How Effective are Gun Control Laws?

INTRODUCTION
Gun violence has been around for decades. Guns are capable of taking other people’s lives, impacting them in ways unimaginable to the average person. There are tragic incidents of mass shootings, armed robbery, and suicide. With firearms spreading throughout society, the rate in gun violence has skyrocketed. The government would place laws and policies in order to regulate the usage and sales of these dangerous weapons. The government would regulate gun trades by running universal background checks on potential buyers and identity verification. The concept behind these procedures is that by limiting the number of people and filtering out dangerous types of individuals, there would be an overall reduced number of gun owners and those who manage to obtain a gun are not a danger to the public. It’s crucial that there are restrictions in place which help protect the safety of the general public. However, these laws may not be enough. There are procedures to obtaining these handheld weapons that require the mandated checks and paperwork however they are not lengthy, sufficient, nor thorough. These policies give the public a false sense of security as it provides an illusion of safety and thorough investigation when in reality it is an ineffective method of verifying whether the individual in question is someone who is worth trusting the responsibility of handling a firearm. Firearms bring a variety of possibilities, ranging from protecting yourself from a home robbery, shooting down game, competing against other skilled marksmen, or causing a mass shooting. In order to gather a consensus, it is vital that we view how effective the current laws are. By gathering percentage data on criminal activity related to firearms and mortality rates, we are able to estimate how effective the current gun control laws are. How effective are Gun Control Laws?

THE LAWS AND POLICIES REGARDING FIREARMS AND PROCEDURES
There were several Acts that were legislated as an attempt to regulate firearms’ presence in the United States. The main act was the Gun Control Act of 1968 which regulated interstate and foreign commerce in firearms. This included importations, licensing provisions and prohibited certain people such as: The Gun Control Act was composed of three other acts which are branched off into specific areas of gun regulation. These acts are The Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986, Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, and NICS Improvement Act of 2008. The Firearms Owners’ Protection Act is focused on the transportation of firearms. The act also includes the transportation of firearms from state to state. It states that the firearm is legal in both states. Failure to comply with this requirement makes the transaction/transportation of the item to be illegal. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was put in place in order to act as a waiting period of 5 days before a licensed importer, manufacturer, or dealer may sell, deliver, or transfer a handgun to an unlicensed individual. This time period is crucial as it provides a sufficient time period for licensed dealers to search through a federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System, finding any traces of a criminal offense, mental or health conditions related to the individual purchasing a firearm in order to confirm that the individual is not a threat to society. Lastly, the NICS Improvement Act of 2008 is related to the background checks that occur when an individual is interested in purchasing a gun. This act addresses the gaps in information that is available to the NICS such as mental health diagnosis and other prohibiting backgrounds. All of these acts work coherently in order to regulate the gun trade in the United States. The general procedure for obtaining a gun is lengthy but simple. The first step in this procedure is the questioning of a person’s intent for purchasing a firearm. The reasons can range from hunting, protection and sports. Next, they run a background check through the NICS for any underlying problems that go against any regulations. Afterwards, you fill out a paper form, and there’s a 5-day delay for the background check. There are no specific groups that are prohibited to have access to guns with the exceptions of criminals or people who have suffered from mental diseases. There are only specific types of guns that are allowed for the public to purchase for their personal reasons. The public only has access to shotguns, rifles, machine guns, firearm mufflers, and silencers. In addition, Semi-automatic weapons are legal in most states as well as automatic weapons that were made before 1986. Each of the 50 states house their own specific laws in addition to the previous acts regarding gun law which could make the procedures and requirements looser or stricter, depending on the local area. States such as Texas have looser gun requirements in which there are situations where the buyer is able to purchase a firearm without a background check whereas California has stricter gun restrictions. However, having an inconsistent legislation through the United States will skew data in certain areas when it comes to how effective gun control laws are. If certain states are able to bypass legislation due to the fact that it is under the state’s authority, it certainly makes a statement regarding the effectiveness of gun control regulations.

