Greg Midgette

University of Maryland Website

Greg Midgette is Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. He holds a Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

Voting History

Mass violence

Red flag laws, allowing police or family members to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from a person who presents a danger to themselves or others, would reduce the frequency or severity of mass violence.

Vote Confidence
Agree 8
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 7
Comments

These laws require education and buy-in. If people don't know the law exists or if they don't use the law to intervene, its benefits will be limited.

Universal background checks, which would require almost all firearm sales in the US to go through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, would reduce the frequency or severity of mass violence.

Vote Confidence
Agree 8
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 5
Comments

Illicit market sales and transfers will still exist, so some (hopefully small) portion of attacks would still occur. That doesn't mean it isn't a worthwhile policy; it means the policy isn't sufficient by itself.

Increasing the presence of armed security at schools and other public venues would reduce the frequency or severity of mass violence.

Vote Confidence
Neutral/No Opinion 7
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Neutral/No Opinion 5
Comments

School resource officers might deter mass shootings (we don't have a strong counterfactual against which to judge), but they clearly aren't sufficient to make the threat of school violence in U.S. comparable to other wealthy nations. These police positions are typically staffed for rule enforcement, not as a rapid-response force against catastrophic violence. I worry that parents and stu might face big intangible costs in terms of intellectual and social development if schools become fortresses.