Strong laws aren’t enough: Historic redlining, state firearm laws, and urban firearm violence in the United States

Am J Surg. 2025 Jul 21:116537. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2025.116537. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Urban firearm violence (UFV) has independently been associated with redlining and firearm laws. This study aims to examine how state firearm laws moderate urban firearm violence in census tracts historically exposed to redlining.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective ecological study of UFV in census tracts exposed to historic redlining. We analyzed state firearm laws using the Giffords gun law scorecard. The primary outcome was the incidence of firearm violence per 100,000, calculated using the Gun Violence Archive database.

RESULTS: Among 16,236 census tracts in 38 states, the incidence of firearm violence increased with the proportion of area redlined across all levels of state firearm laws with 2.7-, 3.9-, and 3.2-times higher incidence in tracts with the greatest proportion redlined relative to the lowest in strong, moderate, and weak law states.

CONCLUSIONS: Strong firearm laws aren’t enough to overcome longstanding socioeconomic disparities that drive firearm violence in historically redlined communities.

PMID:40713235 | DOI:10.1016/j.amjsurg.2025.116537