Featuring on RNZ's Morning Report, researcher Philippa Yasbek explained the necessity for a multilayered approach to firearms law to reduce gun-related harms on 13 February 2025.
The interview was in response to our Briefing - Good firearms law needs multiple defensive layers: The Swiss cheese model, co-authored by Ms Yasbek and Dr Lucy Telfar-Barnard.
"What it says is that in the goal of reducing harms, deaths and injuries there are multiple things that can go wrong and you don't just use one policy tool or one protection to prevent harms.
"You need a layered approach, where you've got lots and lots of different policy tools. None of them are particularly perfect but if you stack up enough of them you will prevent most most harms and most injuries and deaths."
Recent research has shown that the combined effect of a strong restrictive set of firearm policies is associated with lowering firearm deaths by 20% compared with individual policies which show only small or uncertain effects.
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