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{{Short description|Laws or policies that regulate firearms}}
{{refimprove|date=February 2011}}
{{About||international arms restrictions|Arms control|techniques for the safe handling, possession, and storage of firearms|Gun safety|the debate about gun control in the U.S.|Gun politics in the United States}}
[[Image:Gun pyre in Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A tower of confiscated [[smuggled]] [[weapon]]s about to be set ablaze in [[Nairobi]], [[Kenya]]]]
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[[File:Permissive and Restrictive Gun Control Laws by Country.svg|300px|right|thumb|Firearm guiding policy by country according to the [[University of Sydney]]{{efn|name="sydney"}} (April 2022)
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{{legend|#FF0000|Restrictive}}
{{legend|#C0C0C0|Not included}}]]


'''Gun control''', or '''firearms regulation''', is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of [[firearm]]s by civilians.<ref>Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (2005). [https://www.atf.gov/file/58686/download Federal Firearms Regulations Reference Guide (PDF).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424054342/https://www.atf.gov/file/58686/download |date=2021-04-24 }} U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved: January 3, 2016.</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/firearms-control/| title=Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy| website=[[Library of Congress]]| access-date=2016-03-22 | archive-date=2022-05-30 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220530145418/https://www.loc.gov/collections/publications-of-the-law-library-of-congress/about-this-collection/| url-status=live}}</ref>
{{Gun politics by country}}
'''Gun control''' is any law, policy, practice, or proposal designed to restrict or limit the possession, production, importation, shipment, sale, and/or use of [[gun]]s or other firearms by private citizens. Most commonly the guns in question are personal [[firearm]]s, typically [[handgun]]s and [[long gun]]s.


Most countries allow civilians to own firearms, but have strong firearms laws to prevent violence. Only a few countries, such as [[Namibia]], [[Yemen]] and the [[United States]] are categorized as permissive.{{efn|name="sydney"|{{as of|2022|April}}, the only countries with permissive gun legislation are: Chad, the Republic of Congo, Honduras, Micronesia, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Switzerland, Tanzania, the United States, Yemen, and Zambia.}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Alpers |first1=Philip |last2=Wilson |first2=Marcus |title=Guns in the United Nations: Firearm Regulation - Guiding Policy |publisher=Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney |url=https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compare/193/firearm_regulation_-_guiding_policy/3,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,16,17,18,19,22,26,27,28,217,29,30,218,31,38,39,40,41,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,222,52,56,57,58,60,61,62,64,65,66,69,71,72,74,75,77,78,79,81,82,83,86,90,91,94,95,233,99,100,102,234,104,105,107,108,110,111,112,236,238,113,114,116,241,118,121,122,123,125,128,129,131,136,137,139,140,142,143,144,145,146,148,149,150,152,153,154,155,158,159,162,163,247,164,166,170,172,174,249,251,175,252,177,178,180,182,183,54,184,185,186,187,188,189,190,192,194,195,197,199,200,204,205,206,15,120,173 |access-date=August 27, 2016 |date=9 June 2020 |via=GunPolicy.org |archive-date=2021-04-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418071137/https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compare/193/firearm_regulation_-_guiding_policy/3,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,16,17,18,19,22,26,27,28,217,29,30,218,31,38,39,40,41,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,222,52,56,57,58,60,61,62,64,65,66,69,71,72,74,75,77,78,79,81,82,83,86,90,91,94,95,233,99,100,102,234,104,105,107,108,110,111,112,236,238,113,114,116,241,118,121,122,123,125,128,129,131,136,137,139,140,142,143,144,145,146,148,149,150,152,153,154,155,158,159,162,163,247,164,166,170,172,174,249,251,175,252,177,178,180,182,183,54,184,185,186,187,188,189,190,192,194,195,197,199,200,204,205,206,15,120,173 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Gun control laws and policies vary greatly around the world with some countries, such as [[China]], having very strict limits on gun possession and others, such as the [[United States]], having relatively modest limits. In some countries, the topic remains a source of intense debate with proponents generally arguing the dangers of widespread gun ownership, and opponents generally arguing individual rights of self-protection as well as individual liberties in general.


Jurisdictions that regulate civilian access to firearms typically restrict ownership of certain lethal firearms, and require a mandatory gun safety course or [[firearms license]] to own or carry a weapon.
==Arguments==
{{Globalize|date=August 2010}}
Several studies have examined the [[statistical correlation|correlations]] between rates of gun ownership and gun-related, as well as overall, homicide and suicide rates within various jurisdictions around the world.<ref name="go19">''[http://www.unicri.it/wwk/publications/books/series/understanding/19_GUN_OWNERSHIP.pdf Gun Ownership, Suicide and Homicide: An International Perspective]''{{deadlink|date=June 2011}}, Martin Killias.</ref><ref>''[http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/27/2/214.pdf Firearm-related deaths in the United States and 35 other high- and upper-middle income countries]'', EG Krug, KE Powell and LL Dahlberg, 1998.</ref> Martin Killias, in a 1993 study covering 21 countries, found that there were significant correlations between gun ownership and gun-related suicide and homicide rates. There was also a significant though lesser correlation between gun ownership and total homicide rates.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.unicri.it/wwk/publications/books/series/understanding/19_GUN_OWNERSHIP.pdf|title=Gun Ownership, Suicide and Homicide: An International Perspective|accessdate=2008-01-16|author=Martin Killias|authorlink=http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/CCJG/killias.pdf|coauthors=|year=1993|quote=The present study, based on a sample of eighteen countries, confirms the results of previous work is on the 14 countries surveyed during the first International Crime Survey. Strong correlations were found between gun ownership and gun-related as well as total suicide, but that the overall rate of suicide using firearms is low, and homicide rates. Widespread gun ownership has not been found to reduce the likelihood of fatal events committed with other means. Thus, people do not turn to knives and other potentially lethal instruments less often when more guns are available,
|format=PDF |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080107174528/http://www.unicri.it/wwk/publications/books/series/understanding/19_GUN_OWNERSHIP.pdf |archivedate = January 7, 2008}}</ref> A later study published by Killias in 2001 reported that, while there was a strong correlation between gun-related homicide of women and gun-related assaults against women, this was not the case for similar crimes against men and that "interestingly, no significant correlations with total suicide or homicide rates were found, leaving open the question of possible substitution effects."<ref name=killias2001>Killias, van Kesteren, and Rindlisbacher, "Guns, violent crime, and suicide in 21 countries"''Canadian Journal of Criminology'', October 2001, http://rechten.uvt.nl/icvs/pdffiles/Guns_Killias_vanKesteren.pdf.</ref> This study indicates correlation, but not causality. This could mean that the easier the access to guns leads to more violence. It could also mean that larger amounts of violence lead to a higher level of gun ownership for self defense, or any other independent cause.


In some countries, such as [[Gun law in the United States|the United States]], gun control measures can be implemented at the national, state, or local levels.
A study by Rich et al. on suicide rates in [[Toronto]] and [[Ontario]] and psychiatric patients from [[San Diego]] reached the conclusion that increased gun restrictions, while reducing suicide-by-gun, resulted in no net decline in suicides, because of substitution of another method—namely leaping.<ref>[http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/147/3/342 Rich, et al.: "Guns and suicide: possible effects of some specific legislation" Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:342-346].</ref> Killias argues against the theory of complete substitution, citing a number of studies that have indicated, in his view "rather convincingly", that suicidal candidates far from always turn to another means of suicide if their preferred means is not at hand.<ref name=killias2001/>
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==Terminology and context==
===Resisting governance===
{{See also|Small arms trade|Small arms and light weapons}}
Advocates for gun rights often claim that past [[totalitarianism|totalitarian]] regimes passed gun control legislation, which was later followed by confiscation, with [[Fascism|Fascist]] [[Italy]] and [[Nazi]] Germany during [[World War II]], as well as some [[communist state]]s being cited as examples.<ref>Rummel,RJ, Death by Government (1994) Transaction Publishers, New Jersey, ISBN 1-56000-145-3.</ref><ref>Simkin, J, Zelman, and Rice, A, Lethal Laws: Gun Control is the Key to Genocide-- Documentary Proof that Enforcement of Gun Control Laws Clears the way for Governments to Commit Genocide, Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership, Inc.,1994, ISBN 0-9642304-0-2.</ref><ref>Courtois,S, Werth, N, Panne, J-L, et al., The Black Book of Communism--Crimes, Terror, Repression(1999), Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, ISBN 0-674-07608-7.</ref> Location and capture of firearms registration records has also long been a standard doctrine taught to military intelligence officers, and was widely practiced by German and Soviet troops during World War II in the countries they invaded.<ref name=simkin/><ref name = "Rummel-p111"/>
Gun control refers to domestic and international attempts to regulate, and harmonize the regulation of, the private and industrial manufacture, trade, possession, use, and transport of a class of weapons typically identified as [[small arms]]. This class of arms commonly includes [[revolver]]s, self-loading [[pistols]], [[rifle]]s and [[carbine]]s, so-called [[assault rifle]]s, and some categories of [[machine gun]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unodc.org/documents/organized-crime/Firearms/ITI.pdf |title=International Instrument to Enable States to Identify and Trace, in a Timely and Reliable Manner, Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapon |date=February 25, 2013 |website=unodc.org |publisher=United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime |access-date=February 14, 2014 |archive-date=2020-11-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111202349/http://www.unodc.org/documents/organized-crime/Firearms/ITI.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Definitions of Small Arms and Light Weapons |url=http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/weapons-and-markets/definitions.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110619030929/http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/weapons-and-markets/definitions.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 June 2011 |date=April 15, 2013 |publisher=Small Arms Survey|access-date=February 10, 2014}}</ref>


In the United States, the term ''gun control'' itself is considered politicized.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/word-choice-and-gun-culture/423108/ | title=How 'Gun Control' Became a Taboo Phrase | website=The Atlantic | date=11 January 2016 | access-date=29 March 2016 | author=LaFrance, Adrienne | archive-date=2017-01-17 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170117075444/http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/word-choice-and-gun-culture/423108/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Many gun control advocates prefer the use of terms like "gun-violence prevention", "gun safety", or "common-sense regulation" to describe their objectives.<ref>Ball, Molly (January 2013). [https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/dont-call-it-gun-control/267259/ Don't Call It 'Gun Control'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417074045/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/dont-call-it-gun-control/267259/ |date=2021-04-17 }} ''The Atlantic.'' Retrieved: September 24, 2016.</ref>
The [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]], sometimes known as the [[Shot heard 'round the world]], in 1775, were started in part because [[Thomas Gage|General Gage]] sought to carry out an order by the British government to disarm the populace.<ref>Kopel, David B. The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy--Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies? (1992), Prometheus Books, New York, pp. 313,351, ISBN 0-87975-756-6.</ref>


In 2007, a global supply of 875&nbsp;million small arms were estimated to be in the hands of civilians, law enforcement agencies, and national armed forces.{{efn|This figure excludes older, pre-automatic small arms from military and law enforcement stockpiles or 'craft-produced' civilian firearms.{{sfn|Karp|2007|p=39}}}}{{sfn|Karp|2007|p=39}} Of these firearms, 650&nbsp;million, or 75%, were estimated to be held by civilians.{{sfn|Karp|2007|p=39}} U.S. civilians account for 270&nbsp;million of this total.{{sfn|Karp|2007|p=39}} A further 200&nbsp;million are controlled by national military forces.{{sfn|Karp|2010|p=102|ps=}} Law enforcement agencies may have some 26&nbsp;million small arms.{{sfn|Karp|2010|p=102|ps=}} Non-state armed groups{{efn|Composed of 'insurgents and militias, including dormant and state-related groups'.{{sfn|Karp|2010|p=101|ps=}}}} have about 1.4&nbsp;million firearms.{{efn|However, as of 2009, active non-state armed groups, numbering about 285,000 combatants, control only about 350,000 small arms.{{sfn|Karp|2010|p=121|ps=}}}}{{sfn|Karp|2010|p=102|ps=}} Finally, gang members hold between 2 and 10&nbsp;million small arms.{{sfn|Karp|2010|p=102|ps=}} Together, the small arms arsenals of non-state armed groups and gangs have been estimated to account for, at most, 1.4% of the global total.{{sfn|Karp|2010|p=101|ps=}}
Gun control opponents often cite the example of the Nazi regime, claiming that once the Nazis had taken and consolidated their power, they proceeded to implement gun control laws to disarm the population and wipe out the opposition, and the genocide of disarmed Jews, gypsies, and other "undesirables" followed.<ref name=simkin>Simkin, J, Zelman, and Rice, A, Lethal Laws: Gun Control is the Key to Genocide-- Documentary Proof that Enforcement of Gun Control Laws Clears the way for Governments to Commit Genocide, Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership, Inc.,1994, pp. 149-186, ISBN 0-9642304-0-2.</ref><ref name = "Rummel-p111">Rummel,RJ, Death by Government (1994) Transaction Publishers, New Jersey, pp. 111-122, ISBN 1-56000-145-3.</ref><ref name=halbrook>Halbrook, Stephen P. (2000) [http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/article-nazilaw.pdf "Nazi Firearms Law and the Disarming of the German Jews."] ''Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law,'' Vol 17. No. 3. p. 528.</ref> Historians have pointed out that the preceding democratic [[Weimar Republic]] already had restrictive gun laws, which were actually liberalised by the Nazis when they came to power. According to the Weimar Republic 1928 ''Law on Firearms & Ammunition'', firearms acquisition or carrying permits were “only to be granted to persons of undoubted reliability, and—in the case of a firearms carry permit—only if a demonstration of need is set forth.” The Nazis replaced this law with the ''Weapons Law'' of March 18, 1938, which was very similar in structure and wording, but relaxed gun control requirements for the general population. This relaxation included the exemption from regulation of all weapons and ammunition except [[handguns]], the extension of the range of persons exempt from the permit requirement, and the lowering of the age for acquisition of firearms from 20 to 18. It did, however, prohibit manufacturing of firearms and ammunition by [[Jews]].<ref name=harcourt>Harcourt, Bernard E (2004) [http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/harcourt/harcourt_fordham.pdf "On the NRA, Adolph Hitler, Gun Registration, and the Nazi Gun Laws: Exploring the Culture Wars (A Call to Historians)"], p. 22.</ref> Shortly thereafter, in the additional ''Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons'' of November 11, 1938, Jews were forbidden from possession of any weapons at all.<ref name=halbrook/><ref name=harcourt/>


==Regulation of civilian firearms==
[[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] and the [[Soviet Union]] did not abolish personal gun ownership during the initial period from 1918 to 1929, and the introduction of gun control in 1929 coincided with the beginning of the repressive [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] regime as part of Resolutions, 1918 Decree, July 12, 1920 Art. 59 & 182, Pen. code, 1926.
With few exceptions,{{efn|[[Brunei|Brunei Darussalam]], [[Cambodia]], and [[Taiwan]] (Republic of China) prohibit civilian ownership of firearms in almost all instances. Eritrea and Somalia also prohibit civilian possession of firearms as part of their implementation of the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms. In the Solomon Islands, civilian firearm ownership is restricted to members of the Regional Assistance Mission.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=62 n. 1|ps=}}}} most countries in the world actually allow some form of civilian firearm ownership.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=1|ps=}} A 2011 survey of 28 countries over five continents{{efn|The survey, carried out by the [[Small Arms Survey]] included 28 countries (42 jurisdictions in total). The countries included in the sample were:
* Africa: Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda;
* Americas: Belize, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, United States, Venezuela;
* Asia: India, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Turkey, Yemen;
* Europe: Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Russian Federation, Switzerland, United Kingdom;
* Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=2|ps=}}


The study states that "while the sample is diverse and balanced, it may not be representative of the systems in place in countries outside the sample".{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=62 n. 4|ps=}}}} found that a major distinction between different national gun control regimes is whether civilian gun ownership is seen as a right or a privilege.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=36|ps=}} The study concluded that both the United States and [[Yemen]] were distinct from the other countries surveyed in that they viewed gun ownership as a basic right of citizenship, and therefore their gun control policies were more permissive.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=36|ps=}} In the remaining countries sampled, civilian gun ownership is considered a privilege and their corresponding gun control policies are more restrictive.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=36|ps=}}
The population of Iraq was well armed while [[Saddam Hussein]] was in power, and this failed to oust him from power. A caveat to this being that gun ownership was restricted to [[Sunni Muslims]] who were part of tribes allied to Saddam, and that [[Shiite Muslims]], [[Iraqi Kurds]], [[Iraqi Christians]] were kept disarmed. [[Iraqi Jews]] were completely removed from [[Iraq]] when Saddam was in power, and were likewise disarmed. Widespread gun ownership in Iraq was a cause of concern to American military planners prior to the invasion of the country.


===International and regional gun control===
===Self-defense===
{{Globalize/USA|article|2name=the United States|date=April 2010|discuss=Talk:Gun_politics#Globalize}}
In an extensive series of studies of large, nationally representative samples of crime incidents, criminologist [[Gary Kleck]] found that crime victims who defend themselves with guns are less likely to be injured or lose property than victims who either did not resist, or resisted without guns. This was so, even though the victims using guns typically faced more dangerous circumstances than other victims. The findings applied to both robberies and assaults.<ref>Kleck "Crime control through the use of armed force." ''Social Problems'' Feb. 1988; Kleck and DeLone "Victim resistance and offender weapon effects in robbery" ''Journal of Quantitative Criminology'' March 1993; Tark and Kleck "Resisting Crime" ''Criminology'' November 2004.</ref> Other research on rape indicated that although victims rarely resisted with guns, those using other weapons were less likely to be raped, and no more likely to suffer other injuries besides rape itself, than victims who did not resist, or resisted without weapons.<ref>Kleck and Sayles "Rape and Resistance" ''Social Problems'' May 1990.</ref> There is no evidence that victim use of a gun for self-protection provokes offenders into attacking the victim or results in the offender taking the gun away and using it against the victim.<ref>Kleck, Chapter 7 in ''Armed'', by Kleck and Don B. Kates, Jr.</ref>


At the international and regional level, diplomatic attention has tended to focus on the cross-border illegal trade in small arms as an area of particular concern rather than the regulation of civilian-held firearms.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=3|ps=}} During the mid-1990s, however, the [[United Nations Economic and Social Council]] (ECOSOC) adopted a series of resolutions relating to the civilian ownership of small arms.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=3|ps=}} These called for an exchange of data on national systems of firearm regulation and for the initiation of an international study of the issue.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=3|ps=}} In July 1997, ECOSOC issued a resolution that underlined the responsibility of UN member states to competently regulate civilian ownership of small arms and which urged them to ensure that their regulatory frameworks encompassed the following aspects: firearm safety and storage; penalties for the unlawful possession and misuse of firearms; a licensing system to prevent undesirable persons from owning firearms; exemption from criminal liability to promote the surrender by citizens of illegal, unsafe or unwanted guns; and, a record-keeping system to track civilian firearms.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=3|ps=}}
Kleck has also shown, in his own national survey, and in other surveys with smaller sample sizes, that the numbers of defensive uses of guns by crime victims each year are probably substantially larger than the largest estimates of the number of crimes committed of offenders using guns.<ref>Kleck, Chapter 6 in ''Armed'', by Kleck and Don B. Kates, Jr.</ref> According to Kleck, defensive gun use by victims is both effective and, relative to criminal uses, frequent. In a largely approving review of Kleck's book ''Point Blank'' (1991) in the journal ''Political Psychology'', Joseph F. Sheley argues that Kleck sidesteps the larger political problem of the role of gun culture in contributing to the spread and effect of violence in the United States.<ref>Review, ''Political Psychology'' 17:2 (Jun., 1996), pp. 375-377.</ref>


In 1997, the UN published a study based on member state survey data titled the ''United Nations International Study on Firearm Regulation'' which was updated in 1999.{{efn|The impetus behind this study was twofold: firstly, there were concerns over the incidence of firearm-related crimes, accidents and suicides; secondly, there was the apprehension that existing regulatory instruments administering the ownership, storage and training in the use of firearms held by civilians might be inadequate.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=3|ps=}}}}{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=3|ps=}} This study was meant to initiate the establishment of a database on civilian firearm regulations which would be run by the Centre for International Crime Prevention, located in Vienna. who were to report on national systems of civilian firearm regulation every two years.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=3|ps=}} These plans never reached fruition and further UN-led efforts to establish international norms for the regulation of civilian-held firearms were stymied.{{sfn|Parker|2011|pp=3–4|ps=}} Responding to pressure from the U.S. government,{{efn|The US government was opposed to a section of the draft proposal calling on countries 'to seriously consider the prohibition of unrestricted trade and private ownership of small arms and light weapons'.{{sfn|Alley|2004|p=54|ps=}}}}{{sfn|Alley|2004|pp=53–54|ps=}} any mention of the regulation of civilian ownership of small arms was removed from the draft proposals for the 2001 UN Programme of Action on Small Arms.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=3|ps=}}
The economist [[John Lott]], in his book [[More Guns, Less Crime]], states that laws which make it easier for law-abiding citizens to get a permit to carry a gun in public places, cause reductions in crime. Lott's results suggest that allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms deters crime because potential criminals do not know who may or may not be carrying a firearm. Lott's data came from the FBI's crime statistics from all 3,054 US counties.<ref name = "Lott0p50">Lott, John R.Jr., More Guns, Less Crime-- Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws(1998), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago Illinois, pp. 50-122, ISBN 0-226-49363-6.</ref>


Although the issue is no longer part of the UN policy debate, since 1991 there have been eight regional agreements involving 110 countries concerning aspects of civilian firearm possession.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=3|ps=}} The Bamako Declaration,{{efn|The full title is 'The Bamako Declaration on an African Common Position on the Illicit Proliferation, Circulation and Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons (2000)'.{{sfn|Juma|2006|p=39|ps=}}}} was adopted in Bamako, Mali, on 1 December 2000 by the representatives of the member states of the [[Organisation of African Unity]] (OAU).{{sfn|Juma|2006|p=39|ps=}} The provisions of this declaration recommend that the signatories would establish the illegal possession of small arms and light weapons as a criminal offence under national law in their respective countries.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=4|ps=}}
Critics have asserted that Lott's county-based crime data were largely meaningless because they did not reflect actual rates of crime in all the counties that Lott studied, but rather the number of crimes occurring in whatever local jurisdictions (towns and cities) that happened to report their crime statistics to state authorities. Thus, some of the supposed crime drops that Lott attributed to the new carry laws could merely have been the result of fewer local police forces reporting crime statistics. Lott answered their assertions by publishing his study and noting that this fact was taken into account by using the same police agencies that reported their statistics both before and after the new concealed carry laws took effect.


==Studies==
The efficacy of gun control legislation at reducing the availability of guns has been challenged by, among others, the testimony of criminals that they do not obey gun control laws, and by the lack of evidence of any efficacy of such laws in reducing violent crime. The most thorough analysis of the impact of gun control laws, by Kleck, covered 18 major types of gun control and every major type of violent crime or violence (including suicide), and found that gun laws generally had no significant effect on violent crime rates or suicide rates.<ref>Kleck and Patterson, ''Journal of Quantitative criminology'' September 1993.</ref> In his paper, ''Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do not'',<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://dss.ucsd.edu/~sscroggi/Econ1/LevittCrimeInThe90s18JEP163_2004.pdf |title=Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do Not|first=Steven D |last=Levitt|journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives|volume=18 |issue=1|year= 2004|format=}} {{Dead link|date=June 2010}}</ref> [[University of Chicago]] economist [[Steven Levitt]] argues that available data indicate that neither stricter gun control laws nor more liberal concealed carry laws have had any significant effect on the decline in crime in the 1990s. While the debate remains hotly disputed, it is therefore not surprising that a comprehensive review of published studies of gun control, released in November 2004 by the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]], was unable to determine any reliable statistically significant effect resulting from such laws, although the authors suggest that further study may provide more conclusive information.
{{POV section|date=October 2022}}
{{Globalize|section|date=May 2023|2=USA}}


===General===
Thirty-nine [[U.S. state]]s have passed "[[Concealed carry in the United States#Shall-Issue|shall issue]]" concealed carry legislation of one form or another. In these states, law-abiding citizens (usually after giving evidence of completing a training course) may carry handguns on their person for self-protection. Other states and some cities such as [[New York]] [[Concealed carry in the United States#May-Issue|may issue]] permits. Only [[Illinois]], and the [[District of Columbia]] have explicit legislation forbidding personal carry. [[Vermont]], [[Arizona]], and [[Alaska]] do not require permits to carry concealed weapons, although Alaska retains a shall-issue permit process for reciprocity purposes with other states. Similarly, Arizona retains a shall-issue permit process,<ref>Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) §13-3112(A)</ref> both for reciprocity purposes and because permit holders are allowed to carry concealed handguns in certain places (such as bars and restaurants that serve alcohol) that non-permit holders are not.<ref>A.R.S. §4-229(A)</ref>
A 1998 review found that suicide rates generally declined after gun control laws were enacted, and concluded, "The findings support gun control measures as a strategy for reducing suicide rates."{{sfn|Lambert|Silva|1998}} A 2016 review found that laws banning people under [[restraining order]]s due to [[domestic violence]] convictions from accessing guns were associated with "reductions in intimate partner homicide".{{sfn|Zeoli|Malinski|Turchan|2016}} Another 2016 review identified 130 studies regarding restrictive gun laws and found that the implementation of multiple such laws simultaneously was associated with a decrease in gun-related deaths.{{sfn|Santaella-Tenorio et al.|2016}} According to [[Vox (website)|''Vox'']], "The authors are careful to note that their findings do not conclusively prove that gun restrictions reduce gun deaths. However, they did find a compelling trend whereby new restrictions on gun purchasing and ownership tended to be followed by a decline in gun deaths."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Beauchamp |first=Zack |date=2016-02-29 |title=A huge international study of gun control finds strong evidence that it actually works |url=https://www.vox.com/2016/2/29/11120184/2016-gun-control-study-epidemiologic-reviews-deaths |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=Vox |language=en}}</ref>


According to a 2011 UN study, after identifying a number of methodological problems, it stated "notwithstanding such challenges, a significant body of literature tends to suggest that firearm availability predominantly represents a risk factor rather than a protective factor for homicide. In particular, a number of quantitative studies tend towards demonstrating a firearm prevalence–homicide association."<ref>{{cite web|year=2011|title=2011 Global Study on Homicide|page=43|publisher=United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime|website=unodc.org|url=https://www.unodc.org/documents/congress/background-information/Crime_Statistics/Global_Study_on_Homicide_2011.pdf|access-date=October 9, 2016|archive-date=2016-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409203921/https://www.unodc.org/documents/congress/background-information/Crime_Statistics/Global_Study_on_Homicide_2011.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
Many supporters of gun-rights consider [[Self-defense (theory)|self-defense]] to be a fundamental and [[Natural rights|inalienable]] [[human right]] and believe that firearms are an important tool in the exercise of this right. They consider the prohibition of an effective means of self defense to be [[Ethics|unethical]].
For instance, in [[Thomas Jefferson]]’s "Commonplace Book," a quote from [[Cesare Beccaria]] reads, "laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."<ref name="Story 1986 pp. 319-320">Story,Joseph, A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States(1986) Regnery Gateway, Chicago, Illinois, pp. 319-320, ISBN 0-89526-796-9.</ref><ref>Hardy, David T. The origins and Development of the Second Amendment(1986), Blacksmith Corp., Chino Valley, Arizona, pp. 1-78, ISBN 0-941540-13-8.</ref><ref>Halbrook, Stephen P. That Every Man be Armed--The Evolution of a Constitutional Right(1987), The University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, pp. 1-88, ISBN 0-8263-0868-6.</ref>


===Domestic violence===
===United States===
{{main|Gun law in the United States|Gun politics in the United States|Gun culture in the United States|Gun violence in the United States}}
Gun control advocates claim that the strongest evidence linking availability of guns to [[injury]] and [[mortality rate]]s comes in studies of [[domestic violence]], most often referring to the series of studies by [[Arthur Kellermann]]. In response to public suggestions by some advocates of firearms for home defense, that homeowners were at high risk of injury from [[home invasion]]s and would be wise to acquire a firearm for purposes of protection, Kellermann investigated the circumstances surrounding all in-home homicides in three cities of about half a million population each over five years, and found that the risk of a homicide was in fact slightly higher in homes where a handgun was present, rather than lower. From the details of the homicides he concluded that the risk of a [[crime of passion]] or other domestic dispute ending in a fatal injury was much higher when a gun was readily available (essentially all the increased risk being in homes where a handgun was kept loaded and unlocked), compared to a lower rate of fatality in domestic violence not involving a firearm.
[[File:2000- Gun sales and NICS firearm background checks - U.S.svg|thumb|upright=1.25 |U.S. gun sales have risen in the 21st century, peaking in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref name=Trace_20231231_FBI>● Gun sale data from {{cite news |last1=Brownlee |first1=Chip |title=Gun Violence by the Numbers in 2023 |url=https://www.thetrace.org/2023/12/data-gun-violence-deaths-america/ |work=The Trace |date=December 31, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240128065745/https://www.thetrace.org/2023/12/data-gun-violence-deaths-america/ |archive-date=January 28, 2024 |url-status=live }}<br>● NICS firearm check data downloaded via link at {{cite web |title=NICS Firearm Background Checks: Month/Year |url=https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf |website=FBI.gov |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129020051/https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf |archive-date=January 29, 2024 |date=January 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> "NICS" is the FBI's National Instant Background Check System.]]
This increase in mortality, he postulated, was large enough to overwhelm any protective effect the presence of a gun might have by deterring or defending against burglaries or home invasions, which occurred much less frequently. The increased risk averaged over all homes containing guns was similar in size to that correlated with an individual with a criminal record living in the home, but substantially less than that associated with demographic factors known to be risks for violence, such as renting a home versus ownership, or living alone versus with others.<ref>Kellermann AL, Rivara FP, Rushforth NB, et al. Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home. N Engl J Med 1993;329(15):1084-1091.</ref>
In the United States, gun rights activists argue gun laws are too restrictive or should not be altered, and gun control activists argue gun laws are too permissive. Both camps center their arguments upon the legal and traditional interpretations of the [[Second Amendment]] to the U.S. Constitution.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peeples |first=Lynne |date=2022-07-01 |title=US gun policies: what researchers know about their effectiveness |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=607 |issue=7919 |pages=434–435 |doi=10.1038/d41586-022-01791-z|pmid=35778495 |bibcode=2022Natur.607..434P |s2cid=250218456 |doi-access=free }}</ref>


