1995. While working in conflict zones as a general surgeon, Dr Robin Coupland developed a theory about armed violence and its effects. The theory states that the effects of weapons on health have certain identifiable determinants: the victim's vulnerability, the type and potential number of weapons in use, the size of the armed group, and the psychological aspect of how the violence is perpetrated.

2003. While Robin was teaching a course at the Harvard School of Public Health he met and began collaborating with Dr Nathan Taback, a statistician with an interest in global health. Their collaboration involved refining Robin's original theory and developing the means to measure the various determinants for a given outcome of armed violence. The result has come to be known as the Taback-Coupland model of armed violence.

2004. Nathan and Robin have since collaborated on many projects using the model. They met Christina Wille while she was working for the Small Arms Survey, and applied the model in order to map the nature and extent of armed violence on a geographical basis.

2006. In her work using the model at the Small Arms Survey, Christina worked on refining the method and the structure of the corresponding database to allow application of the method to analyse the internal dynamics of violent events.

2008. Nathan and Christina create a formal partnership by establishing Insecurity Insight. Robin has given invaluable advice.