To: tejek who wrote (133014 ) 4/15/2013 8:09:14 AM From: JeffA Read Replies (1) | Respond to Comparing a state’s relative ranking in strength of gun law (as judged by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence) to a state’s relative gun violence ranking yielded clear evidence that states with looser gun laws contributed more to the national gun violence epidemic: These are the people who published the results. These are the people who evaluated the "strength" of a gun law. What was the criteria? Who determined "strength" and assigned values?1. Overall firearm deaths in 2010 Finally, we compare this overall state gun-violence ranking with a Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence ranking of states based on the strength of their gun laws. Research shows that access to firearms increases the risk of someone committing suicide. 5 A study by the Harvard School of Public Health using data from 2001 found that, because of the lethality of guns, 85 percent of suicide attempts with a firearm are fatal, whereas many other means of attempting suicide have only a 5 percent fatality rate. 6 A study conducted by Mayors Against Illegal Guns analyzing ATF tracing data found that in 2009, 10 states supplied nearly half of the crime guns that had crossed state lines. Here is the BS link and what ruins the "study". These are not fact based evaluation reasons, but subjective to political viewpoints.In November 2012 the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence released an extensive analysis examining the relative strength and weakness of each state’s gun laws. 29 It considered 29 policy approaches to addressing gun violence, and states received points for having strong laws designed to prevent gun violence such as requiring background checks for all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines , and requiring an applicant to demonstrate the need for a concealed weapon before being issued a permit to carry one. States lost points for laws that impede law enforcement or protect the interests of gun manufacturers such as laws providing legal immunity to gun sellers and bans on doctors providing information regarding the risks of firearms to patients. Using this methodology, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence rankedthe states based on the strength of their gun laws. While federal law requires a background check before a licensed gun dealer can sell a gun, it currently does not require background checks for private sales between individuals. For a number of years, the state of Missouri filled this gap in federal law by requiring background checks for all gun sales, including private sales . In 2007, however, Missouri rolled back its laws by eliminating the requirement that an individual obtain a purchase permit for all handgun purchases, the effect of which was to permit gun sales between private parties without a background check. 32 This change in the law appears to have had an almost-immediate negative impact on gun violence in the state. An analysis by Mayors Against Illegal Guns shows that in the three years following the repeal of the private-sale background-check requirement, the gun-murder rate in Missouri rose by nearly 25 percent, from an average of 4.6 gun murders for every 100,000 residents each year between 1999 and 2007 to an average of 5.7 gun murders for every 100,000 residents each year from 2008 to 2010. 33
