A gun court is a type of problem solving court that intervenes with youth who have committed gun offenses that have not resulted in serious physical injury. Most juvenile gun courts are short-term programs that augment rather than replace normal juvenile court proceedings. This basic model of juvenile gun court includes several principal elements including: (1) early intervention—in many jurisdictions, before resolution of the court proceedings; (2) short-term (often a single 2- to 4-hour session), intensive programming; (3) an intensive educational focus to show youth the harm that can come from unlawful gun use and the immediate response that will result when youth are involved with guns; and (4) the inclusion of a wide range of court personnel and law enforcement officials working together with community members (Sheppard and Kelly, 2002).

Over the past decade, hundreds of experimental courts have sprung up across the country, testing new solutions to problems like substance use, domestic violence, and child neglect. These "problem-solving courts" include drug courts, domestic violence courts, community courts, family treatment courts, mental health courts, and others. While each of these initiatives targets a different problem, the common feature to all problem solving courts is the active use of judicial authority to solve problems and to change the behavior of offenders. Instead of passing off cases – to other judges, to probation departments, to community-based treatment programs – judges residing over problem-solving courts stay involved with each case throughout the post-adjudication process.

Gun violence is one of the issues that has been applied to the problem solving court model. While only a few programs have been developed to date, interest is growing. The use of gun courts for juveniles is particularly relevant because the impact of gun violence is especially pronounced among juveniles and adolescents. The firearm homicide rate for children under 15 years old is 16 times higher in the United States as in 25 other industrialized countries combined (Sheppard, 1999).

One of the more celebrated gun courts is located in Birmingham, Alabamna. The Jefferson County Juvenile Gun Court in Birmingham, AL is an example of a more intensive and comprehensive approach. Only first-time gun offenders are eligible for the gun court; youth with multiple gun charges or with violent or other serious offenses are transferred to adult court or DYS. Core components of the Jefferson County program include a 28-day boot camp, a parent education program, a substance abuse program, intensive followup supervision, and community service. Birmingham's gun court is part of the family court, which administers 24 programs that provide "wraparound" services to offenders and their families; most services are offered onsite (OJJDP, 1996). This centralization and the comprehensive services are considered key to the gun court's success.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham's Center for Law and Civic Education received OJJDP funding to analyze program outcomes during the first 4 years of the court's development. Evaluators compared case processing records and recidivism rates for three groups of juvenile gun offenders: (1) an intensive supervision group of Birmingham youth with limited prior offenses who participated in the gun court's core intervention components, including intensive aftercare monitoring; (2) a nonintensive supervision group of Birmingham youth with prior offenses who received only short commitments to the DYS detention center and who did not participate in the aftercare monitoring program; and (3) a comparison group of youth who did not participate in the aftercare monitoring program. The evaluation found that the intensive supervision group had significantly lower levels of recidivism (17 percent) than the nonintensive supervision group (37 percent) and the comparison group (40 percent). Having a prior gun offense (common to youth in the nonintensive and comparison groups) increased the odds of recidivism. Evaluators also analyzed trends in juvenile gun charges and overall violent crime rates since the gun court was implemented. Between 1995 and 1999, formal juvenile gun charges decreased by 54 percent in Birmingham;. Violent crime rates in Birmingham decreased by 57 percent between 1995 and 1999, following steady increases during the preceding 5 years (Sheppard and Kelly, 2002).

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