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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐

@mkang.bsky.social
850 followers 541 following 50 posts

Sociologist and assistant professor @JHU.edu School of Government and Policy | gun violence, deviance, and gangs | megankang.com

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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
@jhu.edu School of Government and Policy is hiring multiple TT faculty in soc, poli sci, law, public admin, history, philosophy, CS, engineering, econ. In DC, due Oct 25. Founding cohort; you'd shape what the school becomes! apply.interfolio.com/193492 apply.interfolio.com/193579
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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 26/06/2026
We think of them in separate categories, but police officers and soldiers share something essential with cartel members: 'They are all specialists in violence,' the sociologist @rgzepeda writes. In this incisive Essay, Gil explores what drives young men to pursue a career in violence
aeon.co
Organised violence is a trade, whether legal or illegal | Aeon Essays
Every society depends on violence workers, but what makes young men take a job that risks their lives and harms others?
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Raúl Zepeda Gil 🌈🌹🇲🇽 @rgzepeda.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Today @aeon.co published me an essay I wrote with the main insight of my research: The violence specialists. They are workers workers in a trade, regardless of it’s legality. They can be gangsters or soldiers. And there are aspects that makes this occupation attractive. aeon.co/essays/organ...
aeon.co
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Rafael M Batista @rafmbatista.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Sharing some good news 🎉 This month Im starting a 3yr Research Fellowship at @jhucarey.bsky.social's Tech & Society Initiative. Ill be based in downtown DC so if youre ever in the city, say hello! Oh and my wife @mkang.bsky.social is also here–– new AP at the JHU's new School of Govt & Policy! 🤩
A man in a blazer and glasses smiles broadly in the foreground of a selfie, while a woman in a black dress and boots stands on the steps of a blue-grey brick rowhouse, holding a bag and smiling at the camera.
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NBER @nber.org · 09/06/2026
A strategy targeting those driving gun violence in Baltimore's hardest-hit district cut shootings and homicides by a third in 18 months, with no rise in overall arrests, from Kapustin, Chalfin, Biddle, Wade, Khade, Layana, Struhl, and Braga www.nber.org/papers/w35292
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Finished my PhD & feeling infinitely grateful. @bstewart.bsky.social told me in my 1st year that the PhD is "a lesson in self-mastery." That it was. What a privilege to have 6 years to discipline my thinking while researching violence in America alongside some of the most brilliant & generous ppl.
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Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · 12/06/2026
Commentary: Chicago recorded its fewest violent crimes in 60 years last year. That’s the good news. The bad news is what’s happening so far this year. While other cities continue reducing crime, in Chicago, homicides are actually up 7%. And summer is here, a time when violence spikes.
chicagotribune.com
Megan Kang: What 99 men from Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods teach us about crime
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Being a victim of violence rewires how you see and engage with the world. I wrote a piece in the @chicagotribune.com on how that cycle forms and how cognitive behavioral interventions help break it. Read here: shorturl.at/M4uPo
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Rio’s Rocinha community challenges the assumption that places lacking strong state presence are ungoverned. Informal social control through community networks, norms, and non-state authorities helps organize daily life for tens of thousands of residents.
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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Important & urgent: "concerns about reproducibility should not trump concerns about confidentiality or harm...particularly when efforts to ensure reproducibility have the potential to place inequitable burdens on qualitative researchers and to further erode...willingness to participate in research"
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
@jessicacalarco.com hit the nail on the head in her @pnas.org editorial about why the trend towards data transparency can be complicated for qualitative research--a dilemma that came to head in our recent PNAS paper on violence. I recommend giving it a read. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
With qualitative research, the risks of data sharing can outweigh the rewards | PNAS
With qualitative research, the risks of data sharing can outweigh the rewards
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
1/3 Excited to share a paper 5 years in the making, now out in @pnas.org. We asked how does past exposure to violence shape the way people think in social situations, and how does that thinking drive future involvement in violence? w/ @sendhil.bsky.social
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
It’s been an incredible ride @princeton.edu @patricksharkey.bsky.social
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 23/02/2026
Deep breath. I'm honored and excited to join the faculty of America's oldest research university, Johns Hopkins. I'll start this summer as a full professor, one of the founding faculty at the brand-new School of Government and Policy. We're building something unique & important, even historic.
sgp.jhu.edu
Home - JHU School of Government and Policy
Johns Hopkins School of Government and Policy advances governance with research, data-driven analysis, and innovative solutions to today’s challenges.
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Zachary Levenson @grundrza.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Yesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it. Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Excited to share that I'll be joining Johns Hopkins School of Government and Policy as an Assistant Professor this summer! Looking forward to moving to DC and the work ahead. Thankful to my amazing partner, friends, family, and mentors who have helped me get here.
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Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham @paulgp.com · 15/11/2025
Update your syllabus and stay on the frontier - it will increase your students’ wages. Epic work by my colleagues @barbarabiasi.com and @profsongma.bsky.social #linkoftheday www.barbarabiasi.com/uploads/1/0/...
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Iain Brennan @iainbrennan.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Fantastic! Theory in violence interventions is often weak and simplistic. Qualitative work with programme participants is the way to improve.
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
How does a violence intervention program actually work? We interviewed 99 READI participants to find out. Key finding: They came for the job, stayed for the therapy. crimelab.uchicago.edu/resources/wh...
crimelab.uchicago.edu
Why Might READI Chicago Work to Reduce Gun Violence? Qualitative Evidence from the Field - University of Chicago Crime Lab
Building on a body of evidence showing that behavioral science-informed programs can reduce violence among youth and adults, this report highlights findings from a qualitative analysis to understand w...
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
“True scholars often work in loneliness, compelled to find reward in the awareness that they have made valuable, even beautiful, contributions to the cumulative structure of human knowledge, whether anyone knows it at the time or not.” — George F. Kennan
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Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
"It is not hyperbole to say that the future of higher education in America requires that every university reject it. If any schools capitulate, the pressure will be enormous on all to fold. The only solution is solidarity & collective action against this effort at federal control over higher ed."
nytimes.com
Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
As Chicago’s gangs have weakened, it’s become easier for members to leave their groups but harder to avoid violence. My research in Criminology reveals why. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Weaker the gang, harder the exit
This study draws on 95 interviews and observations with gang-affiliated individuals in Chicago to examine how gang structures shape disengagement and desistance from crime. During the last two decade...
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Morgan C. Williams, Jr. @mwilljr.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Check out our latest @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social piece on the role of states in regulating the proliferation of guns throughout the U.S. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/sta...
vitalcitynyc.org
Vital City | State Gun Laws Matter
In our federalist nation, regulation in 50 capitals makes a huge difference.
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Dan Semenza @daniel-semenza.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
When it comes to dealing with illegal guns in the US, the Pareto Principle reminds us that the vast majority are supplied by a small number of bad dealers. So what can we do? Find out in my new @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social piece, out today in a brand new issue. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the...
vitalcitynyc.org
Vital City | The 80/20 Rule of Gun Supply
Why focusing on the small fraction of problem dealers offers the clearest path to reducing violence
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Rajiv Sethi @rajivsethi.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Latest issue of @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social is on gun supply, lots of interesting contributions, here is mine (with Dan O'Flaherty) www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/whe...
vitalcitynyc.org
Vital City | When Products Can Kill
The unfortunate limits of legal gun regulation
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Brian DeLay @briandelay.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Excited to see my essay "Gun Culture Then & Now" appear today in a special issue of @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social. Thanks to @mkang.bsky.social for making this issue happen. Please read and share - the whole issue is packed with wonderful essays about the past, present, and future of guns in America.
vitalcitynyc.org
Vital City | Gun Culture Then and Now
Firearm ownership meant something very different when the United States was founded.
