To Whom Does the Second Amendment Apply? Experimental Evidence of Law enforcement’s Impact on Equitable Access to Firearms

Last registered on October 09, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
To Whom Does the Second Amendment Apply? Experimental Evidence of Law enforcement’s Impact on Equitable Access to Firearms
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012226
Initial registration date
October 02, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 04, 2023, 5:02 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
October 09, 2023, 8:38 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Oregon

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-06-24
End date
2024-01-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
In November, Oregon narrowly passed a measure that restricts the possession of firearms, reflecting a national push for stricter gun control. The new law charges the Oregon State Police (OSP) with issuing permits to lawfully own a firearm and allows the OSP discretion when deciding to issue a permit. While proponents of the law have lauded the discretionary power, opponents are concerned that designating an institution that potentially struggles with biased practices as an important gatekeeper could have unintended impacts. We use a field experiment to test for the presence of racial discrimination concerning firearm ownership.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ren, Tamara and Garrett Stanford. 2023. "To Whom Does the Second Amendment Apply? Experimental Evidence of Law enforcement’s Impact on Equitable Access to Firearms." AEA RCT Registry. October 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12226-1.1
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
We conduct a correspondence study with law enforcement agencies to understand how they respond to general inquiries about firearm ownership and permit applications from different putative racial/ethnic groups and genders. We do this by using emails assigned to names that represent a putative race/ethnicity and genders. We also explore how different signals in the email can influence responses from law enforcement. The emails are sent over an eight-week period.
Intervention Start Date
2023-10-10
Intervention End Date
2023-12-12

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Discrimination about firearm ownership.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We compare responses as well as the sentiment.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Correspondence study.
Experimental Design Details
Correspondence study. We randomly assign putative identities associated with different racial groups and genders with email addresses that we use to email law enforcement from requesting information on how to purchase a firearm. We use three different messages signaling different information about the emailer.
Randomization Method
Randomization done on R using RCT::treatment_assign.
Randomization Unit
There six areas of randomization and stratify the randomization in the following ways.

1. We randomize the week the emails will be sent and stratify by state and law enforcement agency type.
2. Randomize the putative race. Stratify by state/agency type/week
3. Randomize the putative gender. Stratify by state/agency type/week
4. Randomize the name of the putative identities. Stratify by state/agency type/week.
5. Randomize the day the emails will be sent (three in the week). Stratify by state/agency type/week/last name of the putative identities.
6. Randomize the signal in the emails. Stratify by state/agency type/week.
, the race, the gender, the name, the day the emails will be sent, and the signal in the email.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Clustering at the state by agency type. There are 96 (we do not include DC or Alaska).
Sample size: planned number of observations
3985
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We have three racial groups and two genders. The random assignment we used put equal probability on each being assigned to any law enforcement agency. The identities are split up so there are 1328 White, 1328 Black, and 1329 Hispanic identities. For gender, there are 1992 male and 1993 female.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Using response rate as the main outcome of interest, we expect a MDE of 5%.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Oregon's Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects
IRB Approval Date
2023-02-21
IRB Approval Number
STUDY00000779
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials