Daniel Webster (academic)

Last updated
Daniel W. Webster
Born1960
Alma mater University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Awards Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health – Alpha Chapter, faculty induction, 2005; Educator of the Year, Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence, 2004
Scientific career
Fields Public health, health policy
Institutions Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Daniel W. Webster (born 1960) [1] is an American health policy researcher and the distinguished research scholar of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions (formerly known as the Center for Gun Policy and Research) at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is also the deputy director for research at the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence, and the first Bloomberg Professor of American Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. [2] [3] In 2016, he became the director of the Johns Hopkins-Baltimore Collaborative for Violence Reduction, a joint crime-fighting effort between Johns Hopkins and the Baltimore Police Department. [4]

Contents

Education

Webster received his MPH from the University of Michigan in 1985 and his ScD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1990. [2] His ScD thesis was entitled, Determinants of pediatricians' firearm injury prevention counseling practices. [5]

Research

Webster is known for his research into gun violence and laws, and he has published numerous articles on these and related subjects. [2] In 2015, he and his colleagues published a study that found that the passage of a permit-to-purchase (PTP) handgun law in Connecticut was associated with a 40% reduction in firearm homicides in the state in the ten years after the law's enactment in 1995. [6] [7] Later that year, Webster co-authored another study looking at changes in such laws in Connecticut and Missouri, the latter of which repealed its permit-to-purchase law in 2007. This study found that the enactment of Connecticut's PTP law was associated with a 15.4% reduction in firearm suicide rates in the state, while Missouri's repeal of its PTP law was associated with a 16.1% increase in these rates. [8] [9] A previous study by Webster et al. had found that the repeal of Missouri's PTP law was associated with increased annual murders of 0.93 per 100,000 people, or about 55 to 63 per year. [10] [11] [12] In October 2016, he and his Johns Hopkins colleagues released a report claiming that arguments in support of campus carry laws are based on flawed assumptions, and that such laws could make college campuses less safe. [13]

Views

Webster has said that gun laws, rather than focusing on making guns illegal, should focus on restricting access to guns with respect to those who are most likely to commit gun crimes. [14] He has described gun violence as a public health issue, saying, "Like so many public health problems, you may have some communities or individuals with very low risk, but some communities where it truly is the most important public health problem that they have to deal with." [15] He has also said that a 2013 law in Maryland that requires handgun buyers get a license from the police and pass a background check might be effective, but that as of September 2015, there is not enough data to say what its full effect is. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun control</span> Laws or policies that regulate firearms

Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.

<i>More Guns, Less Crime</i> 1998 non-fiction book by John Lott

More Guns, Less Crime is a book by John R. Lott Jr. that says violent crime rates go down when states pass "shall issue" concealed carry laws. He presents the results of his statistical analysis of crime data for every county in the United States during 29 years from 1977 to 2005. Each edition of the book was refereed by the University of Chicago Press. As of 2019, the book is no longer published by the University of Chicago Press. The book examines city, county and state level data from the entire United States and measures the impact of 13 different types of gun control laws on crime rates. The book expands on an earlier study published in 1997 by Lott and his co-author David Mustard in The Journal of Legal Studies and by Lott and his co-author John Whitley in The Journal of Law and Economics, October 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act</span> Mandate for background checks on firearm purchasers in the U.S.

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, often referred to as the Brady Act or the Brady Bill, is an Act of the United States Congress that mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States. It also imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases until the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was implemented in 1998. Introduced by U.S. representative Chuck Schumer of New York, the Brady Act was a landmark legislative enactment during the Clinton administration. The act was appended to the end of Section 922 of title 18, United States Code. The intention of the act was to prevent persons with previous serious convictions from purchasing firearms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Right to keep and bear arms</span> Right of citizens to possess weapons

The right to keep and bear arms is a legal right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, including security against tyranny, as well as hunting and sporting activities. Countries that guarantee the right to keep and bear arms include the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Ukraine, Mexico, the United States, Yemen, and Switzerland.

