"The Gun Violence Archive [GVA] was established in October 2012 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 1,200 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."
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