there was “insufficient evidence” to determine whether any of the federal, state and local gun laws reviewed had an effect on gun-related deaths, violent crimes, suicides and other outcomes.

The study, conducted by American Journal of Preventive Medicine, notes first that:

Despite a proliferation of gun registration requirements, bans on specific firearms and “zero tolerance” policies for guns in schools over the past three decades, the jury is still out on whether these laws help prevent gun violence

The study also concludes that more study is needed. This is standard operating procedure anymore. They can’t get the result they want so they must continue studying until they can. The study was done using data from 1979 through 2001. One note from me:

The studies included laws to ban certain types of guns or ammunition, such as fully automatic assault weapons and the cheap handguns commonly known as “Saturday night specials.” Others studies examined laws that restrict certain people from buying guns, determine waiting periods for gun purchases, require gun registration, allow for concealed weapon and impose “zero tolerance” for firearms in schools. The task force also reviewed studies that looked at combinations of these laws.

The assault weapons ban, which they are no doubt referring to, does not cover fully automatic assault weapons. Some more spin:

For instance, Hahn and colleagues found that the five studies of the 1976 ban on handguns in Washington, D.C. and its effects on the city’s homicide rate were inconclusive.

Hahn says the task force found “no evidence for or against” the idea that handgun bans make it harder for residents of high-crime neighborhoods to protect themselves.

Actually, that’s a rather disingenuous way of stating there is no evidence for or against the idea that the gun ban affected homicides, which should have been what they were studying.

Posted in uncategorized on February 10th, 2005 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |