Study Finds 3 Laws Could Reduce Firearm Deaths By 90% (meta.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The study, published in The Lancet, used a cross-sectional, state-level dataset relating to a host of topics associated with firearm mortality including gun ownership and even unemployment from across the U.S. to examine the relationship between recorded gun deaths and gun-control legislation. The study found that some laws, such as those that restrict gun access to children through locks and age restrictions, were simply ineffective while others, such as the stand-your-ground law that allows individuals to use deadly force in self-defense, actually increase gun-related deaths significantly. According to the study's model, a federal law expanding background checks for all gun purchases could reduce the national gun death rate by 57%, lowering it from 10.35 to 4.46 per 100,000 people while background checks for all ammunition purchases could lower the rate by 81% to 1.99 per 100,000 and firearm identification could reduce it by 83% to 1.81 per 100,000. If the federal government implemented all three laws, the scholars predict that the overall national rate of firearm deaths would drop by over 90% to 0.16 per 100,000.

Comments

Who would buy this garbage

[Dereck1701]

They can't keep firearms themselves out of the hands of formerly convicted criminals and those only number in the hundreds of millions. Around 10 BILLION rounds of ammunition are sold each year in the US. Ah here we go, The Lancet is a MEDICAL JOURNAL. This is a little like an automotive journal publishing a study on farm productivity. They know next to nothing about the subject, and have no real world experience with its application.

Re:correlation != causation

[skam240]

Not live in a paranoid fantasy world where criminal hoards are seaking to storm our homes at any moment?

Most of America is incredibly safe. We dont need laws that only encourage people to shoot each other.

Re:Expanded BG checks impractical

[Cyberax]

So ban private gun sales. And enact strong gun identification laws.

You have an unidentified gun? Go to jail.

Moreover, it would even be CONSTITUTIONAL. The authors of the Second Amendment even proposed standardizing and mandating weapons to be distributed to citizens so that they could be conscripted in case of an armed conflict.

Re:Yeah, um, not so much

[RogerWilco]

If you need a gun to defend yourself and you don't have one, you may end up dead.

If you need a gun to defend yourself, your government ans society have already failed.
Billions of people live happy lives without ever needing a gun to defend themselves.

I think most of these dangers are imaginary, people even make up things like the Zombie Apocalypse to justify needing a gun.