Women are especially vulnerable to gun violence from domestic partners. New state and federal laws are being proposed and passed which require abusers to give up their firearm after a temporary restraining order is filed, others are trying to prevent anyone with an abusive history from being able to obtain a gun.

If we can't reach consensus on gun laws, what about ensuring people who may be a threat to themselves or the community cannot access their firearms? Extreme risk protection orders are already in place in four states and are under consideration by some 20 more. These orders allow people who have evidence that someone poses a threat to petition a judge. If a judge agrees then police can take someone's firearms on a temporary basis and require the person to attend counseling.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and Berkeley say that Connecticut’s “permit-to-purchase” law requiring people to get a purchasing license before buying a handgun - despite early criticism - was actually a huge success for public safety in reducing gun homicides, especially relative to other states.

Richmond, California has one of the nation’s highest gun violence rates, so Operation Peacemaker Fellowship tracks and identifies individuals at risk of committing violent acts or becoming a victim of violence. The Fellowship reaches out to each at-risk person with employment training, mentorship, and sends out teams to de-escalate conflicts within targeted communities. These “change agents” spend time with youth and get to know their families, so they can better understand how to help and offer a cash incentives to the targeted individuals who are part of the program.

Many guns recovered from crimes in Chicago, were purchased in its suburbs. A Chicago coalition of anti-violence activists used this to file a lawsuit against Lyons, leading to stricter gun laws in the town.

Research shows that higher rates of gun ownership lead to higher rates of violent crime - countless examples in the continental United States seem to support this. But Hawaii, with some of the highest gun sale numbers in the country, has rock-bottom gun violence rates - universal background checks and the natural ocean barrier that discourages smuggling are just some of the ways they've achieved this.