Duke University Professor Emeritus Philip J. Cook on the impacts of gun violence on Americans

Across the United States, gun violence continues to be an ever-more-serious national plague. According to the latest mortality data from the CDC, firearm-related deaths among children and teenagers in the United States have soared by 50% since 2019. In 2023, firearms remained the leading cause of death among American youth for the third year in a row.

So what impact is this having on the attitudes of average Americans? A new report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, entitled “Valuing the benefits of reducing firearm violence in the United States” indicates that it’s a big one and that most Americans would be willing to make significant sacrifices in order to address it. Indeed, the authors found that Americans would willing to pay nearly $100 billion for policies that reduce gun violence by 20%, and recently NC Newsline’s Rob Schofield caught up with one of the authors — Duke University Sanford School Professor Emeritus of Public Policy Philip J. Cook — to learn more.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Professor Philip J. Cook.