High rates of gun mortality and injury are often cited as a primary impetus for gun control policies.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-case-for-more-guns-and-more-gun-control/309161/ | title=The Case for More Guns (and More Gun Control) | website=The Atlantic | date=December 2012 | access-date=31 March 2016 | last=Goldberg | first = Jeffrey}}</ref> A 2004 National Research Council critical review found that while some strong conclusions are warranted from current research, the state of our knowledge is generally poor.{{sfn|National Research Council|2005|pp=3, 6}} The result of the scarcity of relevant data is that gun control is one of the most fraught topics in American politics,{{sfn|Branas et al.|2009}} and scholars remain deadlocked on a variety of issues.{{sfn|Branas et al.|2009}} Notably, since 1996, when the [[Dickey Amendment]] was first inserted into the federal spending bill, the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] (CDC) has been prohibited from using its federal funding "to advocate or promote gun control", thwarting gun violence research at the agency at the time. The funding provision's author has said that this was an over-interpretation,<ref>{{Cite news|title = The Congressman Who Restricted Gun Violence Research Has Regrets|url = http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jay-dickey-gun-violence-research-amendment_561333d7e4b022a4ce5f45bf|newspaper = The Huffington Post|access-date = 2015-10-11|date = 2015-10-06|last1 = Stein|first1 = Sam|archive-date = 2015-10-10 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151010051136/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jay-dickey-gun-violence-research-amendment_561333d7e4b022a4ce5f45bf|url-status = live}}</ref> but the amendment still had a chilling effect, effectively halting federally funded firearm-related research.{{sfn|Betz|Ranney|Wintemute|2016}} Since the amendment, the CDC has continued to research gun violence and publish studies about it,{{sfn|Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|2013}} although their funding for such research has fallen by 96% since 1996, according to [[Mayors Against Illegal Guns]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2013/02/gun-violence.aspx | title=Gun violence research: History of the federal funding freeze | website=Psychological Science Agenda | date=February 2013 | access-date=27 April 2017 | author=Jamieson, Christine | archive-date=2017-05-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505190021/http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2013/02/gun-violence.aspx | url-status=live }}</ref> According to a spokesman, the CDC has limited funding and has not produced any comprehensive study aimed at reducing gun violence since 2001.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://abcnews.go.com/Health/cdc-launched-comprehensive-gun-study-15-years/story?id=39873289 | title=Why the CDC Hasn't Launched a Comprehensive Gun Study in 15 Years | website=ABC News | date=16 June 2016 | access-date=27 April 2017 | author=Barzilay, Julie | archive-date=2020-06-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627134017/https://abcnews.go.com/Health/cdc-launched-comprehensive-gun-study-15-years/story?id=39873289 | url-status=live }}</ref>
Critics of Kellermann's work and its use by advocates of gun control point out that since it deliberately ignores crimes of violence occurring outside the home (Kellermann states at the outset that the characteristics of such homicides are much more complex and ambiguous, and would be virtually impossible to classify rigorously enough), it is more directly a study of domestic violence than of gun ownership. Kellermann does in fact include in the conclusion of his 1993 paper several paragraphs referring to the need for further study of domestic violence and its causes and prevention. Researchers John Lott, Gary Kleck and many others dispute Kellermann's work.<ref>Suter, Edgar A, Guns in the Medical Literature-- A Failure of Peer Review, Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia;83:133-152, March, 1994. url =http://rkba.org/research/suter/med-lit.html</ref><ref>Kates DB, Schaffer HE, Lattimer JK, Murray GB, Cassem EH. Bad Medicine: Doctors and Guns in Guns– Who Should Have Them? (Ed., Kopel DB), New York, NY, Prometheus Books, 1995, pp. 233-308.</ref><ref>Faria MA Jr. The perversion of science and medicine (Part III): Public Health and Gun Control Research, url =http://haciendapublishing.com/medicalsentinel/perversion-science-and-medicine-part-iii-public-health-and-gun-control-research and (Part IV): The Battle Continues, url =http://haciendapublishing.com/medicalsentinel/perversion-science-and-medicine-part-iv-battle-continues. Medical Sentinel 1997;2(3):81-82 and 83-86.</ref><ref>Kates DB, Schaffer HE, Lattimer JK, Murray GB, Cassem EH. Guns and public health: epidemic of violence or pandemic of propaganda? Tennessee Law Review 1995;62:513-596.</ref>


[[File:2019 Gun ownership rates and gun homicide rates - developed world - scatter plot.svg|thumb|upright=1.25| Multiple studies show that where people have easy access to firearms, gun-related deaths tend to be more frequent, including by suicide, homicide and unintentional injuries.<ref name=CNN_20211126>{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=Kara |last2=Shveda |first2=Krystina |last3=Croker |first3=Natalie |last4=Chacon |first4=Marco |title=How US gun culture stacks up with the world |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/26/world/us-gun-culture-world-comparison-intl-cmd/index.html |work=CNN |date=November 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126193406/https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/26/world/us-gun-culture-world-comparison-intl-cmd/index.html |archive-date=November 26, 2021 |url-status=live |quote=CNN's attribution: Developed countries are defined based on the UN classification, which includes 36 countries. Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (Global Burden of Disease 2019), Small Arms Survey (Civilian Firearm Holdings 2017)}}</ref>]]
Kleck showed that no more than a handful of the homicides that Kellermann studied were committed with guns belonging to the victim or members of his or her household, and thus it was implausible that victim household gun ownership contributed to their homicide. Instead, the association that Kellermann found between gun ownership and victimization merely reflected the widely accepted notion that people who live in more dangerous circumstances are more likely to be murdered, but also were more likely to have acquired guns for self-protection prior to their death.<ref>Kleck, ''Homicide Studies'', February 2001.</ref> Kleck and others argue that guns being used to protect property, save lives, and deter crime without killing the criminal accounts for the large majority of defensive gun uses.<ref>Suter E, Waters WC, Murray GB, et al. Violence in America-- effective solutions. J Med Assoc Ga 1995;84(6):253-264. url =http://rkba.org/research/suter/violence.html</ref><ref>Lott, John JR. More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws. Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 1998.</ref><ref>Kleck G. Targeting Guns-- Firearms and Their Control. New York, NY, Aldine De Gruyter, 1997.</ref>
[[File:1970- Gun production - US.svg |thumb|upright=1.25 |Annual gun production in the U.S. has increased substantially in the 21st century, after having remained fairly level over preceding decades.<ref name=TheTrace_20240409/> By 2023, a majority of U.S. states allowed adults to carry concealed guns in public.<ref name=TheTrace_20240409>{{cite web |last1=Mascia |first1=Jennifer |last2=Brownlee |first2=Chip |title=The Armed Era |url=https://www.thetrace.org/2024/04/columbine-shooting-guns-whats-changed/ |publisher=The Trace |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240414235456/https://www.thetrace.org/2024/04/columbine-shooting-guns-whats-changed/ |archive-date=April 14, 2024 |date=April 9, 2024 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]


====Cross-sectional studies====
One fact that many anti-gun proponents overlook on a regular basis, is that the majority of gun control legislation only affects law-abiding citizens, as criminals inclined to perpetuate violent crimes with firearms do not typically obtain firearms through legal channels.
In 1983, a [[cross-sectional study]] of all 50 U.S. states found that the six states with the strictest gun laws (according to the [[National Rifle Association of America]]) had suicide rates that were approximately 3/100,000 people lower than in other states, and that these states' suicide rates were 4/100,000 people lower than those of states with the least restrictive gun laws.{{sfn|Medoff|Magaddino|1983}} A 2003 study published in the ''[[American Journal of Preventive Medicine]]'' looked at the restrictiveness of gun laws and suicide rates in men and women in all 50 U.S. states and found that states whose gun laws were more restrictive had lower suicide rates among both sexes.{{sfn|Conner|Zhong|2003}} In 2004, another study found that the effect of state gun laws on gun-related homicides was "limited".{{sfn|Price|Thompson|Dake|2004}} A 2005 study looked at all 50 states in the U.S. and the [[District of Columbia]], and found that no gun laws were associated with reductions in firearm homicide or suicide, but that a "[[shall-issue]]" concealed carry law (mandatory issue of a license when legal criteria met) may be associated with increased firearm homicide rates.{{sfn|Rosengart et al.|2005}} A 2011 study found that firearm regulation laws in the United States have "a significant deterrent effect on male suicide".{{sfn|Rodríguez Andrés|Hempstead|2011}}


A 2013 study by the American Medical Association found that in the United States, "a higher number of firearm laws in a state are associated with a lower rate of firearm fatalities in that state."{{sfn|Fleegler et al.|2013}} A 2016 study published in ''[[The Lancet]]'' found that of 25 laws studied, and in the time period examined (2008–2010), nine were associated with reduced firearm mortality (including both homicide and suicide), nine were associated with increased mortality, and seven had an inconclusive association. The three laws most strongly associated with reduced firearm mortality were laws requiring [[universal background check]]s, background checks for ammunition sales, and identification for guns.{{sfn|Kalesan et al.|2016}} In an accompanying commentary, [[David Hemenway]] noted that this study had multiple limitations, such as not controlling for all factors that may influence gun-related deaths aside from gun control laws, and the use of 29 [[explanatory variable]]s in the analysis.{{sfn|Hemenway|2016}}
===Armed forces' reserves and reservist training===
In several countries, such as in [[Finland]], firearm politics and gun control are directly linked on the armed forces' reserves and reservist training. This is especially true in countries which base their armies on [[conscription]]; since every able-bodied citizen is basically a soldier, they are expected to be able to handle the gun reasonably, and be able to practice for the time of need.


Other studies comparing gun control laws in different U.S. states include a 2015 study which found that in the United States, "stricter state firearm legislation is associated with lower discharge rates" for nonfatal gun injuries.{{sfn|Simonetti et al.|2015}} A 2014 study that also looked at the United States found that children living in states with stricter gun laws were safer.{{sfn|Safavi et al.|2014}} Another study looking specifically at suicide rates in the United States found that the four handgun laws examined ([[waiting periods]], universal background checks, gun locks, and open carrying regulations) were associated with "significantly lower firearm suicide rates and the proportion of suicides resulting from firearms." The study also found that all four of these laws (except the waiting-period one) were associated with reductions in the overall suicide rate.{{sfn|Anestis|Anestis|2015}}
[[Switzerland]] is a noted example of a country in which, due to the country's conscription and [[militia]] traditions, firearm possession is widespread. Owing to Switzerland's history, all able-bodied male Swiss citizens aged between 21 and 50 (55 for [[officer (military)|officers]]) are issued [[assault rifle]]s and [[ammunition]] in order to perform their annual military obligations. Because of this, Switzerland is one of the few nations in the world with a higher rate of firearm possession than the United States.<ref name="g">[http://www.guncite.com/swissgun-kopel.html "What America can learn from Switzerland is that the best way to reduce gun misuse is to promote responsible gun ownership."], ''American Rifleman'', February 1990.</ref> Also, Switzerland has a relatively low rate of [[gun crime]].<ref name="g"/> The comparatively low level of violent crime, despite the liberal gun laws, is demonstrated by the fact that Swiss politicians rarely have the same level of [[police]] protection as their counterparts in the United States and other countries, as was noted following the fatal shooting of several government officials in the Swiss [[cantons of Switzerland|canton]] of [[Zug]] in September 2001.<ref>[http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/09/27/switzerland.shooting/ 'Grudge' behind Swiss gun massacre], CNN, September 2001.</ref> Some authors argue that Switzerland's militia tradition of "every man a soldier" contributed to the preservation of its [[neutral country|neutrality]] during the [[Second World War]], when it was not invaded by [[Nazi Germany]] because the military cost to the Nazis would have been too high.<ref>Poe, Richard, ''The Seven Myths of Gun Control'', Prima Publishing, California, 2001, pp. 75-83, ISBN 0-7615-2558-0.</ref><ref>Kopel, David B., ed., ''Guns-- Who Should Have Them?'', New York, NY, Prometheus Books, 1995, pp. 42-43.</ref><ref>Kopel, David B., ''The Samurai, The Mountie and The Cowboy--Should America Adopt the Gun Control Laws of other Democracies?'', Prometheus Books, New York, 1992, pp. 278-302, ISBN 0-87975-756-6.</ref> However, this claim has been disputed by historians who cite the existence of detailed [[Operation Tannenbaum|invasion plans]], which rated the overall Swiss defense capacity as low.<ref>Urner, Klaus ''Die Schweiz muss noch geschluckt werden'', [[Zurich]], Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1990, ISBN 3-85823-303-X.</ref><ref>Schelbert, Leo ''Switzerland under siege''; [[Rockport, Maine]]; Picton, 2000, ISBN 0-89725-414-7.</ref>


Another study, published the same year, found that states with permit to purchase, registration, and/or license laws for handguns had lower overall suicide rates, as well as lower firearm suicide rates.{{sfn|Anestis et al.|2015}} A 2014 study found that states that required licensing and inspections of gun dealers tended to have lower rates of gun homicides.{{sfn|Irvin et al.|2014}} Another study published the same year, analyzing [[panel data]] from all 50 states, found that stricter gun laws may modestly reduce [[gun deaths]].{{sfn|Lanza|2014}} A 2016 study found that U.S. military veterans tend to commit suicide with guns more often than the general population, thereby possibly increasing state suicide rates, and that "the tendency for veterans to live in states without handgun legislation may exacerbate this phenomenon."{{sfn|Anestis|Capron|2016}} California has exceptionally strict gun sales laws, and a 2015 study found that it also had the oldest guns recovered in crimes of any states in the U.S. The same study concluded that "These findings suggest that more restrictive gun sales laws and gun dealer regulations do make it more difficult for criminals to acquire new guns first purchased at retail outlets."{{sfn|Pierce|Braga|Wintemute|2015}}
===Civil rights===
Some see gun ownership as a civil right. This view is common in the United States where the [[Second Amendment to the United States Constitution]] guarantees the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. This view is less common throughout the rest of the world.


