The impact of state firearm laws on homicides and suicides

[KLB]

This post's title is the title of a new study. The study summarizes its findings:

Universal background checks were associated with a 14.9% (95% CI, 5.2–23.6%) reduction in overall homicide rates, violent misdemeanor laws were associated with a 18.1% (95% CI, 8.1–27.1%) reduction in homicide, and “shall issue” laws were associated with a 9.0% (95% CI, 1.1–17.4%) increase in homicide. These laws were significantly associated only with firearm-related homicide rates, not non-firearm-related homicide rates. None of the other laws examined were consistently related to overall homicide or suicide rates.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 9-04922-x

But Andrew Branca who writes at Legal Insurrection is unimpressed:

Here’s a pro-tip for all of you who will be seeing headlines in coming days from “news” articles writing about a recent “scientific” study on gun violence: Any time you see such a study purport to examine “gun violence” but actually examine “homicide” and “suicide,” you can be pretty sure it’s a hack job.

I’ve written on this conflation of “gun violence” with “homicide” and “suicide” before (such as Faux Science: Claim that homicides surged under Florida’s “Stand-Your-Ground” law), but in the past few days another large “gun violence” study that does precisely this has been published–The Impact of State Firearm Laws on Homicide and Suicide Deaths in the USA, 1991–2016: a Panel Study–and we’ll be seeing a lot of “news” stories based on this study in the usual gun control media (but I repeat myself).

https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/04/h ... n-control/

Mark Twain observed: There's lies. There's d%$< lies. And then there's statistics.

[Paladin]

The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a large left wing foundation.

RWJF works with George Soros's "Project on Death in America" and is the largest funder of the death "movement" link

You couldn't make this stuff up...

[crazy2medic]

I always dismiss Suicides by firearm as anything useful, as a Paramedic I have seen people off themselves in a variety of ways, the means is irrelevant! Until they implement rope control and pill control, car control, tall building access control, railroad track access control, and any other means people end their own life, throwing gun control in with gun violence is disengenguis at best!

[tbrown]

It's disingenuous for Democrats to count suicide as gun violence and then turn around and chant, "her body, her choice."

[Charles L. Cotton]

It won't be long before John Lott debunks this so-called study.

Chas.

[joe817]

It won't be long before John Lott debunks this so-called study.

Chas.

I look forward to reading it, with interest.

[WildRose]

The "study" is nothing but bogus anti gun propaganda from an incredibly biased source.

Instead of looking for trends in states comparing pre and post changes in laws tightening firearms regulations they compare totally different states based on their firearms laws.

States that have traditionally had much higher violent crime rates that have then liberalized gun laws and made self defense law more "user friendly" have seen dramatic decreases in violent crime rates.

While some of these states still have what most of us would consider unacceptably high violent crime rates even after such laws have passed there is no correlation between the liberalized firearms/self defense statutes and higher crime rates other than the fact that the laws were made more liberal/user friendly as a result of the previously much higher rates of crime.

Here's an example of the effects nationwide as more and more states allow more liberalized carry and self defense laws.

Since 2007, the number of concealed handgun permits has soared from 4.6 million to over 12.8 million, and murder rates have fallen from 5.6 killings per 100,000 people to just 4.2, about a 25 percent drop, according to the report from the Crime Prevention Research Center.

And the number of permits issued is increasing faster every year. Over 1.7 million new permits were issued last year — a 15.4 percent increase over 2013, the largest such single-year jump ever, according to the report from the center led by President John R. Lott and research director John E. Whitley.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... its-soar-/

Both lawful concealed and open carry have been shown to have a strong deterrence factor and reduce crime dramatically when enacted.

Two more good supporting articles on the subject.

https://crimeresearch.org/2014/11/murde ... mits-soar/

https://essayswriters.com/essays/Resear ... e-low.html

Anyone publishing a "study" that includes suicides or associates them with "gun crimes" or "violent crimes" simply isn't even attempting to be honest. If someone is determined to kill their self having or not having access to a firearm isn't going to make a difference.

If we want to get serious about reducing the number of crimes involving firearms we simply need to start enforcing existing laws, improve reporting of ineligible persons and make sure the mentally ill who are dangerous are adjudicated as same.

We also need to change the laws such that the chronic offending mentally ill can be institutionalized instead of dumped on the streets again and again.

We aren't the problem and neither are the guns, both are a big part of the solution.

There are a handful of major cities, mostly in states/localities with extremely strict gun laws that skew the stat's for the whole nation.

Another key area to focus on are gangs and drug trafficking/sales which are inseparable. Gangs are responsible for up to 80% of the crime in many cities and about 90% of the violent crime overall in the nation.

https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrimes ... id=6773423

https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/gangs