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Check out the @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social issue on gun supply! This volume is a tour de force on how the U.S. got to have so many guns and what can be done about it. Thanks to @everytown.bsky.social for their support. www.vitalcitynyc.org/issues/issue...
vitalcitynyc.org
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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Guns don’t just enable violence; they produce the “shooter” as a durable social identity. Our hidden gem of the week details how the collapse of corporate gang governance and social media’s permanent archives turn youth violence into lifelong stigma. By @mkang.bsky.social buff.ly/98uFxpT
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Thanks @the-syllabus.bsky.social for featuring my paper, and @benhr.bsky.social for the heads up. What a cool honor! Working paper here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Chris Uggen @chrisuggen.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
As we mourn today's Annunciation Church shooting, the reporting and photojournalism are almost too much to take in; sharing this gift link for those seeking good local coverage from Minneapolis. www.startribune.com/minneapolis-...
startribune.com
Live: Neighbors describe volley of gunfire in attack that killed two children, wounded 17
Sources identified Robin Westman, 23, as the shooter, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene. One source told the Star Tribune Westman’s mother once worked at Annunciation.
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
Thank you @njgvrc.bsky.social for your invaluable support for my dissertation research!
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Yunhan Wen @yunhanwen.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Join us on August 8 at UIC for this year’s Junior Theorists Symposium (JTS)! #asa (In suppressed voice) Also it’d be great if folks can make a small donation so that we can buy coffee for everyone ☕️
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Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
On Juneteenth, we celebrate freedom and recommit ourselves to the work that remains undone. We remember that even in the darkest hours, there is cause to hope for tomorrow’s light.
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
We’ve updated the FSS proxy for household gun ownership to include 2020–2023. The dataset now spans 1949–2023 and includes state-level estimates of gun ownership, homicide, firearm homicide, and suicide rates. dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtm...
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Aron Szekely @aronszekely.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
If you're interested in understanding why honour killings happen, my paper with @aksoyundan.bsky.social has some answers. We also suggest ways to reduce them: journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....
journals.sagepub.com
Making Sense of Honor Killings
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Ozan Aksoy @aksoyundan.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
📢 My paper w Aron Szekely on honour-based violence is published online (Open Access): journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.... We explain this puzzling phenomenon applying game-theory and testing it using large-scale data on norms and actual femicides. @sriucl.bsky.social @uclsociology.bsky.social
Details of the publication with abstract which reads: Honor killings, which occur when women are perceived to have broken purity norms and bring “dishonor” to their family, pose profound moral and societal problems and underrecognized sociological puzzles. Given the immense cost, why do families murder their own daughter,
niece, or cousin? Conversely, given the tragic consequences, why are norms broken in the first place? Drawing on accounts of honor killings, we characterize the key actors, actions, and incentives, and develop two interlinked theoretical models, one on norm-enforcement
and another on norm-breaking. The former specifies the conditions under which honor norms should hold, the latter, counterintuitively, predicts that honor killings occur most frequently when honor norms are contested; not when they are strictest. Analyzing data from 24 countries and ~26,000 individuals and building a unique dataset of honor killings from Turkey, we find support for the hypotheses. Honor norms are stronger when laws offer leniency for honor killings, families’ loss of reputation is more consequential, and community cohesion is higher. Actual killings have an inverse-U-shaped link with the prevalence of honor norms. Our work advances the theoretical understanding of honor norms and killings and offers one of the most
comprehensive empirical analyses of the factors influencing honor killings.Figure 1 from the paper. Within-Family Interaction and Probabilities of Interaction Outcomes
Note: Panel A shows an interaction within a family. Panel B shows the probability of breaking a norm (p2) in the game tree in panel A; the probability of the existence of an honor norm in the repeated norm-enforcement game (p1, i.e., conditions given in Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 obtain); and the probability of honor killing (p3), which is the product of the former two probabilities, as a function of repeated norm-enforcement game parameters.Figure 3 from the paper. Support for Honor Killings; Coefficients from Multilevel Regressions with Random Intercepts for Countries
Data source: PEW (2013) World Muslims Survey.
