researching?

We live in a country with about 400 million guns in civilian hands. The Supreme Court has ruled on the constitutionality of firearm possession, guns are an integral part of culture in many areas of the country, and millions of people grow up in gun-owning households. Within this context, my focus is on two areas: (1) evaluating strategies that create time and space between firearms and moments of crisis through both community initiatives and policy measures; and (2) examining upstream determinants of gun violence both at the community and policy level and assessing interventions that influence those determinants.

For instance, my team and I have studied the implementation and effectiveness of domestic violence firearm prohibition policies and extreme risk protection orders, codeveloped theories of change and measurement tools for evaluating community violence prevention and intervention programs alongside our community partners, and evaluated social programs and economic policies, such as income support, for their impact on interpersonal and self-directed firearm-related harm.

A rewarding aspect of this work is that such studies can inform practice and policy in direct and real ways. For example, our studies of the implementation of domestic violence firearm prohibition policies have highlighted the importance of programmatic support for the Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit, which was launched in 2018 in King County, Washington. Our work on theories of change and measurement tools is being used for an intentional and community-centered evaluation of youth firearm prevention and intervention programs across Washington. Our studies of the impact of earned income tax credit policies on reducing different forms of violence have also contributed to the enactment, reach, and implementation of the Working Families Tax Credit in Washington since 2021. Additionally, partly informed by our studies on the secure storage of firearms, the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance on the safe storage of and access to firearms in 2018.

What do you hope people can take away from the research you are conducting?

I hope that people understand that a highly complex and pervasive problem such as gun violence cannot be solved with one type of approach. “Band-aid” strategies can work in the short term for critical intervention to save a life and serve as a temporary fix to lessen the pain but are insufficient on their own and unlikely to lead to lasting solutions. Without systemic and structural change to map community needs and assets and truly invest in them, the levels of gun violence and trauma will either remain steady or resurface again even if they decline during certain periods. The health and well-being of our families and communities rely on coordinated efforts at multiple levels of influence (e.g., individual, community, society) for gun violence prevention, intervention, and restoration.