Evaluating Methods to Estimate the Effect of State Laws on Firearm Deaths: A Simulation Study

The authors use simulations to assess the performance of a wide range of statistical models commonly used in the gun policy literature to estimate the effects of state-level gun policies on firearm deaths and to identify the most-appropriate statistical methods for producing estimates. The results suggest substantial statistical problems with many of the methods used in this field. The authors identify the best method among those assessed.