Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Effect of Gun-Free School Zones on Crimes Committed with a Firearm in Saint Louis, Missouri

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Urban Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There have been no peer-reviewed, quantitative research studies on the effectiveness of gun-free school zones. The objective of this study was to use a cross-sectional, multi-group controlled ecological study design in St. Louis, MO city that compared the counts of crimes committed with a firearm occurring in gun-free school zones compared to a contiguous area immediately surrounding the gun-free school zone (i.e., gun-allowing zones) in 2019. Gun-free school zones were measured and analyzed in two ways. In the primary analysis, boundaries of the tax parcels were used for each school as the beginning of the gun-free school zone. Results from this analysis, after adjustment for pair-matching and confounding, were null. In the secondary analysis, gun-free school zones were measured as beginning at the geographic centroid of the school’s address. After adjusting for the pair-matching and confounding, this analysis showed 13.7% significantly fewer crimes committed with a firearm in gun-free school zones compared to gun-allowing zones. These results suggest that gun-free school zones are not being targeted for firearm crime in St. Louis, MO.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Gun-Free Zones Act of 1990. US Congress, and the United States of America; 1990 p. 4844–5.

  2. Gun-Free Zones Act of 1990. National Criminal Justice Reference Service; http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=140617%0A Accessed Mar 2023

  3. The Effects of Gun Free Zones. RAND Corp. 2020. https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/gun-free-zones.html Accessed Mar 2023

  4. Lott J. How gun-free zones invite mass shootings: Chicago Trib; 2018. https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-mass-shooters-russia-public-shootings-thousand-oaks-mercy-hospital-chicago-1121-story.html. Accessed Apr 2023

  5. The challenges of defining and measuring defensive gun use . 2018. https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/essays/defensive-gun-use.html. Accessed Mar 2023

  6. Kappas J. Traveler’s guide to the firearm laws of the fifty states (1997–2018): Traveler’s Guide. Covington, KY: Inc; 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gun Ownership in America: RAND Corp. https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/gun-ownership.html. Accessed May 2023

  8. Fieldstadt E. Murder Map: Deadliest U.S. cities: CBS News; 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/murder-map-deadliest-u-s-cities/6/. Accessed Feb 2023

  9. Gun Violence in America. Natl. Inst. Justice. 2019. https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/gun-violence-america. Accessed Feb 2023

  10. The 10 most dangerous cities. Forbes 2020. https://www.forbes.com/pictures/mlj45jggj/2-st-louis/#6bb2c88c484f. Accessed Jan 2023

  11. Merkel J. Bill declaring parks gun-free zones passes Board of Alderman. 2019. https://metrostl.com/2019/12/09/bill-declaring-parks-gun-free-zones-passes-board-of-aldermen/. Accessed Jan 2023

  12. Long J. St. Louis mayor voices opposition to repealing gun-free zones in Missouri . 5 your side. 2019. https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/st-louis-mayor-voices-opposition-to-repealing-gun-free-zones-in-missouri/63-4f3dd3b5-17d2-45de-894c-4260345e3a15. Accessed Jan 2023

  13. SLMPD downloadable crime files. Metrop. Police Dep. City St. Louis, Missouri. 2020. https://www.slmpd.org/Crimereports.shtml Accessed Apr 2023

  14. 2019 UCR part 1 crimes Jan-June . Saint Louis Cty. 2021. https://data-stlcogis.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/stlcogis::2019-ucr-part-1-crimes-jan-june-1/explore?location=19.312131%2C-45.366847%2C4.91. Accessed Apr 2023

  15. 2019 UCR part 1 crimes July-Dec . Saint Louis Cty. GIS Serv. Cent. 2021. https://data-stlcogis.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/2019-ucr-part-1-crimes-july-dec/explore Accessed Apr 2023

  16. Public School Review. 2021. https://www.publicschoolreview.com/. Accessed Mar 2023

  17. Private school review . 2021. https://www.privateschoolreview.com/. Accessed Mar 2023

  18. Parcels. Saint Louis Cty: GIS Serv. Cent.; 2021. https://data.stlouisco.com/datasets/stlcogis::parcels/explore?location=38.640084%2C-90.431750%2C11.19. Accessed Mar 2023

  19. Summers L, Johnson SD. Does the configuration of the street network influence where outdoor serious violence takes place? Using space syntax to test crime pattern theory. J Quant Criminol. 2017;33:397–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Brantingham PL, Brantingham PJ. Mobility, notoriety and crime: a study of crime patterns in urban nodal points. J Environ Syst. 1982;11:89–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Chapter 2: What is a School Zone? NJ Sch. Zo. Des. https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/community/srts/pdf/szdgchapter2.pdf. Accessed May 2023

  22. New Orleans firearm-free zones . City New Orleans. 2019. https://www.nola.gov/city-planning/firearm-free-zone-map/. Accessed Feb 2023

  23. Korwin A. Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990: Gun Laws; 2005. https://www.gunlaws.com/Gun_Free_School_Zones.htm. Accessed Nov 2023

  24. Duggan M. More guns, more crime. J Polit Econ. 2001;109:1086–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Bangalore S, Messerli FH. Gun ownership and firearm-related deaths. Am J Med. 2013;126:873–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Kellermann AL, Rivara FP, Somes G, Reay DT, Francisco J, Banton JG, et al. Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership. N Engl J Med. 1992;327:467–72.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Kellerman AL, Rivara FP, Ruthforth NB, Banton JG, Reay DT, Francisco JT, et al. Gun ownership as risk factor for homicide in the home. N Engl J Med. 1993;329:1084–91. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM199310073291506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Hemenway D. The myth of millions of annual self-defense gun uses: a case study of survey overestimates of rare events. Chance. 1997;10:6–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Hemenway D, Solnick SJ. The epidemiology of self-defense gun use: evidence from the National Crime Victimization Surveys 2007–2011. Prev Med (Baltim). 2015;79:22–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Zenou Y. The spatial aspects of crime. J Eur Econ Assoc. 2003;1:459–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Jones KH, Daniels H, Heys S, Ford DV. Challenges and potential opportunities of mobile phone call detail records in health research. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2018;6:e9974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Mansournia MA, Jewell NP, Greenland S. Case-control matching: effects, misconceptions, and recommendations. Eur J Epidemiol. 2018;33:5–14. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44849603. Accessed May 2023

  33. ShotSpotter Frequently Asked Questions . ShotSpotter. 2018. https://www.shotspotter.com/system/content-uploads/SST_FAQ_January_2018.pdf. Accessed May 2023

  34. Carr J, Doleac JL. The geography, incidence, and underreporting of gun violence: new evidence using ShotSpotter data. Incid Underreporting Gun Violence New Evid Using Shotspotter Data (April 26, 2016). 2016;

  35. Pittman DJ, Handy W. Patterns in criminal aggravated assault. J Crim Law Criminol Police Sci. 1964;55:462–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was completed as part of Paul M Reeping’s dissertation. A special thank you to his dissertation committee for their work on this manuscript. This work was also funded by the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research and the Arnold Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA

    Paul M. Reeping, Ariana N. Gobaud, Christopher N. Morrison & Charles C. Branas

  2. Department of Emergency Medicine, Violence Research Prevention Program (VPRP), University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Paul M. Reeping

Authors
  1. Paul M. Reeping
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ariana N. Gobaud
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Christopher N. Morrison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Charles C. Branas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul M. Reeping.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The authors have not published or submitted any related papers from the same study.

Appendix

Appendix

Appendix A

In the secondary analysis, the geographic location of the address of the school was used as the center of the school (the centroid), and the gun-free zone was imagined as a circle with a 1000-foot radius surrounding this point. This is equivalent to a circle with an area of 3,141,592.7 ft2. To create unexposed, gun-allowing units of the same area, the area of the circle was doubled (therefore 6,283,185.4 ft2), which is equivalent to a radius of 1414.2 ft. Therefore, when the inner circle is subtracted from the outer circle, the two areas—gun-free school zone and gun-allowing zone—are equal. For consistency, 414.2 feet (1414.2 minus 1000 feet) was used in the primary analysis as the distance extending from the gun-free school zone to the end of the gun-allowing zone.

figure a

Appendix B

$${O}_{ij}\sim QuasiPoisson\left(\exp \left({n}_{ij}\right)\right)$$
$${n}_{ij}={\beta}_0+{b}_i+{\beta}_i{X}_{ij}+{\beta}_i{L}_{ij}+\log \left({A}_i\right)$$
$${b}_i\sim N\Big(0,{\sigma}_b^2\Big)$$

Where:

i indexes on pair IDs

j = {1,2} indexes observations within IDs.

n = counts of interpersonal shootings for unit i

A = area for each unit i, acting as an offset

β 0 = overall intercept

b i = random intercepts

X = gun-free zone = 1; gun-allowing zone = 0

L = street length (km)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Reeping, P.M., Gobaud, A.N., Morrison, C.N. et al. The Effect of Gun-Free School Zones on Crimes Committed with a Firearm in Saint Louis, Missouri. J Urban Health 100, 1118–1127 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-023-00800-4

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-023-00800-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation