as gun violence continues to shorten the average life expectancy of americans researchers have new insights into the root causes of one distressing type of death firearm homicides a new study published tuesday in the journal plos medicine found that four social factors mobility trust in institutions welfare spending and income inequality were linked to gun homicide rates we know that these root causes can be modified through policies dr daniel kim lead author of the study and associate professor at northeastern university told abc news this and future research could get policymakers to tackle the gun violence epidemic in america more congress agrees on historic deal to fund 25 million in gun violence research as of 2017 gun homicides made up 14542 of the nearly 40000 gun deaths that the centers for disease control and prevention reported that year the study analyzed neighborhood firearm homicide data from 2015 and compared that to measures of four social determinants of health kim stressed that the link between gun homicides and social factors is an association rather than a causeandeffect phenomenon and that some factors had a stronger connection than others the strongest association was social mobility or childrens ability to climb higher on the socioeconomic ladder than their parents high social mobility was linked to 25 lower gun homicide rates on the neighborhood level kim d plos med dec 2019 previous studies suggest that if theres low social mobility or economic opportunity people may feel a sense of hopelessness kim noted it can affect their psychological or emotional state his hypothesis people living in communities without the hope of a more prosperous future and without options may be more likely to resort to committing crimes income inequality had the smallest effect in the study wider gaps between rich people and poor people in a community was associated with an 8 higher gun homicide rate higher welfare and education spending however was associated with a 14 lower gun homicide rate to a degree these factors are intertwined more there have been at least 21 deadly mass shootings in the us so far in 2019 its not bad people in bad neighborhoods said cassandra crifasi deputy director of the johns hopkins center for gun policy and research said of gun homicides these are people with inadequate access to resources crifasi who was not associated with the study told abc news that unequal distribution of resources isnt an accident crifasi explained instead its fueled by historical policies such as redlining a 1930s policy in which local lenders refused loans to residents in minority neighborhoods the result was pockets of concentrated poverty across the country which still exist today according to a study published last year by the national community reinvestment coalition three out of four neighborhoods that were redlined in the united states decades ago continue to struggle economically years ago we created these environments where were still seeing the challenges today crifasi said police investigate the scene of