Gun laws in Australia are predominantly within the jurisdiction of Australian states and territories, with the importation of guns regulated by the federal government. In the last two decades of the 20th century, following several high-profile killing sprees, the federal government coordinated more restrictive firearms legislation with all state governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun politics in the United States</span> Political concern

Gun politics is defined in the United States by two primary opposing ideologies concerning the private ownership of firearms. Those who advocate for gun control support increasingly restrictive regulation of gun ownership; those who advocate for gun rights oppose increased restriction, or support the liberalization of gun ownership. These groups typically disagree on the interpretation of the text, history and tradition of the laws and judicial opinions concerning gun ownership in the United States and the meaning of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. American gun politics involves these groups' further disagreement concerning the role of firearms in public safety, the studied effects of ownership of firearms on public health and safety, and the role of guns in national and state crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coalition to Stop Gun Violence</span>

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, its sister organization, were two parts of a national, non-profit gun control advocacy organization opposed to gun violence. Since 1974, it supported reduction in American gun violence via education and legislation. They ceased operations in 2022 after the EFSGV merged with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy to become the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), is the practice of carrying a weapon in public in a concealed manner, either on one's person or in close proximity. CCW is often practiced as a means of self-defense. Following the Supreme Court's NYSRPA v. Bruen (2022) decision, all states in the United States were required to allow for concealed carry of a handgun either permitlessly or with a permit, although the difficulty in obtaining a permit varies per jurisdiction.

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act</span> 2005 U.S. law limiting criminal liability

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) is a U.S law, passed in 2005, that protects firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable when crimes have been committed with their products. Both arms manufacturers and dealers can still be held liable for damages resulting from defective products, breach of contract, criminal misconduct, and other actions for which they are directly responsible. However, they may be held liable for negligent entrustment if it is found that they had reason to believe a firearm was intended for use in a crime.

A waiting period is the period of time between when an action is requested or mandated and when it occurs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun violence in the United States</span> Phenomenon of gun violence in the United States

Gun violence is a term of political, economic and sociological interest referring to the tens of thousands of annual firearms-related deaths and injuries occurring in the United States. In 2022, up to 100 daily fatalities and hundreds of daily injuries were attributable to gun violence in the United States. In 2018, the most recent year for which data are available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics reported 38,390 deaths by firearm, of which 24,432 were suicides. The national rate of firearm deaths rose from 10.3 people for every 100,000 in 1999 to 11.9 people per 100,000 in 2018, equating to over 109 daily deaths. In 2010, there were 19,392 firearm-related suicides, and 11,078 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. In 2010, 358 murders were reported involving a rifle while 6,009 were reported involving a handgun; another 1,939 were reported with an unspecified type of firearm. In 2011, a total of 478,400 fatal and nonfatal violent crimes were committed with a firearm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun violence</span> Method of violence

Gun-related violence is violence committed with the use of a firearm. Gun-related violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, and suicide, or attempted suicide, depending on jurisdiction. Non-criminal violence includes accidental or unintentional injury and death. Also generally included in gun violence statistics are military or para-military activities.

The State of Texas is considered to have some of the most relaxed gun laws in the United States. Public concerns over gun control in Texas have increased in recent years as Mexican drug cartels continue to commit violent crimes closer to Texas' stretch of the Mexico–United States border. They have also increased due to the number of incidents, including misuse of firearms stolen from other sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High-capacity magazine ban</span> Law restricting magazine capacity in firearms

A high-capacity magazine ban is a law which bans or otherwise restricts detachable firearm magazines that can hold more than a certain number of rounds of ammunition. For example, in the United States, the now-expired Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 included limits regarding magazines that could hold more than ten rounds. As of 2022, twelve U.S. states, and a number of local governments, ban or regulate magazines that they have legally defined as high-capacity. The majority of states do not ban or regulate any magazines on the basis of capacity. States that do have large capacity magazine bans or restrictions typically do not apply to firearms with fixed magazines whose capacity would otherwise exceed the large capacity threshold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal background check</span> Background checks for private sales of firearms in the United States

Proposals for universal background checks would require almost all firearms transactions in the United States to be recorded and go through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), closing what is sometimes called the private sale exemption. Universal background checks are not required by U.S. federal law, but at least 21 states and the District of Columbia currently require background checks for at least some private sales of firearms.

The Center for Gun Policy and Research is a research center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health dedicated to researching ways to reduce gun violence in the United States. The center's current director is Daniel Webster, and its co-director is Jon Vernick.

The Dickey Amendment is a provision first inserted as a rider into the 1997 omnibus spending bill of the United States federal government that mandated that "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be used to advocate or promote gun control." In the same spending bill, Congress earmarked $2.6 million from the CDC's budget, the exact amount that had previously been allocated to the agency for firearms research the previous year, for traumatic brain injury-related research.

A child access prevention law makes it illegal for an adult to keep a gun in a place and manner so that a child can easily access and fire it. Proponents of these laws, such as the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in the United States, argue that they are effective at reducing accidental gun deaths among children, since they reduce accessibility and thereby risk. The National Rifle Association of America has lobbied against such laws, arguing that they are ineffective and infringe on the rights of gun owners to protect their homes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public opinion on gun control in the United States</span>

Public opinion on gun control in the United States has been tracked by numerous public opinion organizations and newspapers for more than 20 years. There have also been major gun policies that affected American opinion in the 1990s. Throughout these polling years, there are different gun control proposals that show promise for bipartisan action. Over the years listed there have been mass shootings, most notably school shootings, that have affected public opinion. There have also been a growth in states around the United States taking more drastic measures on gun control.

References

  1. ↑ "Daniel Webster". VIAF. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "Daniel Webster". Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on 4 February 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  3. ↑ Henry, Dori (2018-01-18). "Gun violence prevention researcher Daniel Webster named first Bloomberg Professor of American Health". The Hub. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  4. ↑ Staff (22 February 2016). "Johns Hopkins researchers, Baltimore police to work together to study, reduce violent crime". Hub. Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  5. ↑ Webster, Daniel (1990). Determinants of pediatricians' firearm injury prevention counseling practices (ScD thesis). Johns Hopkins University. OCLC   28572489.
  6. ↑ Rudolph, KE; Stuart, EA; Vernick, JS; Webster, DW (August 2015). "Association Between Connecticut's Permit-to-Purchase Handgun Law and Homicides". American Journal of Public Health. 105 (8): e49–54. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302703. PMC   4504296 . PMID   26066959.
  7. ↑ Guo, Jeff (12 June 2015). "Gun killings fell by 40 percent after Connecticut passed this law". Washington Post. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  8. ↑ Crifasi, Cassandra K.; Meyers, John Speed; Vernick, Jon S.; Webster, Daniel W. (October 2015). "Effects of changes in permit-to-purchase handgun laws in Connecticut and Missouri on suicide rates". Preventive Medicine. 79: 43–49. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.07.013. PMID   26212633.
  9. ↑ Johnson, Carolyn Y. (3 September 2015). "The death toll from guns no one talks about". Washington Post. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  10. ↑ Webster, D; Crifasi, CK; Vernick, JS (April 2014). "Effects of the repeal of Missouri's handgun purchaser licensing law on homicides". Journal of Urban Health. 91 (2): 293–302. doi:10.1007/s11524-014-9865-8. PMC   3978146 . PMID   24604521.
  11. ↑ Dahl, Julia (19 February 2014). "Study: Gun murders rise in Mo. after background check repeal". CBS News. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  12. ↑ Tavernise, Sabrina (22 December 2015). "In Missouri, Fewer Gun Restrictions and More Gun Killings". New York Times. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  13. ↑ Schuppe, Jon (2016-10-25). "More Guns on Campuses Won't Make People Safer, Researchers Say". NBC News.
  14. ↑ Torbati, Yeganeh June (25 January 2011). "Gun policy scholar wants shift in firearm control laws, discussion". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  15. ↑ Dennis, Brady (2 October 2015). "Why we should think of gun violence as a disease, and study it accordingly". Washington Post. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  16. ↑ Knezevich, Alison (30 September 2015). "Officials urge other states to adopt Md.'s gun licensing laws". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
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