[[File:2000- Outcomes of active shooter attacks (stacked bar chart).svg|thumb|upright=1.25| A ''New York Times'' study reported how outcomes of active shooter attacks varied with actions of the attacker, the police (42% of total incidents), and bystanders (including a "good guy with a gun" outcome in 5.1% of total incidents).<ref name=NYTimes_20220622>{{cite news |last1=Buchanan |first1=Larry |last2=Leatherby |first2=Lauren |title=Who Stops a 'Bad Guy With a Gun'? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/06/22/us/shootings-police-response-uvalde-buffalo.html |work=The New York Times |date=June 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220622111531/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/06/22/us/shootings-police-response-uvalde-buffalo.html |archive-date=June 22, 2022 |quote=Data source: Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
Jeff Snyder is a spokesman for the view that gun possession is a civil right, and that therefore arguments about whether gun restrictions reduce or increase violent crime are beside the point: "I am not here engaged in...recommending...policy prescriptions on the basis of the promised or probable results [on crime]...Thus these essays are not fundamentally about guns at all. They are, foremost, about...the kind of people we intend to be...and the ethical and political consequences of decisions [to control firearms]."<ref>Snyder, J: Nation of Cowards: Essays on the Ethics of Gun Control. Accurate Press, St. Louis, 2001:pp. i-ii.</ref> He terms the main principle behind gun control "the instrumental theory of salvation:" that, lacking the ability to change the violent intent in criminals, we often shift focus to the instrument in an attempt to "limit our ability to hurt ourselves, and one another."<ref>Snyder, J: Nation of Cowards: Essays on the Ethics of Gun Control. 2001, Accurate Press, St. Louis, p. 1.</ref> His work discusses the consequences that flow from conditioning the liberties of all citizens upon the behavior of criminals.
Another 2016 study found that stricter state gun laws in the United States reduced suicide rates.{{sfn|Kposowa|Hamilton|Wang|2016}} Another 2016 study found that U.S. states with lenient gun control laws had more gun-related child injury hospital admissions than did states with stricter gun control laws.{{sfn|Tashiro et al.|2016}} A 2017 study found that suicide rates declined more in states with universal background check and mandatory waiting period laws than in states without these laws.{{sfn|Anestis|Anestis|Butterworth|2017}} Another 2017 study found that states without universal background check and/or waiting period laws had steeper increases in their suicide rates than did states with these laws.{{sfn|Anestis|Selby|Butterworth|2017}} A third 2017 study found that "waiting period laws that delay the purchase of firearms by a few days reduce gun homicides by roughly 17%."{{sfn|Luca|Malhotra|Poliquin|2017}} A 2017 study in the ''[[The Economic Journal|Economic Journal]]'' found that mandatory handgun purchase delays reduced "firearm-related suicides by between 2 and 5 percent with no statistically significant increase in non-firearm suicides," and were "not associated with statistically significant changes in homicide rates."{{sfn|Edwards et al.|2018}} Another 2017 study showed that laws banning gun possession by people subject to intimate partner violence restraining orders, and requiring such people to give up any guns they have, were associated with lower intimate partner homicide rates.{{sfn|Diez et al.|2017}} A 2021 study found that firearm purchase delay laws reduced homicide –&nbsp;the authors suggested that it was driven by reductions in gun purchases by impulsive customers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Koenig|first1=Christoph|last2=Schindler|first2=David|date=2021|title=Impulse Purchases, Gun Ownership, and Homicides: Evidence from a Firearm Demand Shock|journal=The Review of Economics and Statistics|volume=105 |issue=5 |pages=1271–1286|doi=10.1162/rest_a_01106|s2cid=243676146|issn=0034-6535|doi-access=free|hdl=10419/207224|hdl-access=free}}</ref>


====Reviews====
Some of the earliest gun-control legislation at the state level were the "black codes" that replaced the "slave codes" after the Civil War, attempting to prevent blacks' having access to the full rights of citizens, including the [[right to keep and bear arms]].<ref>Halbrook, SP: That Every Man be Armed: The evolution of a Constitutional Right. 2nd ed., The Independent Institute, Oakland, 1994:p. 108.</ref> Laws of this type later used racially neutral language to survive legal challenge, but were expected to be enforced against blacks rather than whites.<ref>[http://www.firearmsandliberty.com/cramer.racism.html Cramer, CE: The Racist Roots of Gun Control, 1993].</ref>


In 2015, [[Daniel Webster (academic)|Daniel Webster]] and [[Garen Wintemute]] reviewed studies examining the effectiveness of gun laws aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of high-risk individuals in the United States. They found that some laws prohibiting gun possession by people under [[domestic violence]] [[restraining order]]s or who had been convicted of violent [[misdemeanor]]s were associated with lower violence rates, as were laws establishing more procedures to see if people were prohibited from owning a gun under these laws. They also found that multiple other gun regulations intended to prevent prohibited individuals from obtaining guns, such as "rigorous permit-to-purchase" laws and "comprehensive background checks", were "negatively associated with the diversion of guns to criminals."{{sfn|Webster|Wintemute|2015}}
A favorite target of gun control is so-called "junk guns," which are generally cheaper and therefore more accessible to the poor. However, some civil rights organizations favor tighter gun regulations. In 2003, the NAACP filed suit against 45 gun manufacturers for creating what it called a "public nuisance" through the "negligent marketing" of handguns, which included models commonly described as [[Saturday night special]]s. The suit alleged that handgun manufacturers and distributors were guilty of marketing guns in a way that encouraged violence in black and Hispanic neighborhoods. "The gun industry has refused to take even basic measures to keep criminals and prohibited persons from obtaining firearms," NAACP President/CEO [[Kweisi Mfume]] said. "The industry must be as responsible as any other and it must stop dumping firearms in [[Market saturation|over-saturated markets]]. The obvious result of dumping guns is that they will increasingly find their way into the hands of criminals."<ref>Editors (Sept/Oct 1999) "NAACP causes furor by suing gun manufacturers." New Crisis.</ref>


A 2016 systematic review found that restrictive gun licensing laws were associated with lower gun injury rates, while concealed carry laws were not significantly associated with rates of such injuries.{{sfn|Crandall et al.|2016}} Another systematic review found that stricter gun laws were associated with lower gun homicide rates; this association was especially strong for background check and permit-to-purchase laws.{{sfn|Lee et al.|2016}}
The NAACP lawsuit was dismissed in 2003.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE5DF173FF931A15754C0A9659C8B63] "Gun Makers Repel Lawsuit by N.A.A.C.P." New York Times, July 22, 2003.</ref> It, and several similar suits—some brought by municipalities seeking re-imbursement for medical costs associated with criminal shootings—were portrayed by gun-rights groups as "nuisance suits," aimed at driving gun manufacturers (especially smaller firms) out of business through court costs alone, as damage awards were not expected.<ref>[http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=37&issue=022 "Reckless Lawsuits: Courts Reject Lawsuits against Gun Makers." NRA-ILA, October 16, 2003].</ref> These suits prompted the passage of the [[Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act]] in October, 2005.


A 2020 review of almost 13,000 studies by RAND Corporation found only 123 that met their criteria of methodological rigor, "a surprisingly limited base of rigorous scientific evidence...". Only 2 of the 18 gun policies examined had supporting evidence. Among the policies for which RAND found supporting evidence were that child-access prevention laws reduce firearm injuries and deaths among children and that "stand-your-ground" laws increase firearm homicides. RAND also noted that the limited evidence currently available "does not mean that these policies are ineffective ... Instead, it partly reflects shortcomings in the contributions that science has made to policy debates."<ref>{{Cite web |title=What Science Tells Us About the Effects of Gun Policies |url=https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/key-findings/what-science-tells-us-about-the-effects-of-gun-policies.html |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=www.rand.org |language=en}}</ref>
[[Martin Luther King]] said, "By our readiness to allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at whim... we have created an atmosphere in which violence and hatred have become popular pastimes."<ref>King Jr., Martin Luther and Clayborne Carson (2001) ''The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.'' New York: Grand Central Publishing. p. 147.</ref> At the same time, Dr. King applied for a permit to carry a concealed firearm after his house was bombed in 1956.<ref>Adam Winkler, ''MLK and his Guns'', ''at'' http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-winkler/mlk-and-his-guns_b_810132.html (last accessed 11/16/2011).</ref> Professor Adam Winkler recounts that "William Worthy, a journalist who covered the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, reported that once, during a visit to King's parsonage, he went to sit down on an armchair in the living room and, to his surprise, almost sat on a loaded gun. Glenn Smiley, an adviser to King, described King's home as 'an arsenal.'"<ref>Adam Winkler, ''MLK and his Guns'', ''at'' http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-winkler/mlk-and-his-guns_b_810132.html (last accessed 11/16/2011).</ref>


====Studies of individual laws====
Similarly, the [[Dalai Lama]] said "If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." (May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times) speaking at the "Educating Heart Summit" in Portland, Oregon, when asked by a girl how to react when a shooter takes aim at a classmate.
Other studies have examined trends in firearm-related deaths before and after gun control laws are either enacted or repealed. A 2004 study in the ''[[Journal of the American Medical Association]]'' found evidence that [[child access prevention law]]s were "associated with a modest reduction in suicide rates among youth aged 14 to 17 years."{{sfn|Webster et al.|2004}} Two 2015 studies found that the permit-to-purchase law passed in [[Connecticut]] in 1995 was associated with a reduction in firearm suicides and homicides.{{sfn|Crifasi et al.|2015}}{{sfn|Rudolph et al.|2015}} One of these studies also found that the repeal of Missouri's permit-to-purchase law was associated with "a 16.1% increase in firearm suicide rates,"{{sfn|Crifasi et al.|2015}} and a 2014 study by the same research team found that the repeal of this law was associated with a 16% increase in homicide rates.{{sfn|Webster|Crifasi|Vernick|2014}} A 2000 study designed to assess the effectiveness of the [[Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act]] found that the law was not associated with reductions in overall homicide or suicide rates, but that it was associated with a reduction in the firearm suicide rate among individuals aged 55 or older.{{sfn|Ludwig|Cook|2000}} A 1991 study looked at [[Washington, D.C.]]'s [[Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975]], which banned its residents from owning all guns except certain [[shotgun]]s and sporting [[rifle]]s, which were also required to be unloaded, disassembled, or stored with a [[trigger lock]] in their owners' homes.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/sports/basketball/11arenas.html | title=Washington's Gun Past Affects Arenas's Future | website=New York Times | date=10 January 2010 | access-date=6 December 2015 | author=Abrams, Jonathan | archive-date=2017-06-30 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630060952/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/sports/basketball/11arenas.html | url-status=live }}</ref> The study found that the law's enactment was associated with "a prompt decline in homicides and suicides by firearms in the District of Columbia."{{sfn|Loftin et al.|1991}} A 1996 study reanalyzed this data and reached a significantly different conclusion as to the effectiveness of this law.{{sfn|Britt|Kleck|Bordua|1996}}


====Other studies and debate====
[[Mahatma Gandhi]] said "Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest." in his autobiography.
In 1993, Kleck and Patterson analyzed the impact of 18 major types of gun control laws on every major type of gun-involved crime or violence (including suicide) in 170 U.S. cities, and found that gun laws generally had no significant effect on violent crime rates or suicide rates.{{sfn|Kleck|Patterson|1993}}{{update after|2020|10|9}} Similarly, a 1997 study found that gun control laws had only a small influence on the rate of gun deaths in U.S. states compared to socioeconomic variables like poverty and unemployment.{{sfn|Kwon et al.|1997}}{{update after|2020|2}}


Philosophy professor [[Michael Huemer]] argues that gun control may be morally wrong, even if its outcomes would be positive, because individuals have a prima facie right to own a gun for self-defense and recreation.{{sfn|Huemer|2003}}
===Civic duty===
Some proponents of private gun ownership argue that an armed citizens' militia can help deter crime and tyranny, as police are primarily a reactive force whose main loyalty is to the government which pays their wages. The Militia Information Service (MIS) contends that gun ownership is a civic duty in the context of membership in the militia,
much like voting, neither of which they believe should be restricted to government officials in a true [[democracy]].<ref>{{cite web
| title = : Facts Page
| url=http://www.militia.info/facts.html Militia Information Service
| accessdate = 2009-01-01 }}</ref>
MIS also states that the people need to maintain the power of the sword so they can fulfil their duty, implicit in the [[social contract]], to protect the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, much as individual citizens have a legal and ethical duty to protect dependents under their care, such as a child, elderly parent, or disabled spouse.<ref>{{cite web
| title = : Myths Page
| url=http://www.militia.info/myths.html Militia Information Service
| accessdate = 2009-01-01 }}</ref>


A 2007 article published by the ''Journal of Injury Prevention'' states that approximately 60% of firearms used to commit violent crime can be traced to 1% of licensed dealers.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite journal |last1=Vernick |first1=Jon S |last2=Webster |first2=Daniel W |date=2007 |title=Policies to prevent firearm trafficking |journal=Injury Prevention |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=78–79 |doi=10.1136/ip.2007.015487 |issn=1353-8047 |pmc=2610592 |pmid=17446245 }}</ref> This finding indicates that, although gun laws effectively regulate approximately 99% of purchases made from licensed dealers, a majority of gun-related violent crimes are perpetrated using guns that were purchased in violation of regulations. The ''Journal of Injury Prevention'' article advocates for increased monitoring of gun vendors in tandem with the optimization of gun sale regulation, as a means to decrease violent crime perpetrated with a firearm.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
===Statistics===
====Private ownership====
According to statistics available from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, of nearly 31,000 firearm-related deaths in 2005, suicides account for 55 percent of deaths in the United States whereas homicides account for 40 percent of deaths, accidents account for three die, and the remaining two percent were legal killings.


