John Donohue

Stanford University Website

John Donohue is the C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law at Stanford University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University and J.D. from Harvard Law 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 9
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 7
Comments

If sensibly implemented, it should catch a least a few violence-prone individuals. Not likely to have a large effect though.

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 5
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 5
Comments

Yes, if we raise the age to buy guns and improve the information in the background check system and punish straw purchasers, this should stop some cases.

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

Vote Confidence
Disagree 4
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Neutral/No Opinion 5
Comments

Like the oher measures, this has the possibility to at least stop some violent acts but it has 2 drawbacks compared to the earlier two: 1) it is very costly with 100,000 schools in the US, and 2) it might just shift the violence to a less hardened target