THE STATISTICS
In order to evaluate how effective, the current legislations are, it is important that we consider the statistics involving the mortality rate caused by guns. According to “Gauging the Effectiveness of Gun Control Laws” written by Columbia Law Professor Jeffrey Fagan, 90 people are murdered daily from firearms alone. Although this may seem like a negligible amount of people compared to the world’s current population, it is a cumulative statistic which will continue to grow into the hundreds, thousands, and ten thousand over a short period of time. In addition, it was mentioned that more than 31,600 gun-related deaths occurred in 2010. That is roughly 10 victims per 100,000 Americans. These statistics are gathered after the gun control laws have been in effect. The latest addition to the Gun Control Act of 1986 is the NICS Improvement Act of 2008, a law that enforced universal background checks. With mortality rates this high, it is hard to imagine that the current gun control laws are effective enough for citizens to feel that their safety is secured. “The FBI and CDC Datasets Agree: Who Has Guns- Not Which Guns – Linked to Murder Rates” states that the average gun related deaths in the United States without background checks is 58% higher average in states with background-check mandated states. Effectiveness is relative. It can be argued that the effectiveness of these gun control laws are based on a varying standpoint. On one side of the spectrum, you can view the current regulations as ineffective since there are as much as 90 people dying daily due to these guns while on the other hand others can view this as effective, seeing that there is more than a 50% increase in death in states without background checks compared to background checks. Both Fagan and Siegel, a Boston University School of Public Health researcher, share a commonality with each other and it’s the fact that there would be a lower rate of death if we were to do universal background checks and overall enforce stricter gun control laws. Fagan mentions how there’s a 58% increase in rates for states that don’t run universal background checks while Siegel also provides that there is a 1.9 difference in the amount of people who fall victim for every 100,000 Americans. However, Siegel makes a point stating that “laws regulating the type of firearms people have access to…have no effect on the rate”. The laws Siegel is referring to are assault rifle bans as well as large capacity ammunition magazine bans. This implies that the homicide rates are centered around handguns and other verified firearm types. By enforcing stricter restrictions on the process of purchasing firearms as well as narrowing the group of people that are able to buy a gun, it’s possible to increase the chances of making the public safer. Demographics have also played a role in homicide rates. Siegel has mentioned that “the nature of urban crime” was different from suburban and rural areas; it is likely that gun violence plays a major part in urban crimes. Therefore, with cities consisting of hundreds of thousands of people, background checks were extremely useful in filtering criminals out of gun purchases. According to the gun violence archive, it states that from January 1 to September 15 in 2021, there have been a total of 14,516 deaths due to gun violence, a 9% increase from 2020. The 9% increase is an unfathomable number especially since it is showing that the growth is exponential. With numbers continuing to grow exponentially, it is evident that the current laws are not sufficient.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
The current legislations are not enough for the people of the United States to feel secure. There are possible solutions that can be implemented in order to combat the increasing mortality rate of gun-related people. Fagan argues that there could be more restrictions that could be implemented, acting as “layers” of protection. He proposes possible solutions which could result in a much lower mortality rate. He suggests that with universal background checks for gun purchases, we could “reduce the national deaths from 10.3 to 4.46 per 100,000.” By changing it to a mandate, background checks are able to reduce the number of deaths by more than half. “Background checks for ammunition purchases, which could reduce the mortality rate to 1.99 deaths per 100,000 people.” Having background checks on ammunition as well adds another layer of security as it prevents people who own guns from legally buying ammunition, filtering even more people. And finally, “firearm identification…microstamping or ballistic fingerprinting, which could reduce the death rate to 1.81 per 100,000 people.” Fagan introduces these concepts that appeal more towards the idea of reducing firearm mortality. It highlights the fact that more state-specific laws should be more focused on reducing the mortality rate instead of focusing on commerce alone. Although, the background checks on firearms and ammunitions do have holes in their security. Currently, criminals are able to purchase guns off of licensed dealers or gun thefts. However, by adding restrictions on ammunition purchases as well, it greatly reduces the threat the gun imposes on other people. It reduces its status of a hand cannon to a blunt object. The most impactful laws in being more effective in reducing homicide rates were universal background checks, concealed carry permit laws and proper prohibition of criminals and individuals with violent tendencies were able to reduce rates effectively. Siegel mentions that with the implementation of these three legislations, the murder rate was 35% lower than in states who do not have these certain laws. The reason as to why it was effective to have a combination of laws is because there are two different types of restrictions. The first type restricted a certain type of individual. Then, it would move onto an evaluation, a background check, which determines if the person is qualified. Having these two different types of restrictions makes it more secure. There are flaws within the Acts themselves. People are able to obtain guns in other states with looser restrictions and transport them to other states. The Firearms Owners’ Protection Act is not legislation that is heavily enforced which makes transporting them much easier. In addition to conceal permits, it is near impossible to spot a danger.

CONCLUSION
It is clear that the laws in our society are not enough to protect our citizens from being in harm’s way when it comes to firearms. Due to the low number of federal laws regarding gun control, state laws have taken their spot which leads to different amounts of security in different parts of the United States. Having different state laws regarding security instead of mandating it through federal law makes the public’s safety inconsistent. Although our current gun control acts cover the fundamentals, they are far from perfect. Numbers continue to rise even though our laws aren’t changing anytime soon. Although the word effective is relative depending on the situation, when mortality rates are increasing by the day it is clearly not fulfilling its role. With as many as 90 deaths per day and 10 Americans per 100,000 losing their lives, it shows the gravity of the situation at hand. Regulating gun trade on the surface level is no better than handing out firearms to any person for any reason. The level of depth our gun control law goes is approximately skin deep compared to the possible solutions that could be implemented in order to protect ourselves. Therefore, change needs to be made. Gun Control Laws as they are right now, are not effective.

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