About Gunviolence.eu

Project Insight (International Network Studying Incidents with Guns: Harm & Trafficking) is implemented by seven research institutes – The Flemish Peace Institute (coordinator),  Small Arms Survey, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute – SIPRI, Textgain, South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons – SEESAC, and Leiden University – Institute of Security and Global Affairs . They joined forces to prevent violence in society by radically improving data collection on firearm violence in the European Union. Europol, European Firearms Experts, EMPACT Firearms, the Belgian Federal Police and the Dutch Police are also participating in the project funded by the EU Internal Security Fund – Police.

The collaboration led to the creation of this brand new online platform Gunviolence.eu, freely available to policymakers, police officers, strategic analysts, researchers, journalists and the general public.

Central to this platform is an online Incident Monitor that collects up-to-date information on firearms incidents in the 27 EU member states. Powered by artificial intelligence technology—using Machine Learning (ML) and Large Language Models (LLMs)—the monitor continuously scans more than 350 local news sources to identify and analyse relevant firearms incidents. The monitor was set up, trained and tested between January 2022 and December 2023, and can now provide a continously updated picture of firearms incidents in every EU country at any time. The Incident Monitor will also generate monthly trend reports.

The platform also contains unique key data sheets for each member state. They make the firearms issue tangible. Where available – links to official sources are also published.

In addition to the monitor, a thematic research overview with eight new research reports (see below) are being published.