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

General Information

Title

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

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Tamara Ren

Affiliation

University of Oregon

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Garrett Stanford

PI Affiliation

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-06-24

End date

2024-01-31

Keywords

Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

Discrimination

JEL code(s)

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

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

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

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%.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB