Methods: This landscape analysis sought to quantify federal and philanthropic gun violence research funding awarded between 2020-2022. This involved a systematic search of federal and philanthropic grant websites, databases, and literature for research-focused awards mentioning gun or firearm violence. The awards identified were extracted into a dataset and coded using publicly available award information; a descriptive analysis was conducted. Coding variables included: violence domain, priority population, program design, and whether the grant proposed community-based participatory research. Multiple options could be selected for the first two variables. Grants that were not for specific research studies, but for research in general, were excluded.

Results/Outcomes: Between 2020-2022 a total of $131.5 million federal and philanthropic dollars were awarded to 229 projects focusing on gun violence research. More than half of the research dollars were awarded to projects focused on community violence. Projects to study other types of gun violence received markedly less funding, including suicide (13%), family violence (8%), unintentional shootings (5%) and mass shootings (3%). Despite the emphasis on community-based gun violence in funding allocations, less than 1 out of every 10 dollars awarded went to studies that utilized community-based participatory research approaches. In terms of focus populations, 23% of research funds went to studies focusing on gun violence among children <18 years of age and 20% to youth ages 18-25 years. Despite mounting evidence of the disproportionate impact of gun violence on Black and Brown communities, cumulative funding to study gun violence in the populations experiencing the highest burden of gun violence -Alaskan Native/Native American, Black, and Latinx- amounted to less than 8%. Study of gun violence in other populations known to be vulnerable to gun violence was also low, including research on gun violence among persons with mental health and/or substance use disorders (7%), street outreach workers (4%), veterans and military personnel (3%), elderly individuals (2%), and people identifying as LGBTQI+ (0.5%).

Conclusions: Despite recent increases in gun violence research funding, opportunities exist to refocus research funding on the most impacted populations and increase equity and inclusion amidst this public health crisis. Though gun violence research funding favors a community-based violence focus, it does not currently seem to prioritize the involvement of those same communities in the implementation of research initiatives. There is a need to refocus gun violence research on the populations most affected by gun violence while ensuring these communities are the drivers of approaches and solutions.