Friday, March 11, 2016

Can 3 laws stop gun deaths?



Thank you to researchers from Boston University for studying 25 laws in various states and finding out which ones are actually associated with a drop in gun deaths.

It turns out that three laws are associated with a steep drop in gun deaths, possibly as great as 90%.

Melissa Healy reports on this research in today's Los Angeles Times.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-gun-deaths-three-laws-20160310-story.html

No, it's not a ban on assault rifles nor a law requiring locking devices on all firearms.

According to Bindu Kalesan, a quantitative social researcher at BU, the useful measures are:

1) universal background checks for firearms sales (not just for handgun sales),

2) background checks on persons buying ammunition, and

3) "a requirement that gun owners get their firearms microchipped or 'fingerprinted' for identification purposes."

No wonder the National Rifle Association is so firmly against background checks.  

They would save lives.

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