In 2009, the [[Public Health Law Research]] program,<ref>{{cite web |title=Home – Public Health Law Research |url=http://www.publichealthlawresearch.org/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213125613/http://publichealthlawresearch.org/ |archive-date=December 13, 2019 |access-date=October 4, 2017 |website=Publichealthlawresearch.org}}</ref> an independent organization, published several evidence briefs summarizing the research assessing the effect of a specific law or policy on public health, that concern the effectiveness of various laws related to gun safety. Among their findings:
While many shootings occur in the course of a mutual argument of passion, others occur where a partner or family member of a "romantic" or familial relationship, who is an ongoing victim of domestic [[physical abuse]] or [[sexual abuse]], uses the force of a firearm in self-defense action against a perpetrator who also happens to be known to or related to the victim. As a corollary, in such policy advertising campaigns, the comparison of "domestic" gun casualties is usually not accompanied by [[murder]] and [[assault]] prosecution numbers stemming from the shootings occurring in that context. In many of the latter cases, the victim firing in self-defense is frequently a woman or youth victim of a more physically powerful abuser. In those situations gun rights advocates argue that the firearm arguably becomes an equalizer against the lethal and disabling force frequently exercised by the abusers.<ref>[http://haciendapublishing.com/blog/women-guns-and-disinformation Women, Guns and Disinformation by Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD].</ref>


* There is not enough evidence to establish the effectiveness of "shall issue" laws, as distinct from "may issue" laws, as a public health intervention to reduce violent crime.<ref>{{cite web |title="Shall Issue" Concealed Weapons Laws, Public Health Law Research 2009 |url=http://publichealthlawresearch.org/product/%E2%80%9Cshall-issue%E2%80%9D-concealed-weapons-laws/%22shall-issue%22-concealed-weapons-law |access-date=October 4, 2017 |website=Publichealthlawresearch.org}} {{Dead link|date=January 2020|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>
Many gun control opponents point to statistics in advertising campaigns purporting that "approximately 9 or so children are killed by people discharging firearms every day across the US,"<ref>[http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/yourchild/guns.htm med.umich.edu].</ref> and argue that this statistic is seldom accompanied by a differentiation of those children killed by individuals from unintentional discharges and stray bullets, and of those "children," under the age of majority—which is 18-21 in the U.S.—who are killed while acting as aggressors in [[street gang]] related mutual combat or while committing crimes,<ref>[http://haciendapublishing.com/medicalsentinel/statistical-malpractice-firearm-availability-and-violence-part-i-politics-or-science Statistical Malpractice — 'Firearm Availability' and Violence (Part I): Politics or Science? by Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD].</ref><ref>[http://haciendapublishing.com/blog/statistical-malpractice-%C2%AD-firearm-availability-and-violence-part-ii-poverty-education-and-other Statistical Malpractice — 'Firearm Availability' and Violence (Part II): Poverty, Education and other Socioeconomic Factors by Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD].</ref> many of which are seen as arising from the [[War on Drugs]]. There is further controversy regarding courts, trials, and the resulting sentences of these mostly "young men" as adults despite them not having reached the [[defense of infancy|age of consent]].
* There is insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of waiting period laws as public health interventions aimed at preventing gun-related violence and suicide.<ref>{{cite web |title=Waiting Period Laws for Gun Permits – Public Health Law Research |url=http://publichealthlawresearch.org/product/waiting-period-laws-gun-permits |access-date=October 4, 2017 |website=publichealthlawresearch.org}}</ref>
* Although child access prevention laws may represent a promising intervention for reducing gun-related morbidity and mortality among children, there is currently insufficient evidence to validate their effectiveness as a public health intervention aimed at reducing gun-related harms.<ref>{{cite web |title=Child Access Prevention (CAP) Laws for Guns – Public Health Law Research |url=http://publichealthlawresearch.org/product/child-access-prevention-cap-laws-guns |access-date=October 4, 2017 |website=publichealthlawresearch.org}}</ref>
* There is insufficient evidence to establish the effectiveness of such bans as public health interventions aimed at reducing gun-related harms.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bans on Specific Guns and Ammunition – Public Health Law Research |url=http://publichealthlawresearch.org/product/bans-specific-guns-and-ammunition |access-date=October 4, 2017 |website=publichealthlawresearch.org}}</ref>
* There is insufficient evidence to validate the effectiveness of firearm licensing and registration requirements as legal interventions aimed to reduce firearm related harms.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gun Registration and Licensing Requirements – Public Health Law Research |url=http://publichealthlawresearch.org/product/gun-registration-and-licensing-requirements |access-date=October 4, 2017 |website=publichealthlawresearch.org}}</ref>


[[RAND Corporation]] did a study that demonstrates that background checks may decrease suicides and violent crime; child-access prevention laws may decrease the number of suicides and unintentional injuries and deaths; minimum age requirements may decrease suicides; and prohibitions associated with mental illness may decrease suicides and violent crimes. On the other hand, concealed-carry laws may increase violent crimes and suicides, while stand-your-ground laws may increase violent crime. Bans on the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines may increase the sale price for these items.<ref>{{citation|website=Rand.org|access-date=August 11, 2019|title=Facts About the Effects of Gun Policies Are Elusive but Important|url=https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy.html|archive-date=2019-08-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808122420/https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy.html|url-status=live}}</ref> An August 2019 article entitled, "Gun control really works" published by ''[[Business Insider]]'' looks at a dozen studies by the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]], ''[[JAMA (journal)|The Journal of the American Medical Association]],'' Rand Corporation, the journal ''[[Preventive Medicine (journal)|Preventive Medicine]],'' [[Everytown for Gun Safety]], [[Johns Hopkins University]], and others. They conclude that mirroring the [[Firearms regulation in Switzerland|firearms regulations in Switzerland]] such as banning the sale of new assault weapons, denying concealed-carry licenses to some individuals, and prohibiting firearm sales to people convicted of multiple alcohol-related offenses will decrease gun-related deaths and injuries.<ref>{{cite web |website=Business Insider |date=August 6, 2019 |access-date=August 6, 2019|title=Gun control really works. Science has shown time and again that it can prevent mass shootings and save lives. |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/gun-control-research-how-policies-can-reduce-deaths-2019-8 |first=Aylin |last=Woodward}}</ref>
====Gun safety and gun laws====
The importance of [[gun safety]] education has a mitigating effect on the occurrence of accidental discharges involving children. So much importance is not placed upon the [[vicarious liability]] case law assigning [[strict liability]] to the gun owner for firearms casualties occurring when a careless gun owner loses proper custody and control of a firearm.


===Canada===
In an argument against gun control, the [[National Center for Policy Analysis]], a non-profit [[conservative]] [[think tank]], reported the following statistics. Please note that most of the following has come under questioning of authenticity and officially remains unproven.<ref>{{Cite book
{{main|Gun laws in Canada}}
| first = Morgan O.
Rifles and shotguns are relatively easy to obtain, while handguns and some [[semi-automatic rifle]]s are restricted.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/fs-fd/clas-eng.htm| title=Classes of firearms| date=2012-04-18| access-date=2016-10-29 | archive-date=2018-03-15 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315134422/http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/fs-fd/clas-eng.htm| url-status=live}}</ref>
| last = Reynolds
| first2 = W. W., III
| last2 = Caruth
| contribution =
| contribution-url =
| title = Myths About Gun Control
| year = 1992
| publisher = National Center for Policy Analysis
| url = http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/st176.pdf
| isbn = 0-943802-99-7}}</ref>{{Dubious|date=October 2011}}


With respect to the Criminal Law Amendment Act, a gun control law passed in [[Canada]] in 1977, some studies have found that it was ineffective at reducing homicide or robbery rates.{{sfn|Mauser|Holmes|1992}}{{sfn|Mauser|Maki|2003}} One study even found that the law may have actually increased robberies involving firearms.{{sfn|Mauser|Maki|2003}} A 1993 study found that after this law was passed, gun suicides decreased significantly, as did the proportion of suicides committed in the country with guns.{{sfn|Lester|Leenaars|1993}} A 2003 study found that this law "may have had an impact on suicide rates, even after controls for social variables,"{{sfn|Leenaars et al.|2003}} while a 2001 study by the same research team concluded that the law "may have had an impact on homicide rates, at least for older victims."{{sfn|Leenaars|Lester|2001}} A 1994 study found that after this law came into force in 1978, suicide rates decreased over time in [[Ontario]], and that there was no evidence of method substitution. The same study found that "These decreases may be only partly due to the legislation."{{sfn|Carrington|Moyer|1994}}
* New Jersey adopted what sponsors described as "the most stringent gun law" in the nation in 1966; two years later the murder rate was up 46% and the reported robbery rate had nearly doubled.
* In 1968, Hawaii imposed a series of increasingly harsh measures and its murder rate tripled from a low of 2.4 per 100,000 in 1968 to 7.2 by 1977.
* In 1976, Washington, D.C. enacted one of the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. Since then, the city's murder rate has risen 134% while the national murder rate has dropped 2%.


In 1991, Canada implemented the gun control law Bill C-17. According to a 2004 study, after this law was passed, firearm-related suicides and homicides, as well as the percentage of suicides involving firearms, declined significantly in that country.{{sfn|Bridges|2004}} A 2010 study found that after this law was passed, firearm suicides declined in [[Quebec]] among men, but acknowledged that this may not represent a causal relationship.{{sfn|Gagne et al.|2010}} In 1992, Canada promulgated the Canadian Firearms Act, which aimed at ensuring that guns were stored safely. A 2004 study found that although firearm suicide rates declined in the Quebec region [[Abitibi-Témiscamingue]] after the law was passed, overall suicide rates did not.{{sfn|Caron|2004}} A study in 2005 also found that overall suicide rates did not change after passage of Bill C-17.{{sfn|Cheung|Dewa|2005}} A 2008 study reached similar conclusions with regard to the entire Quebec province; this study also found that C-17 did not seem to increase the rate at which the firearm suicide rate was declining.{{sfn|Caron|Julien|Huang|2008}} Other researchers have criticized this 2008 study for looking at too short a time period and not taking account of the fact that the regulations in C-17 were implemented gradually.{{sfn|Gagne et al.|2010}}
In addition:
* As of 2006, approximately 35% of American households have a gun in them. About 22% of Americans actually own a gun.<ref>Smith, Tom. Public Attitudes towards the Regulation of Firearms. Figure 2. (2007) NORC/University of Chicago [http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/07/pdf/070410.guns.norc.pdf].</ref>
* [[Evanston, Illinois]], a Chicago suburb of 75,000 residents, became the largest town to ban handgun ownership in September 1982 but experienced no decline in violent crime. It has subsequently ended its ban as a result of the [[District of Columbia v. Heller]] Supreme Court case, upon a federal lawsuit by the National Rifle Association being filed the day after ''Heller'' was entered.
* Among the 15 states with the highest homicide rates, 10 have restrictive or very restrictive gun laws.<ref>Lott, John JR. More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws. Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 1998, pp. 50-96, 135-138.</ref>
* Twenty percent of U.S. homicides occur in four cities with just 6% of the population—New York, Chicago, [[Detroit]], and Washington, D.C.—and each has or, in the cases of Detroit (until 2001) and D.C. (2008) had, a requirement for a license on private handguns or an effective outright ban (in the case of Chicago).<ref name="Reynolds_and_Caruth">{{cite book |author=Reynolds, Morgan O. and Caruth, III, W.W. |title=NCPA Policy Report No. 176: Myths About Gun Control |url= http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st176/ |year=1992 |publisher=National Center for Policy Analysis |isbn=0-943802-99-7 |quote=20 percent of U.S. homicides occur in four cities with just 6% of the population – New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., and each has a virtual prohibition on private handguns| page=7}}</ref>
* In England, Wales and Scotland, the private ownership of most handguns was banned in 1997 following a gun massacre at a school in [[Dunblane massacre|Dunblane]] and an earlier gun massacre in [[Hungerford massacre|Hungerford]] in which the combined deaths was 35 and injured 30. Gun ownership and gun crime was already at a low level, which made these slaughters particularly concerning. Only an estimated 57,000 people —0.1% of the population owned such weapons prior to the ban.<ref>[http://www.firearmsafetyseminar.org.nz/_documents/Greenwood_Paper.pdf paragraph 58].</ref> In the UK, only 8 per cent of all criminal homicides are committed with a firearm of any kind.<ref>[http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb0207.pdf Home Office statistical bulletin on Homicide and firearms offences in 2005/6].</ref> In 2005/6 the number of such deaths in England and Wales (population 53.3 million) was just 50, a reduction of 36 per cent on the year before and lower than at any time since 1998/9. The lowest rate of gun crime was in 2004/4 whilst the highest was in 1994.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} There was, however, a noticeable temporary increase in gun crime in the years immediately after the ban, though this has since fallen back. The reason for the increase has not been investigated thoroughly but it is thought that 3 factors may have raised the number of guns in circulation. These are, the reduction in gun crime in Northern Ireland (which led to guns coming from there to the criminal black market in England); guns (official issue or confiscated) acquired by military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan; and guns coming from Eastern Europe after the fall of the iron curtain.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} Firearm injuries in England and [[Wales]] also noticeably increased in this time.<ref>''[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6372717.stm Blair wants gun crime age reduced]'', BBC News, February 18, 2007.</ref> In 2005-06, of 5,001 such injuries, 3,474 (69%) were defined as "slight," and a further 965 (19%) involved the "firearm" being used as a [[blunt instrument]]. Twenty-four percent of injuries were caused with [[air gun]]s, and 32% with "imitation firearms" (including [[airsoft|airsoft guns]]).<ref>[http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb0207.pdf Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2005/2006 Supplementary Volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales (2005/2006)<!--Bot-generated title-->].</ref> Since 1998, the number of fatal shootings has varied between 49 and 97, and was 50 in 2005. In Scotland the picture has been more varied with no pattern of rise or fall appearing.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}}
* Violent crime accelerated in [[Jamaica]] after handguns were heavily restricted and a special [[Gun Court]] established.<ref>Kopel, David B. The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy--Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies? (1992), Prometheus Books, New York, pp. 257-277, ISBN 0-87975-756-6.</ref> However a high proportion of the illegal guns in Jamaica can be attributed to guns smuggled in from the United states where they are more freely available.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mysinchew.com/node/26251 |title=Guns from America fuel Jamaica's gang wars |publisher=My Sinchew |date=2009-06-22 |accessdate=2010-03-17}}</ref>
The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]'s annual [[Uniform Crime Report]] ranking of cities over 40,000 in population by violent crime rates (per 100,000 population) finds that the ten cities with the highest violent crime rates for 2003 include three cities in the very strict state of New Jersey, one in the fairly restrictive state of [[Massachusetts]]. 200 people died


A 1990 study compared suicide rates in the [[Vancouver|Vancouver, British Columbia]], Canada metropolitan area (where gun control laws were more restrictive) with those in the [[Seattle, Washington]] area in the United States. The overall suicide rate was essentially the same in the two locations, but the suicide rate among 15 to 24 year olds was about 40 percent higher in Seattle than in Vancouver. The authors concluded that "restricting access to handguns might be expected to reduce the suicide rate in persons 15 to 24 years old, but ... it probably would not reduce the overall suicide rate."{{sfn|Sloan et al.|1990}} A study that looked at provincial gun ownership rates, and associated suicide rates found no significant correlations with overall suicide rates.{{sfn|Dandurand|1998}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! # !!City!! State
|-
!1
|[[Saginaw, Michigan|Saginaw]]|| [[Michigan|MI]]
|-
! 2
|[[Irvington, New Jersey|Irvington]]||[[New Jersey|NJ]]
|-
! 3
|[[Camden, New Jersey|Camden]]||NJ
|-
! 4
|[[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]]||[[Louisiana|LA]]
|-
! 5
|[[Detroit, Michigan|Detroit]]||MI
|-
! 6
|[[East Orange, New Jersey|East Orange]] || NJ
|-
! 7
|[[Atlanta, Georgia|Atlanta]]||[[Georgia (U.S. state)|GA]]
|-
! 8
|[[Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield]]||[[Massachusetts|MA]]
|-
! 9
|[[Fort Myers, Florida|Fort Myers]]||[[Florida|FL]]
|-
! 10
|[[Miami, Florida|Miami]]||FL
|}


A 2011 study looked at gun control passed in Canada between 1974 and 2004 and found that gun laws were responsible for 5 to 10 percent drops in homicides. The study found that the homicide reduction effects of Canadian gun legislation remained even after accounting for sociodemographic and economic factors associated with homicide rates.{{sfn|Blais|Gagné|Linteau|2011}}
== History ==
===Gun control in the United States===
{{Main|Gun politics in the United States}}


A 2012 study looked at gun control laws passed in Canada from 1974 to 2008 and found no evidence that these laws had a beneficial effect on firearm homicide rates in that country. According to the study, "other factors found to be associated with homicide rates were median age, unemployment, immigration rates, percentage of population in low-income bracket, Gini index of income equality, population per police officer, and incarceration rate."{{sfn|Langmann|2012}}
Before the [[American Civil War]] ended, [[U.S. state|state]] [[slave codes]] prohibited slaves from owning guns. After [[slavery]] in the U.S. was abolished, states persisted in prohibiting [[Black people]] from owning guns under laws renamed [[Black Codes (United States)|Black Codes]].


