Legal Action Project: Gun Trafficking in the United States
Semester
On October 21 of this year, three people were murdered and four injured in a shooting at a Brookfield, WI salon. The gun used to commit these crimes, like many guns used in similar crimes, was acquired illegally through an online firearms classified website.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., has tasked the Capstone team to create a multimedia report demonstrating the weakness of federal gun laws as they relate to gun trafficking. The primary research for this report involves interviewing convicted gun dealers as well as public officials and gun regulation advocates on both sides of the issue. The purpose of the interviews is to personalize the oft-cited gun violence statistics and, per the client’s wishes, to develop a product based on original research.
In Part I of the final report, the Capstone team collected the facts of the Brookfield Shooting. In Part II, the team used the facts, along with adapted scientific cost estimation models, to estimate the social cost incurred as a result of the shooting. In Part III, the team contextualized this shooting for uninitiated readers nonetheless interested in quelling the flow of illegal guns, by explaining why existing law is inadequate, why online gun sales pose such a unique threat, and why background check legislation is required to prevent further crimes like the Brookfield Shooting.