New online platform monitors gun violence in Europe

The Flemish Peace Institute has launched an online knowledge portal on gun violence in the European Union. Gunviolence.eu features an incident monitor that provides a global picture of firearm incidents in all member states. 

The platform lists up-to-date information based on media reports from more than 350 local news sources. The tool, launched on Thursday, will also generate a monthly trend report. 

"Thanks to the sophisticated algorithm and self-learning nature of the AI technology used, this monitor will become a crucial tool for a more robust and effective approach to firearm violence by law enforcement," said director Nils Duquet. 

The monitor will also provide researchers and journalists with more complete and timely data to uncover new trends, he said. "This is a very big step forward because from now on it will be possible to quickly get a global picture."

Duquet warns, however, that the figures cannot be used blindly, as they also contain erroneous data. "The tool is constantly monitored and cleansed, but because the information is so up to date, not all of this happens immediately," he said.

The monitor's artificial intelligence trains itself based on the information and corrections, which should allow the tool to continue to improve in performance. 

The Flemish Peace Institute developed the monitor with several other research bodies, including the Small Arms Survey, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and Textgain.

The project was funded by the EU Internal Security Fund - Police. Contributors include Europol, European Firearms Experts, the Belgian federal police, the Dutch police and the South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.

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