A 2013 study of the 1995 Canadian gun control law [[Firearms Act, 1995]] reported little evidence that this law significantly reduced rates of lethal gun violence against women.{{sfn|McPhedran|Mauser|2013}}
The United States Congress overrode most portions of the Black Codes by passing the [[Civil Rights Act of 1866]]. The legislative histories of both the Civil Rights Act and the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]], as well as The Special Report of the Anti-Slavery Conference of 1867, are replete with denunciations of those particular statutes that denied blacks equal access to firearms.<ref>Kates, "Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment," 82 Mich. L. Rev. 204, 256 1983</ref>


On May 1, 2020, after [[2020 Nova Scotia attacks|deadly shootings]] in [[Nova Scotia]], [[Justin Trudeau|Justin Trudeau's]] Liberal government banned 1,500 kinds of military-style semi-automatic rifles, including the popular [[AR-15 style rifle|AR-15]] and its variants. The ban was enacted via an [[Order in Council|Order In Council]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-gun-control-measures-ban-1.5552131 |access-date=May 2, 2020 |title=Trudeau announces ban on 1,500 types of 'assault-style' firearms – effective immediately |last=Tasker |first=John Paul |date=May 1, 2020 |website=CBC |archive-date=2020-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501160046/https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-gun-control-measures-ban-1.5552131 |url-status=live }}</ref>
After the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1878, most states turned to "facially neutral" business or transaction taxes on handgun purchases. However, the intention of these laws was not neutral. An article in [[Virginia]]'s official university [[law review]] called for a "prohibitive tax...on the privilege" of selling handguns as a way of disarming "the son of Ham," whose "cowardly practice of 'toting' guns has been one of the most fruitful sources of crime.... Let a [[negro]] board a railroad train with a quart of mean [[whiskey]] and a [[pistol]] in his grip and the chances are that there will be a murder, or at least a row, before he alights."<ref>Carrying Concealed Weapons, 15 Va L. Reg. 391, 391-92, 1909 [[George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal]] (GMU CR LJ), Vol. 2, No. 1, "Gun Control and Racism," Stefan Tahmassebi, 1991, p. 75</ref> Thus, many Southern States imposed high taxes or banned inexpensive guns in order to price destitute individuals out of the gun market.


A 2020 study examining laws passed from 1981 to 2016 found no significant changes in overall homicide or suicide rates following changes in legislation. In addition, it also found that firearm ownership by province was not correlated to overall suicide rates by province.<ref>{{Cite journal|pmid = 32555647|year = 2020|last1 = Langmann|first1 = C.|title = Effect of firearms legislation on suicide and homicide in Canada from 1981 to 2016|journal = PLOS ONE|volume = 15|issue = 6|pages = e0234457|doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0234457|pmc = 7302582|bibcode = 2020PLoSO..1534457L|doi-access = free}}</ref>
In the 1990s, gun control laws continued to be enacted:


On October 21, 2022, under Justin Trudeau's government, Bill C-21 came into effect, aiming to address gun violence and strengthen gun control. The legislation introduced a national freeze on the sale, purchase, or transfer of handguns by individuals within Canada. It also established new "red flag" and "yellow flag" laws, allowing courts and Chief Firearms Officers (CFOs) to issue emergency weapons prohibition orders and temporarily suspend licenses, respectively. Moreover, the bill increased maximum penalties for firearms-related offenses, including smuggling and trafficking, from 10 to 14 years imprisonment. Additionally, Bill C-21 prohibited mid-velocity 'replica' airguns that closely resemble real firearms and discharge projectiles at a velocity between 366 and 500 feet per second.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Canada |first=Public Safety |date=2022-05-30 |title=A comprehensive strategy to address gun violence and strengthen gun laws in Canada |url=https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/cntrng-crm/frrms/c21-en.aspx |access-date=2023-04-10 |website=www.publicsafety.gc.ca}}</ref>
* Police-issued license and permit laws, unless drafted to require issuance to those not prohibited by law from owning guns, are routinely used to prevent lawful gun ownership among "unpopular" populations.
* Public housing residents, approximately three million Americans, are singled out for gun bans.
* "Gun sweeps" by police in "high crime neighborhoods" whereby vehicles and "pedestrians who meet a specific profile that might indicate they are carrying a weapon" are searched are becoming popular, and are being studied by the [[United States Department of Justice]] as "Operation Ceasefire."
* In certain communites with a history of good law enforcement after gun control legislation was introduced the crime rates, paticuarly the homicide rates, have decreased. Pro gun control advocates say this is proof gun control works as long as its enforced. But nothing can be said either way 100% of the time.


===Gun control in Australia===
===Australia===
{{Main|Gun politics in Australia}}
{{main|Gun laws in Australia}}
In 1988 and 1996, gun control laws were enacted in the [[Australia]]n state of [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], both times following [[mass shooting]]s. A 2004 study found that in the context of these laws, overall firearm-related deaths, especially suicides, declined dramatically.{{sfn|Ozanne-Smith et al.|2004}} A 1995 study found preliminary evidence that gun control legislation enacted in [[Queensland]], Australia, reduced suicide rates there.{{sfn|Cantor|Slater|1995}}


A 2006 study by gun lobby-affiliated researchers Jeanine Baker and Samara McPhedran found that after Australia enacted the [[National Firearms Agreement]] (NFA), a gun control law, in 1996, gun-related suicides may have been affected, but no other parameter appeared to have been.{{sfn|Baker|McPhedran|2006|}} Another 2006 study, led by [[Simon Chapman (academic)|Simon Chapman]], found that after this law was enacted in 1996 in Australia, the country went more than a decade without any mass shootings, and gun-related deaths (especially suicides) declined dramatically.{{sfn|Chapman|Alpers|Agho|Jones|2006}} The latter of these studies also criticized the former for using a time-series analysis despite the fact that, according to Chapman et al., "calculating mortality rates and then treating them as a number in a time series ignores the natural variability inherent in the counts that make up the numerator of the rate." Chapman et al. also said that Baker and McPhedran used the [[Box–Jenkins method|Box–Jenkins model]] inappropriately.{{sfn|Chapman|Alpers|Agho|Jones|2006}}
In response to the [[Port Arthur massacre (Australia)|Port Arthur massacre]] in 1996, gun law proposals developed from the report of the 1988 National Committee on Violence<ref>http://aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/12/chappell.pdf</ref> were adopted under a National Firearms Agreement. This was necessary because the Australian Constitution does not give the Commonwealth power to enact gun laws.


A 2010 study looking at the effect of the NFA on gun-related deaths found that the law "did not have any large effects on reducing firearm homicide or suicide rates,"{{sfn|Lee|Suardi|2010}} although David Hemenway has criticized this study for using a [[structural break]] test despite the fact that such tests can miss the effects of policies in the presence of lags, or when the effect occurs over several years.{{sfn|Hemenway|2009}} Another study, published the same year, found that Australia's gun buyback program reduced gun-related suicide rates by almost 80%, while non-gun death rates were not significantly affected.{{sfn|Leigh|Neill|2010}} Other research has argued that although gun suicide rates fell after the NFA was enacted, the NFA may not have been responsible for this decrease and "a change in social and cultural attitudes" may have instead been at least partly responsible.{{sfn|Klieve|Barnes|De Leo|2009}} A 2011 study found that "Australia's prohibition of certain types of firearms" has not prevented mass shootings.<ref name="auto1">{{cite journal |last1=McPhedran |first1=Samara |last2=Baker |first2=Jeanine |year=2011 |title=Mass shootings in Australia and New Zealand: A descriptive study of incidence |journal=Justice Policy Journal |volume=8 |issue=1 |ssrn=2122854}}</ref> In 2016, Chapman co-authored another study that found that after the NFA was passed, there were no mass shootings in the country ({{as of|2016|May|lc=y}}), and that gun-related death rates declined more quickly after the NFA than they did before it. The study also found, however, that non-gun suicide and homicide rates declined even more quickly after the NFA, leading the authors to conclude that "it is not possible to determine whether the change in firearm deaths can be attributed to the gun law reforms."{{sfn|Chapman|Alpers|Jones|2016}}
The National Firearms Agreement banned all semi-automatic riflesm and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, and created a tightly restrictive system of licensing and ownership controls. Because the Australian Constitution prevents the taking of property without just compensation the [[Federal Government of Australia|Federal Government]] introduced the Medicare Levy Amendment Act 1996 that provided the revenue for the National Firearms Program through a one-off 0.2% increase in the Medicare levy. Known as the gun buy-back scheme, it started across the country on the 1 October 1996 and concluded on the 30 September 1997<ref>http://www.anao.gov.au/uploads/documents/1997-98_Audit_Report_25.pdf</ref> to purchase and destroy all semi-automatic rifles including .22 rimfires, semi-automatic shotguns and pump-action shotguns. The buyback was predicted to cost $A500 million and had wide community support.


===Other countries===
In 2002, the [[Monash University shooting]] led the federal government to urge [[Parliaments of the Australian states and territories|state governments]] to again review handgun laws, and, as a result, amended legislation was adopted in all states and territories. Changes included a 10-round [[Magazine (firearm)|magazine]] capacity limit, a calibre limit of not more than .38&nbsp;inches (9.65&nbsp;mm), a [[gun barrel|barrel]] length limit of not less than 120&nbsp;mm (4.72&nbsp;inches) for [[semi-automatic pistols]] and 100&nbsp;mm (3.94&nbsp;inches) for revolvers, and even stricter probation and attendance requirements for sporting target shooters.{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}} In the state of [[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]] $A21 million compensation was paid for confiscating 18,124 target pistols, and 15,184 replacement pistols were imported.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}} .
{{Further|Overview of gun laws by nation}}
{{multiple image
|align=center
| image1 = Longgunlaws.svg
| width1 = 600
| caption1 = '''Possession of long guns by country:'''
{{Legend|#0000ff|'''No permit required''' for both repeating and semi-automatic long guns}}
{{Legend|#2ad4ff|'''Partially licensed''' – repeating long guns permitless, semi-automatic with permit}}
{{Legend|#00ff00|'''Allowed with permit''' – no good reason required or simple declaration of reason<sup>1</sup>}}
{{Legend|#ffff00|'''Allowed with permit''' – good reason (like sport shooting license or proving danger to life) required<sup>1</sup>}}
{{Legend|#ff2a2a|'''Prohibited with exceptions or prohibited in practice''' – few licenses are issued}}
{{Legend|#b30000|'''Prohibited''' – civilians are banned from obtaining long guns}}
{{Legend striped|#ff2a2a|white|Different rules regarding shotguns and rifles}}
<sup>1</sup><small>Some countries in these categories may place additional restrictions or ban semi-automatic long guns</small>
| image2 = Handgunlaws.svg
| width2 = 600
| caption2 = '''Possession of handguns by country:'''
{{Legend|#0000ff|'''No permit required''' – permits or licenses are not required to obtain handguns}}
{{Legend|#00ff00|'''Allowed with permit''' – no good reason required or simple declaration of reason}}
{{Legend|#ffff00|'''Allowed with permit''' – good reason (like sport shooting license or proving danger to life) required}}
{{Legend|#ff2a2a|'''Prohibited with exceptions or prohibited in practice''' – few licenses are issued}}
{{Legend|#b30000|'''Prohibited''' – civilians are banned from obtaining handguns}}
| footer =
<small>{{Underline|Notes}}:<br>
'''-''' Map describes policy regarding obtaining new firearms regardless whether firearms that were produced before ban were [[grandfather clause|grandfathered]].<br />
</small>
}}
A 2007 study found evidence that gun control laws [[Gun law in Austria|passed in Austria]] in 1997 reduced the rates of firearm suicide and homicide in that country.{{sfn|Kapusta et al.|2007}} In [[Brazil]], after disarmament laws were passed in 2003,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lei Nº 10.426, de 24 de Abril de 2002 |language=pt |trans-title=Law No. 10.426 of April 24, 2002 |url=http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/2002/L10426.htm |website=www.planalto.gov.br |publisher=Presidência da República Casa Civil |access-date=2016-01-31 |archive-date=2015-12-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151229145511/http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/2002/L10426.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> gun-related mortality declined by 8% in 2004 relative to the previous year, the first decline observed in a decade. Gun-related hospitalizations also reversed their previous trend by decreasing 4.6% from 2003 to 2004.{{sfn|de Souza et al.|2007}} A 2006 study found that after gun control laws were [[Gun law in New Zealand|passed in New Zealand]] in 1992, suicides committed with guns declined significantly, especially among youth. This study however found that overall suicide rates did not change significantly.{{sfn|Beautrais|Fergusson|Horwood|2006}} A case-control study conducted in New Zealand found that gun ownership was significantly associated with a greater risk of gun suicides, but not suicides overall.{{sfn|Beautrais|Joyce|Mulder|1996}}


