Houston-based hedge fund manager John Arnold and his wife, Laura, plan to spend $20 million over the next five years to fund gun violence research. The couple's private foundation, The Laura and John Arnold Foundation, will also seek to raise an additional $30 million for a grant they're calling the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, bringing the total grant amount to $50 million, Forbes reported.
Mrs. Arnold made her and her husband's plans known during a speaking engagement at Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy on Wednesday:
Ninety-six people are killed by guns in the U.S. every day. More people have been killed in schools than in military deployment so far in 2018. While I was writing my remarks for today, 40 miles away from Houston another school shooting started.
I don’t want to live in a country where children worry about the whether they will be shot at school. It’s a critical time for philanthropy to step in and catalyze the government to act. To cut through the politics with data.
According to Arnold, members of Congress talk about making substantial policy changes relating to guns but none of it is "rooted in evidence." That's where the couple, and their foundation, come in.
“Data will not only allow us to hope for better, but it empowers us to do better,” Arnold explained.
About the Research
The couple will establish an advisory board to evaluate research proposals and distribute grants over the next five years. The RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan research organization, will be responsible for day-to-day operations.
"We envision that the majority of the collaborative’s funds will go toward producing policy-relevant research and disseminating key findings to a wide variety of audiences. The goal is to inform state and federal gun violence policies and interventions and to increase public safety, while protecting individuals’ constitutional rights," the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research's prospectus said.
The National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research's focus will focus on and ask the following questions:
- Characteristics of gun violence
How are guns purchased? How do changes in ownership occur? How are guns used? What are the differences in fatal and nonfatal gun use?- Risk and protective factors
What are the impacts of youth having access to, possessing, and carrying guns? What are the potential risks and benefits of having a gun in the house? What factors increase the probability of gun violence?- Gun violence interventions
Can we more effectively prevent violence-prone people from accessing guns? Which, if any, childhood education or prevention programs reduce gun violence in childhood and in later life? Do programs to physically improve high-crime areas work to decrease gun violence?
The RAND Corporation was chosen "because of the organization’s deep technical knowledge of gun policy science and its ongoing Gun Policy in America initiative," the Arnold Foundation said in a press release.
According to the RAND Corporation's Gun Policy in America initiative, their "goal is to establish a shared set of facts that will improve public discussions and support the development of fair and effective gun policies."
While the Arnolds haven't been players in the gun control arena, they are familiar with using data to drive policy. They had a substantial impact on reforming the criminal justice system using their data by backing a Public Safety Assessment tool that used nine predictive factors to determine whether a person should be released or held before their trial. The two backed the PSA tool because they were worried about the number of poor people who were in jail who couldn't afford to make bail.
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