Retraction Notice: Story About Paper on Gun Laws

Editor’s Note: In 2013, Boston published a story online titled “Harvard Publication On Gun Laws Resurfaces As Talks About Firearms Continue,” which referenced a 2007 independent research paper called “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?,” first published in Harvard’s Journal of Public Law and Policy. The story originally referenced the paper as a “new” study, though after publication, we were quickly alerted to the fact that it was actually a paper from 2007 conducted independently. We updated the story and issued a correction within a day. Regardless, since then, the paper’s validity has continued to come into question, such as whether the journal it appeared in is peer-reviewed. Given the sensitive nature of the topic and questionable validity of the paper, we’re retracting the story in an effort to not cloud other, more current, ongoing conversations about gun policy.