A 2010 study looked at the effect of a policy adopted by the [[Israeli Defense Forces]] that restricted access to guns among adolescents on suicide rates, and found that "Following the policy change, suicide rates decreased significantly by 40%." The authors concluded that "The results of this study illustrate the ability of a relatively simple change in policy to have a major impact on suicide rates."{{sfn|Lubin et al.|2010}} A 2013 study showed that after the [[Military of Switzerland]] adopted the Army XXI reform, which restricted gun availability, in 2003, suicide rates{{snd}}both overall and firearm-related{{snd}}decreased.{{sfn|Reisch et al.|2013}} Another 2013 study looking at four restrictive gun laws [[Firearms regulation in Norway|passed in Norway]] found that two of them may have reduced firearm mortality among men, but that the evidence was more inconclusive with respect to all of the laws they studied.{{sfn|Gjertsen|Leenaars|Vollrath|2013}} A 2014 study found that after [[South Africa]]'s [[Firearm Control Act]] was passed in 2000, homicide rates in the country declined, and concluded that "stricter gun control mediated by the FCA accounted for a significant decrease in homicide overall, and firearm homicide in particular, during the study period [2001–2005]."{{sfn|Matzopoulos|Thompson|Myers|2014}} A 2000 study found that a ban on carrying guns in [[Colombia]] was associated with reductions in homicide rates in two cities in the country, namely, [[Cali]] and [[Bogotá]].{{sfn|Villaveces et al.|2000}}
One government policy was to compensate shooters for giving up the sport. Approximately 25% of pistol shooters took this offer, and relinquished their licences and their right to own pistols for sport for five years.{{Citation needed|date=August 2010}}

There is contention over the effects of the gun control laws in Australia, with some researchers reporting significant drops in gun-related crime<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ozanne-Smith |first=J |coauthors=, K Ashby, S Newstead, V Z Stathakis and A Clapperton |title=Firearm related deaths: the impact of regulatory reform
|journal=Prevention 2004;10:280-286}}</ref>, and others reporting no significant effect in gun related or overall crime rates<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mouzos
|first=Jenny
|coauthors=& Reuter, P
|title=Australia: a massive buyback of low-risk guns
|volume=Evaluating Gun Policy: Effects on Crime and Violence
|editor=Ludwig J & Cook PJ
|publisher= The Brookings Institution, Washington |year=2002
}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Baker
|first=Jeanine
|coauthors=& McPhedran, Samara
|title=Gun Laws and Sudden Death: Did the Australian Firearms Legislation of 1996 Make a Difference?
|journal=British Journal of Criminology
|volume=<!-- advance access version used. Add in volume when it is published in standard edition-->
|issue= 3|page=455
|date=2006-10-18
|url=http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/azl084v1
|doi=10.1093/bjc/azl084
}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Lee
|first=Wang-Sheng |coauthors=& Suardi, Sandy
|title=The Australian Firearms Buyback and Its Effect on Gun Deaths
|journal=Melbourne Institute Working Paper No. 17/08 |isbn=978-0-7340-3285-0 |page=28
|publisher=Melbourne Institute |date=2008-8
|url=http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/wp/wp2008n17.pdf
}}</ref>. The rate of mass shootings has declined substantially.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Chapman |first=Simon |coauthors= P Alpers, P; Agho, K; Jones,M
|title=Australia’s 1996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides, and a decade without mass shootings
|journal=Injury Prevention |volume=12 |page=365 |year=2006
|url=http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/12/6/365 |doi=10.1136/ip.2006.013714 |pmid=17170183 |issue=6 |pmc=2704353
}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
*[[Gun Politics]]
* [[Concealed carry]]
* [[Gun violence]]
*[[National Rifle Association]] (NRA)
* [[List of most-produced firearms]]
*[[Second Amendment Sisters]]
*[[Second Amendment to the United States Constitution]]
* [[Right to keep and bear arms]]

*[[Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership]] (JPFO)
===International===
* [[Game law]]
* [[Hunting license]]
* [[List of countries by gun ownership]]
* [[Overview of gun laws by nation]]

===United States===
* [[Assault weapons legislation in the United States]]
* [[Federal Assault Weapons Ban]]
* [[Gun Control Act of 1968]]
* [[Gun control after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting]]
* [[Gun politics in the United States]]
* [[Gun show loophole]]
* [[Public opinion on gun control in the United States]]
* [[2018 United States gun violence protests]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}
{{Reflist|group=note}}


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
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{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* [[Jed S. Rakoff|Rakoff, Jed S.]], "The Last of His Kind" (review of John Paul Stevens, ''The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years'', Little, Brown, 549 pp.), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXVI, no. 14 (26 September 2019), pp.&nbsp;20, 22, 24. [[John Paul Stevens]], "a throwback to the postwar liberal Republican [U.S. Supreme Court] appointees", questioned the validity of "the doctrine of [[sovereign immunity]], which holds that you cannot sue any state or federal government agency, or any of its officers or employees, for any wrong they may have committed against you, unless the state or federal government consents to being sued" (p.&nbsp;20); the propriety of "the increasing resistance of the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] to most meaningful forms of gun control" (p.&nbsp;22); and "the constitutionality of the [[death penalty]]... because of incontrovertible evidence that innocent people have been sentenced to death." (pp.&nbsp;22, 24.)
* Squires, Peter. Gender and Firearms: My Body, My Choice, My Gun. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2024.


==External links==
==External links==
{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=no |others=yes lcheading=Gun control}}
*[http://www.packing.org/ Packing.org - concealed carry law information]
* [https://www.gunpolicy.org/ GunPolicy.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180913002219/https://www.gunpolicy.org/ |date=2018-09-13 }}
*[http://www.a-human-right.com/ A Human Right]
*[http://www.gunowners.org/ Gun Owners of America]
*[http://www.abhijeetsingh.com/arms/india Gun Ownership in India]
*[http://www.guncite.com/ GunCite: Gun Control and Second Amendment Issues]
*[http://www.gunssavelives.com/ Guns Save Lives]
*[http://www.jpfo.org/ Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership]
*[http://www.keepandbeararms.com/ Keep and Bear Arms]
*[http://www.lp.org/issues/gun-rights.shtml Libertarian Party]
*[http://www.nra.org/ National Rifle Association of America]
*[http://www.pinkpistols.org/ Pink Pistols]
*[http://www.saf.org/ Second Amendment Foundation]
*[http://www.stonewallshootingsportsutah.org/ Stonewall Shooting Sports of Utah]


===National groups===
[[Category:Firearms]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121227083232/http://guncontrol.org.au/ Gun Control Australia – Supporting Gun Control in Australia]
[[Category:Gun politics|Gun control]]
* [http://guncontrol.ca/ Coalition for Gun Control – Canada]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130518222924/http://www.stopgun.org/english/ Stop Gun Caravan – Japan]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060417082153/http://www.gca.org.za/ Gun Free South Africa]
* [https://www.csgv.org/ Coalition to Stop Gun Violence – U.S.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525002324/https://www.csgv.org/ |date=2022-05-25 }}
* [https://www.bradyunited.org/ Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence – U.S.]
* [https://giffords.org/ Giffords – U.S.]


{{Gun Control}}
[[simple:Gun control]]
{{Firearms}}
[[Fr:Contrôle des armes à feu]]
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Firearms]]
[[Category:Gun politics]]
[[Category:Prohibitionism]]

Latest revision as of 05:00, 18 December 2024

Firearm guiding policy by country according to the University of Sydney[a] (April 2022)
  Permissive
  Restrictive
  Not included

Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.[1][2]

Most countries allow civilians to own firearms, but have strong firearms laws to prevent violence. Only a few countries, such as Namibia, Yemen and the United States are categorized as permissive.[a][3]

Jurisdictions that regulate civilian access to firearms typically restrict ownership of certain lethal firearms, and require a mandatory gun safety course or firearms license to own or carry a weapon.

In some countries, such as the United States, gun control measures can be implemented at the national, state, or local levels.

Terminology and context

Gun control refers to domestic and international attempts to regulate, and harmonize the regulation of, the private and industrial manufacture, trade, possession, use, and transport of a class of weapons typically identified as small arms. This class of arms commonly includes revolvers, self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, so-called assault rifles, and some categories of machine gun.[4][5]

In the United States, the term gun control itself is considered politicized.[6] Many gun control advocates prefer the use of terms like "gun-violence prevention", "gun safety", or "common-sense regulation" to describe their objectives.[7]

In 2007, a global supply of 875 million small arms were estimated to be in the hands of civilians, law enforcement agencies, and national armed forces.[b][8] Of these firearms, 650 million, or 75%, were estimated to be held by civilians.[8] U.S. civilians account for 270 million of this total.[8] A further 200 million are controlled by national military forces.[9] Law enforcement agencies may have some 26 million small arms.[9] Non-state armed groups[c] have about 1.4 million firearms.[d][9] Finally, gang members hold between 2 and 10 million small arms.[9] Together, the small arms arsenals of non-state armed groups and gangs have been estimated to account for, at most, 1.4% of the global total.[10]

Regulation of civilian firearms

With few exceptions,[e] most countries in the world actually allow some form of civilian firearm ownership.[13] A 2011 survey of 28 countries over five continents[f] found that a major distinction between different national gun control regimes is whether civilian gun ownership is seen as a right or a privilege.[16] The study concluded that both the United States and Yemen were distinct from the other countries surveyed in that they viewed gun ownership as a basic right of citizenship, and therefore their gun control policies were more permissive.[16] In the remaining countries sampled, civilian gun ownership is considered a privilege and their corresponding gun control policies are more restrictive.[16]

International and regional gun control

At the international and regional level, diplomatic attention has tended to focus on the cross-border illegal trade in small arms as an area of particular concern rather than the regulation of civilian-held firearms.[17] During the mid-1990s, however, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a series of resolutions relating to the civilian ownership of small arms.[17] These called for an exchange of data on national systems of firearm regulation and for the initiation of an international study of the issue.[17] In July 1997, ECOSOC issued a resolution that underlined the responsibility of UN member states to competently regulate civilian ownership of small arms and which urged them to ensure that their regulatory frameworks encompassed the following aspects: firearm safety and storage; penalties for the unlawful possession and misuse of firearms; a licensing system to prevent undesirable persons from owning firearms; exemption from criminal liability to promote the surrender by citizens of illegal, unsafe or unwanted guns; and, a record-keeping system to track civilian firearms.[17]

In 1997, the UN published a study based on member state survey data titled the United Nations International Study on Firearm Regulation which was updated in 1999.[g][17] This study was meant to initiate the establishment of a database on civilian firearm regulations which would be run by the Centre for International Crime Prevention, located in Vienna. who were to report on national systems of civilian firearm regulation every two years.[17] These plans never reached fruition and further UN-led efforts to establish international norms for the regulation of civilian-held firearms were stymied.[18] Responding to pressure from the U.S. government,[h][20] any mention of the regulation of civilian ownership of small arms was removed from the draft proposals for the 2001 UN Programme of Action on Small Arms.[17]

Although the issue is no longer part of the UN policy debate, since 1991 there have been eight regional agreements involving 110 countries concerning aspects of civilian firearm possession.[17] The Bamako Declaration,[i] was adopted in Bamako, Mali, on 1 December 2000 by the representatives of the member states of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).[21] The provisions of this declaration recommend that the signatories would establish the illegal possession of small arms and light weapons as a criminal offence under national law in their respective countries.[22]

Studies

General

A 1998 review found that suicide rates generally declined after gun control laws were enacted, and concluded, "The findings support gun control measures as a strategy for reducing suicide rates."[23] A 2016 review found that laws banning people under restraining orders due to domestic violence convictions from accessing guns were associated with "reductions in intimate partner homicide".[24] Another 2016 review identified 130 studies regarding restrictive gun laws and found that the implementation of multiple such laws simultaneously was associated with a decrease in gun-related deaths.[25] According to Vox, "The authors are careful to note that their findings do not conclusively prove that gun restrictions reduce gun deaths. However, they did find a compelling trend whereby new restrictions on gun purchasing and ownership tended to be followed by a decline in gun deaths."[26]

According to a 2011 UN study, after identifying a number of methodological problems, it stated "notwithstanding such challenges, a significant body of literature tends to suggest that firearm availability predominantly represents a risk factor rather than a protective factor for homicide. In particular, a number of quantitative studies tend towards demonstrating a firearm prevalence–homicide association."[27]

United States

U.S. gun sales have risen in the 21st century, peaking in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.[28] "NICS" is the FBI's National Instant Background Check System.

In the United States, gun rights activists argue gun laws are too restrictive or should not be altered, and gun control activists argue gun laws are too permissive. Both camps center their arguments upon the legal and traditional interpretations of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.[29]

High rates of gun mortality and injury are often cited as a primary impetus for gun control policies.[30] A 2004 National Research Council critical review found that while some strong conclusions are warranted from current research, the state of our knowledge is generally poor.[31] The result of the scarcity of relevant data is that gun control is one of the most fraught topics in American politics,[32] and scholars remain deadlocked on a variety of issues.[32] Notably, since 1996, when the Dickey Amendment was first inserted into the federal spending bill, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been prohibited from using its federal funding "to advocate or promote gun control", thwarting gun violence research at the agency at the time. The funding provision's author has said that this was an over-interpretation,[33] but the amendment still had a chilling effect, effectively halting federally funded firearm-related research.[34] Since the amendment, the CDC has continued to research gun violence and publish studies about it,[35] although their funding for such research has fallen by 96% since 1996, according to Mayors Against Illegal Guns.[36] According to a spokesman, the CDC has limited funding and has not produced any comprehensive study aimed at reducing gun violence since 2001.[37]

Multiple studies show that where people have easy access to firearms, gun-related deaths tend to be more frequent, including by suicide, homicide and unintentional injuries.[38]
Annual gun production in the U.S. has increased substantially in the 21st century, after having remained fairly level over preceding decades.[39] By 2023, a majority of U.S. states allowed adults to carry concealed guns in public.[39]

Cross-sectional studies

In 1983, a cross-sectional study of all 50 U.S. states found that the six states with the strictest gun laws (according to the National Rifle Association of America) had suicide rates that were approximately 3/100,000 people lower than in other states, and that these states' suicide rates were 4/100,000 people lower than those of states with the least restrictive gun laws.[40] A 2003 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine looked at the restrictiveness of gun laws and suicide rates in men and women in all 50 U.S. states and found that states whose gun laws were more restrictive had lower suicide rates among both sexes.[41] In 2004, another study found that the effect of state gun laws on gun-related homicides was "limited".[42] A 2005 study looked at all 50 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia, and found that no gun laws were associated with reductions in firearm homicide or suicide, but that a "shall-issue" concealed carry law (mandatory issue of a license when legal criteria met) may be associated with increased firearm homicide rates.[43] A 2011 study found that firearm regulation laws in the United States have "a significant deterrent effect on male suicide".[44]

