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| According to a recent study, the Connecticut gun permit law has significantly lowered the amount of gun-related crime in the state. Image: Shutterstock |
A recent study
found that the rate of gun-related murders in Connecticut fell sharply in the
10 years since the state implemented a law requiring people buying firearms to
have a license and background check.
As of 1995,
residents in Connecticut who want to purchase a gun must apply for a license or
permit with the local police, a process that involves a background check and at
least eight hours of gun safety training.
The law also raised the legal age for gun ownership from 18 to 21.
In order to
determine the effectiveness of this law, researchers compared gun-related
homicide rates in Connecticut with other states that had similar levels of
gun-related homicide before 1995—namely, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and
Maryland. They found that the level of
these homicides in Connecticut dropped below that in other states.
They estimated
that, if the gun law hadn’t been enacted, Connecticut would have had 740
gun-related murders between 1995 and 2005.
In fact, there were only 444, a 40% decrease.
“I did expect a reduction, [but] 40% is probably a little
higher than I would have guessed,” said Daniel
Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and
Research. Webester led the study, which
was published on Friday in The American
Journal of Public Health.
Webster says it’s difficult to know whether or not
Connecticut will continue to see positive results from the 1995 legal action,
however. The researchers did find that
the numbers rebounded after the study period, though that’s true of gun-related
deaths across the country, not just in Connecticut.
Still, many are seeing the study as indicative of the
positive effects of gun control.
“Permit-to-purchase requirements for all handguns keep guns out of the
hands of criminals and those who would fail a background check,” said
US Senator Chris Murphy. Murphy and
fellow lawmakers are in the process of presenting a bill that would help other
states create similar programs to the one in Connecticut.
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