I will be looking into challenging myths that individuals have surrounding gun use through relevant statistics. I will then tailor that information into a visual piece that will be placed within an public space within pittsburgh. My objective is to interpret and dissect the statistic understand the relationship of the statistic to stakeholders within pittsburgh and then create a physical artifact that shocks people into reflecting upon the dangers of gun usage. In this project I will be creating a tool for change – an artifact that forces people to come face to face with their assumptions.
Possible Statistics:
Based on survey data from the U.S. Department of Justice, about 244,866 nonfatal violent victimizations committed against children under age 12 with the use of a gun annually.
Total costs related to gun injuries and deaths daily amounts to 6 million USD. Of that, 3 million are coming from public money.
4,166 children shot accidentally in 2010. in U.S. due to unsecured guns in the home
According to the FBI, for every justifiable handgun homicide, there are more than 50 handgun murders.
I’ve currently reaching out to several contacts to send my project to people’s addresses through their organizations.
It seems possible to send my postcards to all CMU students as well as surrounding neighbors of CMU.
This weekend I’m hoping to reach out to local organizations who might be willing to put them on display to let people take the initiative to fill them out and send them back. Organizations such as: big ideas bookshop, coffee shops, food co-op, and the city council building.
Next step is to produce the postcards and website so I can get started on printing and mailing!
This video was our way of visualizing the statistic that living in a home where there are guns increases the chances of suicide by 90 to 460% homicide by 40 to 170%
We chose a clip from the movie Donnie Darko where in the movie, one of the characters is able to see all of the possible futures of himself and the people around him. The liquid that moves from out of their chests represents their future and what they are attracted to. The main character ( Donnie) begins to see his own future starting to flow ahead of him and follows it. The viewer finds out that he is being attracted to the gun that is hidden in his parent’s closet.
We thought that this was interesting because it looks like the gun could actually be attracting Donnie to itself, and is a really good way of illustrating the agency that a firearm has.
We end the video by sharing the statistic and hope that is makes a point about the possibilites that can come into fruition when a gun is in the home.
An initiative of the Allegheny Medical Examiner’s Office to reduce gun violence among young adults in Pittsburgh. The goal is to provide them with a “reality-check” as most shooters do not get to witness first hand the damage they inflict.
One of the things that stuck out to me from the beginning of our research around this issue is the amount of statistics that were introduced to us. With my background in social science I’m fairly comfortable with numbers and statistics, but I wonder if the way they’re currently presented is the best to communicate the risks surrounding gun control.
My goal for this project is to use the risk perception and communication literature from the social sciences to support design explorations around statistics and factual information that can be persuasive around the gun safety issue. An important part of this will be making scientific data more accessible to certain audiences. I’d also like to draw inspiration from other successful advocacy campaigns that have used persuasive statistics.
The output for this project will most likely a research report that discusses all the different elements and how they relate to each other in terms of people understanding statistics. An important component of the project will be synthesizing all this information to make it understandable and simple in the report and also in our class’ publication.
2 / 25 Initial Idea: Gun Lock Campaign My individual exploration of the issues in this class will focus on promoting good firearm habits to parents through using gun locks. Young children usually get fatally injured or dies from gun accidents and teenagers are more involved in homicide and suicide. Although different age group of children are involved in gun in 3 different ways, they do have some similarity that lots of times, they are exposed to the gun at home where they can easily get an access to. It is parent’s responsibility to store the gun in a safe way and keep a gun away from children. A simple habit such as using a gun lock can increase possibility to prevent not only the children to get an access to the guns but also prevent the deaths & injury. Owning guns is normalized in US society, and why ‘owning gun = using gun locks’ can be also normalized?
2 / 27 Individual Brief Change I had an interview with Chris Vitale, who is a nurse UPMC Children’s Hospital, to receive some advice on current gun lock campaigns and gun safety programs. She introduced me to the Safety Center at UPMC where provides parents a useful information about children’s safety including firearm habits. Then I found out that the Safety Center gives away “Project ChildSafety Kit” containing a booklet and a cable style gun lock, in order to promote children’s safety. However, I was very shocked by how unreliable the gun lock was. The lock that should protect the children was made so poorly and even doubtful whether it works properly or not. Therefore, instead of promoting gun locks, I decided to change my individual project to research and evaluate Project ChildSafety Kit and then also provide reviews of other safety devices.
Resource: personal interview with Chris Vitale
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3 / 4 What is Project ChildSafe ?
Project ChildSafe is a nationwide program, developed by NSSF(National Shooting Sports Foundation,) whose purpose is to promote safe firearms handling and storage practices among all firearms owners through the distribution of key safety education messages and free gun locking devices (safety kits). The program received millions in funding through U.S. Department of Justice grants between 2002-2008, and now by the firearm industries. Project ChildSafe establishes partnerships with governors, lieutenant governors, U.S. attorneys, community leaders, and law enforcement agencies to allow for efficient statewide distribution of kits. It has been provided 36 million free kits to gun owners since 2003, and according to Project ChildSafe’s website, fatal firearm accident rate has dropped by 22% in 10 years.
What kind of locks are being distributed by Project ChildSafe? A cable-style gun lock that meets the California AB 106 Standard. Cable locks require that many types of firearms be unloaded before the cable lock is installed, providing an extra level of safety. After reading these statements from Project ChildSafe website and without knowing what California AB 106 Standard is, locks seemed to be very safe and reliable. I initially thought that AB 106 requires strict regulations on safety devices. However, as reading California Assembly Bill 106 Standard, I found out that the bill implemented a minimum safety standard for firearm safety devices to reduce the risk of firearm-related injuries to children 18 years of age and younger. The guideline that I believe Project ChildSafe followed was “including provisions to ensure that firearms safety devices are reusable and of adequate quality to prevent unauthorized users from firing the firearm and to ensure that these devices cannot be readily removed from the firearm except by an authorized adult user using the appropriate method of access.”
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