AP Photo/John Minchillo
Mourners gather for a vigil at the scene of a mass shooting, Sunday, August 4, 2019, in Dayton, Ohio.
- After nearly 300 mass shootings devastated communities across the United States in 2019, politicians, corporations, and people are speaking up about their desire for gun control.
- Here are the advantages and drawbacks of gun control policies on preventing a mass shooting, according to a gun violence expert.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Nearly 300 mass shootings struck communities across the United States in the first nine months of 2019.
The deadly slew of mass shootings in the US pushed a desire for gun control to new heights, with major corporations like Visa expressing a desire for gun control legislation.
The hotly debated topic has surfaced in several state governments that issued executive orders to come to a resolution on the deadly issue.
The Washington Post reported that the White House is preparing to propose its plan to address gun violence as early as next week, but President Donald Trump hasn't provided many details prior to the impending announcement. Lawmakers and activists have floated suggestions that the gun control plan could include a wide variety of policies, including solutions like universal background checks or enforcing "red flag" laws.
However, Garen Wintemute, the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at University of California, Davis, said that it will take more than universal background checks and extreme risk protection orders to prevent future mass shootings. The VPRP conducts research that focuses "on the nature and causes and consequences of firearm violence," he said.
Wintemute told Business Insider he believes it isn't about one policy taking precedence over the other; rather, it is all of these policies working together in tandem that could have maximum impact on preventing future mass shootings.
"If I had to put one at the top of the list - with an understanding that we're going to try and work our way down the list - at the top, for me, would be requiring a background check for all purchases and firearms," Wintemute said, "At the same time, doing what's necessary to make that policy as effective as possible."
Here are the advantages and drawbacks of gun control policies on preventing a mass shooting, according to a gun violence expert.