Building the Next Generation of Firearm Researchers

Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations

A crowd-sourced project on the science of science and the exceedingly rare circumstances that sustain legacy research from a mentor to mentee and to theirs

In fifty years since firearm research began, the decades have witnessed several pioneering investigators who published the first groundbreaking studies. This was followed by NRA backlash and a federal funding moratorium. After years of increasing firearm mortality trends, there was finally a release of foundation and federal funding dedicated for research an understanding of firearm injuries and violence.

Will producing more gun violence researchers increase the amount of research produced?

If we draw from economics and think of firearm grant dollars as wealth and investigators as business, we can think of investigators who hold grants as wealthy, with the potential to produce output – research and trainees.

Hopefully mentors have the simultaneous goal of helping trainees gain independence and secure research funding of their own. Perhaps many mentors have this goal, but few know how to make that happen.

Legacy planning is fundamental to wealth management for individuals, who retain financial planners to help manage their portfolio of investments, accumulate wealth, and live well while growing an inheritance to benefit their children and future generations. Enter “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations,” the economics lesson of wealth accrued diminishing through two generations of heirs, leaving the fourth generation no better off than the original ancestors.

We want to make sure that we are setting up future generations of firearm researchers to have successful careers.