Everytown Announces New Grant Opportunity to Advance Gun Violence Prevention Research Using AI-Powered “EveryShot” Database

NEW YORK – Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund today launched a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a new grant program inviting scholars in the gun violence prevention research field to leverage EveryShot, a first-of-its-kind, near real-time AI tool that tracks gun violence incidents across the United States. 

EveryShot contains over 80 variables of data on gun violence incidents, victims, and shooters, sourced from approximately 300,000 news articles. These articles are rich data sources that contain additional context surrounding each incident in the EveryShot database and could help answer critical research questions that structured data alone cannot address. 

“With cuts to federal funding over the past year severely impacting data collection efforts across the nation, EveryShot is helping to fill a critical gap in public health data availability for the gun violence research field. Our hope is that this RFP will facilitate the development and uptake of new and needed evidence-informed solutions,” said Sonali Rajan, Senior Director of Research at Everytown for Gun Safety. “By opening these data to the broader research community, we aim to uncover new insights into policy effectiveness, public narratives, and the lived reality of gun violence in America.”

Everytown intends to award three grants of up to $20,000 each for 12-month research projects as part of this call. The RFP invites scholars to explore three key tracks:

• Policy Analysis: Use EveryShot data to advance research on the most pressing gun safety policy issues facing the United States today, including, but not limited to: background checks and licensing, assault weapons bans, Child Access Prevention laws, Extreme Risk Protection Orders, and concealed carry mandates at the state or national levels.

• Validation Study: Provide opportunities for researchers to assess the validity of EveryShot data across geographies, intents, and injury severity (e.g. fatal versus nonfatal incidents) to understand how EveryShot data can be most effectively and accurately used in future research efforts.

• News Coverage Text Analysis: Provide opportunities for researchers to explore EveryShot’s vast text database to answer questions such as which forms of gun violence and solutions to it are de-emphasized in media framing and whose voices are amplified or marginalized in coverage.

Grantees will be expected to submit at least one manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal. Researchers who envision a clear scientific application of EveryShot data that does not fit in the categories listed above but stands to advance gun violence prevention efforts should feel encouraged to apply.

The formal Request for Proposals for this call is now open. Interested researchers can find full application details, eligibility requirements, and deadlines here.