PayPal Is Funding Research to Tackle Illegal Gun Trafficking and Financing in the United States

Today, we announced that PayPal will be funding research between the Center on Crime and Community Resilience at Northeastern University and the University of Chicago Crime Lab to better understand what types of payment methods are used to finance illegally-sourced firearms in the United States. Our hope is that this research will generate actionable insights to help address illegal firearm distribution.

While we recognize that the majority of gun owners in this country are responsible, law-abiding citizens, in 80% of all reported gun crimes, the perpetrator was not a lawful gun owner—they were in illegal possession of a weapon that belonged to someone else.

PayPal is working to combat illegal gun trafficking, which will help to reduce and eliminate firearm-related violence. We feel compelled to be part of the solution.

The research we are funding will be led by Dr. Anthony Braga, Director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University and Director of the Center on Crime and Community Resilience. Dr. Braga is an internationally recognized expert on the subject of gun violence and reducing illegal access to firearms, and he’s worked with city and state governments across the country to combat unauthorized firearm sales to dangerous individuals and criminal networks.

Dr. Braga is joined by experts from the Center on Crime and Community Resilience and the University of Chicago Crime Lab and Dr. Philip Cook, co-director of the NBER Work Group on the Economics of Crime at Duke University, to address this complicated and important issue. Together, these organizations have experience working on numerous projects related to illegal and underground firearm markets.

At PayPal, we already prohibit firearms sales on our platform and have invested in finding ways to prevent illegal firearm transactions. We also partner with law enforcement officials around the world to assist with identifying and stopping illegal activity from occurring. We’re proud of this work—and our new research initiative will serve as an extension of those efforts to help all payment platforms combat illegal firearms trafficking.

Using our platform for good is at the core of who we are as a company. While this research is only in the initial stages, today’s announcement is a significant first step in taking a collaborative and strategic approach towards eradicating illegally-sourced firearms trafficking.