Note: N (response) = 26,458. N (country) = 24. Countries that adopted laws that allow leniency for honor-based violence: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Niger, Palestinian Territories. Countries that have adultery laws: Afghanistan, Pakistan.Figure 5 from the paper. Results of Poisson Models Predicting the Monthly Number of Honor Killings
Note: Predictive margins for the association between support for honor norms and honor killings (top panel) and the average marginal effect of passing law 6284 according to support for honor norms (bottom panel).
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
6 yrs ago an economist asked if I wanted to help him write a book about gun violence. It seemed crazy and fun. Working on this book w/ Jens changed my worldview, introduced me to my partner, and clarified what I want to spend my life doing. I’m grateful to have played a small part & hope you buy it!
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
A much needed piece and example of strong leadership www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
theatlantic.com
The Cost of the Government’s Attack on Columbia
American universities have given the country prosperity and security. The Trump administration’s attack on academic freedom endangers all of that.
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Dissertating in good company
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Excited to be assembling a @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social volume on Gun Supply! If you have an idea for a short op-ed on the topic, we’d love to hear it—shoot me a message. 🔍✍️
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
What an inspiring life www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/b...
nytimes.com
Christopher Jencks, a Shaper of Views on Economic Inequality, Dies at 88
His clear prose, illuminating data and novel arguments helped transform debates around issues like public education and welfare reform.
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
This framing of choosing is powerful. We could have less poverty and fewer homicides. But we choose to prioritize other things. @nytimes.com
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
I've spent the last couple of years w/ young people in Chicago for research on illegal gun carrying. Here're reflections from them (& seasoned experts) and how they've reshaped my thinking on gun research and policy. vitalcitynyc.org/articles/a-better-conversation-on-guns @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social
vitalcitynyc.org
Vital City | A Better Conversation on Guns
For the U.S. to make lasting progress against firearm violence, it must change the way it talks about — and talks to — people who carry.
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Watch the video from this @jama.com article on how lower vs higher energy bullets affect muscle tissue. It blew my mind. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Bullets as Pathogen
This JAMA Viewpoint explores how public health principles related to communicable diseases and bullet-specific regulations could be applied in the US to prevent further injury and death due to gun vio...
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Orwell wrote: So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the earth, and to take a pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information....
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Hunter York @hunterwyork.com · 21/12/2024
(Big) Pub day! What was once a replication project for my first-year PhD stats class turned into a different beast. Read on for some thoughts on intergenerational mobility along axes of occupational characteristics. (Coauthors @xisong.bsky.social and Yu Xie) www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
journals.uchicago.edu
Gradationalism Revisited: Intergenerational Occupational Mobility Along Axes of Occupational Characteristics1 | American Journal of Sociology: Vol 130, No 4
Studies of intergenerational occupational mobility typically characterize occupations quantitatively in one of two ways: gradationally or categorically. Both methods likely grossly oversimplify the co...
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Added more gun researchers to this starter pack who joined BlueSky. Please share and lmk if you’d like to be added! @daniel-semenza.bsky.social @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social @meganranney.bsky.social @sonalirajan.bsky.social @thetrace.org @giffords.org @everytown.bsky.social go.bsky.app/G9zEmHs
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
One of my undergrads just grilled me on firearm policy for 1.5 hours and shed light on so many things I don’t fully understand myself but also how much we do know as a firearm research community. It was awesome.
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
“Gun researchers tend to be abstinence-only researchers. Why not adopt a harm reduction approach?” @brandondelpozo.bsky.social Thought-provoking convo at the #2024FirearmResearchConf workshop on research with the firearm-owning community. @meganranney.bsky.social
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