Gun violence in Europe: results of the Gun Violence Incident Monitor

• In Event: Weapons and gun violence

Abstract

A general trend of decades of decreasing levels of gun homicides seems to have stopped in Europe. In some European countries the levels of gun violence are now even strongly increasing. In-depth research on gun violence and firearms trafficking in Europe is hampered by the absence of reliable, comprehensive and detailed data on firearm incidents. In 2022-2023 the Flemish Peace Institute and Textgain, with the support of national law enforcement agencies, developed the Gun Violence Incident Monitor (GVIM) as part of EU funded project INSIGHT. The GVIM is a publicly available online monitor - powered by artificial intelligence technology - that continuously collects information on firearms incidents in the 27 EU Member States by scanning more than 350 national and local news sources (https://gunviolence.eu/incident-monitor/). Since January 2023 almost 20,000 firearm incidents have been registered in the GVIM. This paper analyses the characteristics (context, perpetrator, victim, firearm) of different types of gun violence in Europe. Our results indicate strong differences between types of gun violence and suggests the need for specific policy initiatives to prevent gun violence in Europe.

Author

• Nils Duquet, Flemish Peace Institute