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Do gun-control laws prevent gun deaths?

Proving causality is tough, especially in the United States, which has long had an effective federal ban on gun research, engineered by the gun lobby and sustained by congressional majorities.

But available data shows a clear link between strong gun laws and less gun carnage, and that’s good enough for me.



In the latest gun-control ranking of the states by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, seven of the 10 states with the strongest gun laws in 2013 also had the lowest rate of gun deaths: Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California. Conversely, many states with the weakest gun laws had the highest gun-death rates.

The rankings are based on a state’s performance in thirty gun-policy areas, including background checks on gun sales, reporting lost or stolen firearms, reducing risks to children, permitting concealed weapons in public places and prohibiting dangerous people from buying guns.

California ranks first for the best gun laws and ninth for the lowest rate of gun death. Two new California state laws, signed this month by Governor Jerry Brown, will likely ensure its first place standing and improve its ninth place rank.

One of the laws closes a loophole in California’s “Unsafe Handgun Law.” Under state law, handguns sold and manufactured in California must have safety features like loaded chamber indicators; meet specified drop safety tests and include micro-stamping technology to help solve gun crimes. But the law long exempted single shot handguns, a loophole that let gun dealers get around the standards by selling semiautomatic weapons that had been temporarily altered to fire one shot. After the sale, those weapons were easily converted back to semi-automatic form.

The new law removes the exemption for altered semiautomatics, and the impact is likely to be swift and significant. According to California assemblyman Roger Dickinson, who wrote the legislation, more than 18,000 altered semi-automatics were sold in California in 2013, up from 1,100 in 2009.

The second law speeds up time for courts to notify the state Department of Justice if a determination is made about a person’s mental status that would bar him or her from possessing a gun under California law. Previously, the courts had two days; under the new law, they have only one. The aim of the law is to reduce the number of reports that never get filed. The Sacramento Bee reported recently on a state audit that found at least 2,300 instances from 2010 through 2012 in which California courts did not file the required reports.

In the absence of federal action, state gun laws are the public’s best defense against gun violence. But the research by the Brady Campaign and the Law Center has shown that guns bought in states with weak gun laws are often trafficked into states with stronger laws, where they are later found at crime scenes. The scourge of gun deaths in America won’t be fully addressed until Congress enacts, and a president signs, comprehensive gun-control legislation.