A 2013 study by the American Medical Association found that in the United States, "a higher number of firearm laws in a state are associated with a lower rate of firearm fatalities in that state."[45] A 2016 study published in The Lancet found that of 25 laws studied, and in the time period examined (2008–2010), nine were associated with reduced firearm mortality (including both homicide and suicide), nine were associated with increased mortality, and seven had an inconclusive association. The three laws most strongly associated with reduced firearm mortality were laws requiring universal background checks, background checks for ammunition sales, and identification for guns.[46] In an accompanying commentary, David Hemenway noted that this study had multiple limitations, such as not controlling for all factors that may influence gun-related deaths aside from gun control laws, and the use of 29 explanatory variables in the analysis.[47]

Other studies comparing gun control laws in different U.S. states include a 2015 study which found that in the United States, "stricter state firearm legislation is associated with lower discharge rates" for nonfatal gun injuries.[48] A 2014 study that also looked at the United States found that children living in states with stricter gun laws were safer.[49] Another study looking specifically at suicide rates in the United States found that the four handgun laws examined (waiting periods, universal background checks, gun locks, and open carrying regulations) were associated with "significantly lower firearm suicide rates and the proportion of suicides resulting from firearms." The study also found that all four of these laws (except the waiting-period one) were associated with reductions in the overall suicide rate.[50]

Another study, published the same year, found that states with permit to purchase, registration, and/or license laws for handguns had lower overall suicide rates, as well as lower firearm suicide rates.[51] A 2014 study found that states that required licensing and inspections of gun dealers tended to have lower rates of gun homicides.[52] Another study published the same year, analyzing panel data from all 50 states, found that stricter gun laws may modestly reduce gun deaths.[53] A 2016 study found that U.S. military veterans tend to commit suicide with guns more often than the general population, thereby possibly increasing state suicide rates, and that "the tendency for veterans to live in states without handgun legislation may exacerbate this phenomenon."[54] California has exceptionally strict gun sales laws, and a 2015 study found that it also had the oldest guns recovered in crimes of any states in the U.S. The same study concluded that "These findings suggest that more restrictive gun sales laws and gun dealer regulations do make it more difficult for criminals to acquire new guns first purchased at retail outlets."[55]

A New York Times study reported how outcomes of active shooter attacks varied with actions of the attacker, the police (42% of total incidents), and bystanders (including a "good guy with a gun" outcome in 5.1% of total incidents).[56]

Another 2016 study found that stricter state gun laws in the United States reduced suicide rates.[57] Another 2016 study found that U.S. states with lenient gun control laws had more gun-related child injury hospital admissions than did states with stricter gun control laws.[58] A 2017 study found that suicide rates declined more in states with universal background check and mandatory waiting period laws than in states without these laws.[59] Another 2017 study found that states without universal background check and/or waiting period laws had steeper increases in their suicide rates than did states with these laws.[60] A third 2017 study found that "waiting period laws that delay the purchase of firearms by a few days reduce gun homicides by roughly 17%."[61] A 2017 study in the Economic Journal found that mandatory handgun purchase delays reduced "firearm-related suicides by between 2 and 5 percent with no statistically significant increase in non-firearm suicides," and were "not associated with statistically significant changes in homicide rates."[62] Another 2017 study showed that laws banning gun possession by people subject to intimate partner violence restraining orders, and requiring such people to give up any guns they have, were associated with lower intimate partner homicide rates.[63] A 2021 study found that firearm purchase delay laws reduced homicide – the authors suggested that it was driven by reductions in gun purchases by impulsive customers.[64]

Reviews

In 2015, Daniel Webster and Garen Wintemute reviewed studies examining the effectiveness of gun laws aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of high-risk individuals in the United States. They found that some laws prohibiting gun possession by people under domestic violence restraining orders or who had been convicted of violent misdemeanors were associated with lower violence rates, as were laws establishing more procedures to see if people were prohibited from owning a gun under these laws. They also found that multiple other gun regulations intended to prevent prohibited individuals from obtaining guns, such as "rigorous permit-to-purchase" laws and "comprehensive background checks", were "negatively associated with the diversion of guns to criminals."[65]

A 2016 systematic review found that restrictive gun licensing laws were associated with lower gun injury rates, while concealed carry laws were not significantly associated with rates of such injuries.[66] Another systematic review found that stricter gun laws were associated with lower gun homicide rates; this association was especially strong for background check and permit-to-purchase laws.[67]

A 2020 review of almost 13,000 studies by RAND Corporation found only 123 that met their criteria of methodological rigor, "a surprisingly limited base of rigorous scientific evidence...". Only 2 of the 18 gun policies examined had supporting evidence. Among the policies for which RAND found supporting evidence were that child-access prevention laws reduce firearm injuries and deaths among children and that "stand-your-ground" laws increase firearm homicides. RAND also noted that the limited evidence currently available "does not mean that these policies are ineffective ... Instead, it partly reflects shortcomings in the contributions that science has made to policy debates."[68]

Studies of individual laws

Other studies have examined trends in firearm-related deaths before and after gun control laws are either enacted or repealed. A 2004 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found evidence that child access prevention laws were "associated with a modest reduction in suicide rates among youth aged 14 to 17 years."[69] Two 2015 studies found that the permit-to-purchase law passed in Connecticut in 1995 was associated with a reduction in firearm suicides and homicides.[70][71] One of these studies also found that the repeal of Missouri's permit-to-purchase law was associated with "a 16.1% increase in firearm suicide rates,"[70] and a 2014 study by the same research team found that the repeal of this law was associated with a 16% increase in homicide rates.[72] A 2000 study designed to assess the effectiveness of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act found that the law was not associated with reductions in overall homicide or suicide rates, but that it was associated with a reduction in the firearm suicide rate among individuals aged 55 or older.[73] A 1991 study looked at Washington, D.C.'s Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975, which banned its residents from owning all guns except certain shotguns and sporting rifles, which were also required to be unloaded, disassembled, or stored with a trigger lock in their owners' homes.[74] The study found that the law's enactment was associated with "a prompt decline in homicides and suicides by firearms in the District of Columbia."[75] A 1996 study reanalyzed this data and reached a significantly different conclusion as to the effectiveness of this law.[76]

Other studies and debate

In 1993, Kleck and Patterson analyzed the impact of 18 major types of gun control laws on every major type of gun-involved crime or violence (including suicide) in 170 U.S. cities, and found that gun laws generally had no significant effect on violent crime rates or suicide rates.[77][needs update] Similarly, a 1997 study found that gun control laws had only a small influence on the rate of gun deaths in U.S. states compared to socioeconomic variables like poverty and unemployment.[78][needs update]

Philosophy professor Michael Huemer argues that gun control may be morally wrong, even if its outcomes would be positive, because individuals have a prima facie right to own a gun for self-defense and recreation.[79]

A 2007 article published by the Journal of Injury Prevention states that approximately 60% of firearms used to commit violent crime can be traced to 1% of licensed dealers.[80] This finding indicates that, although gun laws effectively regulate approximately 99% of purchases made from licensed dealers, a majority of gun-related violent crimes are perpetrated using guns that were purchased in violation of regulations. The Journal of Injury Prevention article advocates for increased monitoring of gun vendors in tandem with the optimization of gun sale regulation, as a means to decrease violent crime perpetrated with a firearm.[80]

In 2009, the Public Health Law Research program,[81] an independent organization, published several evidence briefs summarizing the research assessing the effect of a specific law or policy on public health, that concern the effectiveness of various laws related to gun safety. Among their findings:

  • There is not enough evidence to establish the effectiveness of "shall issue" laws, as distinct from "may issue" laws, as a public health intervention to reduce violent crime.[82]
  • There is insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of waiting period laws as public health interventions aimed at preventing gun-related violence and suicide.[83]
  • Although child access prevention laws may represent a promising intervention for reducing gun-related morbidity and mortality among children, there is currently insufficient evidence to validate their effectiveness as a public health intervention aimed at reducing gun-related harms.[84]
  • There is insufficient evidence to establish the effectiveness of such bans as public health interventions aimed at reducing gun-related harms.[85]
  • There is insufficient evidence to validate the effectiveness of firearm licensing and registration requirements as legal interventions aimed to reduce firearm related harms.[86]

RAND Corporation did a study that demonstrates that background checks may decrease suicides and violent crime; child-access prevention laws may decrease the number of suicides and unintentional injuries and deaths; minimum age requirements may decrease suicides; and prohibitions associated with mental illness may decrease suicides and violent crimes. On the other hand, concealed-carry laws may increase violent crimes and suicides, while stand-your-ground laws may increase violent crime. Bans on the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines may increase the sale price for these items.[87] An August 2019 article entitled, "Gun control really works" published by Business Insider looks at a dozen studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Rand Corporation, the journal Preventive Medicine, Everytown for Gun Safety, Johns Hopkins University, and others. They conclude that mirroring the firearms regulations in Switzerland such as banning the sale of new assault weapons, denying concealed-carry licenses to some individuals, and prohibiting firearm sales to people convicted of multiple alcohol-related offenses will decrease gun-related deaths and injuries.[88]

Canada

Rifles and shotguns are relatively easy to obtain, while handguns and some semi-automatic rifles are restricted.[89]

With respect to the Criminal Law Amendment Act, a gun control law passed in Canada in 1977, some studies have found that it was ineffective at reducing homicide or robbery rates.[90][91] One study even found that the law may have actually increased robberies involving firearms.[91] A 1993 study found that after this law was passed, gun suicides decreased significantly, as did the proportion of suicides committed in the country with guns.[92] A 2003 study found that this law "may have had an impact on suicide rates, even after controls for social variables,"[93] while a 2001 study by the same research team concluded that the law "may have had an impact on homicide rates, at least for older victims."[94] A 1994 study found that after this law came into force in 1978, suicide rates decreased over time in Ontario, and that there was no evidence of method substitution. The same study found that "These decreases may be only partly due to the legislation."[95]

In 1991, Canada implemented the gun control law Bill C-17. According to a 2004 study, after this law was passed, firearm-related suicides and homicides, as well as the percentage of suicides involving firearms, declined significantly in that country.[96] A 2010 study found that after this law was passed, firearm suicides declined in Quebec among men, but acknowledged that this may not represent a causal relationship.[97] In 1992, Canada promulgated the Canadian Firearms Act, which aimed at ensuring that guns were stored safely. A 2004 study found that although firearm suicide rates declined in the Quebec region Abitibi-Témiscamingue after the law was passed, overall suicide rates did not.[98] A study in 2005 also found that overall suicide rates did not change after passage of Bill C-17.[99] A 2008 study reached similar conclusions with regard to the entire Quebec province; this study also found that C-17 did not seem to increase the rate at which the firearm suicide rate was declining.[100] Other researchers have criticized this 2008 study for looking at too short a time period and not taking account of the fact that the regulations in C-17 were implemented gradually.[97]

A 1990 study compared suicide rates in the Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada metropolitan area (where gun control laws were more restrictive) with those in the Seattle, Washington area in the United States. The overall suicide rate was essentially the same in the two locations, but the suicide rate among 15 to 24 year olds was about 40 percent higher in Seattle than in Vancouver. The authors concluded that "restricting access to handguns might be expected to reduce the suicide rate in persons 15 to 24 years old, but ... it probably would not reduce the overall suicide rate."[101] A study that looked at provincial gun ownership rates, and associated suicide rates found no significant correlations with overall suicide rates.[102]

A 2011 study looked at gun control passed in Canada between 1974 and 2004 and found that gun laws were responsible for 5 to 10 percent drops in homicides. The study found that the homicide reduction effects of Canadian gun legislation remained even after accounting for sociodemographic and economic factors associated with homicide rates.[103]

A 2012 study looked at gun control laws passed in Canada from 1974 to 2008 and found no evidence that these laws had a beneficial effect on firearm homicide rates in that country. According to the study, "other factors found to be associated with homicide rates were median age, unemployment, immigration rates, percentage of population in low-income bracket, Gini index of income equality, population per police officer, and incarceration rate."[104]

A 2013 study of the 1995 Canadian gun control law Firearms Act, 1995 reported little evidence that this law significantly reduced rates of lethal gun violence against women.[105]

On May 1, 2020, after deadly shootings in Nova Scotia, Justin Trudeau's Liberal government banned 1,500 kinds of military-style semi-automatic rifles, including the popular AR-15 and its variants. The ban was enacted via an Order In Council.[106]

A 2020 study examining laws passed from 1981 to 2016 found no significant changes in overall homicide or suicide rates following changes in legislation. In addition, it also found that firearm ownership by province was not correlated to overall suicide rates by province.[107]

On October 21, 2022, under Justin Trudeau's government, Bill C-21 came into effect, aiming to address gun violence and strengthen gun control. The legislation introduced a national freeze on the sale, purchase, or transfer of handguns by individuals within Canada. It also established new "red flag" and "yellow flag" laws, allowing courts and Chief Firearms Officers (CFOs) to issue emergency weapons prohibition orders and temporarily suspend licenses, respectively. Moreover, the bill increased maximum penalties for firearms-related offenses, including smuggling and trafficking, from 10 to 14 years imprisonment. Additionally, Bill C-21 prohibited mid-velocity 'replica' airguns that closely resemble real firearms and discharge projectiles at a velocity between 366 and 500 feet per second.[108]

Australia

In 1988 and 1996, gun control laws were enacted in the Australian state of Victoria, both times following mass shootings. A 2004 study found that in the context of these laws, overall firearm-related deaths, especially suicides, declined dramatically.[109] A 1995 study found preliminary evidence that gun control legislation enacted in Queensland, Australia, reduced suicide rates there.[110]

A 2006 study by gun lobby-affiliated researchers Jeanine Baker and Samara McPhedran found that after Australia enacted the National Firearms Agreement (NFA), a gun control law, in 1996, gun-related suicides may have been affected, but no other parameter appeared to have been.[111] Another 2006 study, led by Simon Chapman, found that after this law was enacted in 1996 in Australia, the country went more than a decade without any mass shootings, and gun-related deaths (especially suicides) declined dramatically.[112] The latter of these studies also criticized the former for using a time-series analysis despite the fact that, according to Chapman et al., "calculating mortality rates and then treating them as a number in a time series ignores the natural variability inherent in the counts that make up the numerator of the rate." Chapman et al. also said that Baker and McPhedran used the Box–Jenkins model inappropriately.[112]

A 2010 study looking at the effect of the NFA on gun-related deaths found that the law "did not have any large effects on reducing firearm homicide or suicide rates,"[113] although David Hemenway has criticized this study for using a structural break test despite the fact that such tests can miss the effects of policies in the presence of lags, or when the effect occurs over several years.[114] Another study, published the same year, found that Australia's gun buyback program reduced gun-related suicide rates by almost 80%, while non-gun death rates were not significantly affected.[115] Other research has argued that although gun suicide rates fell after the NFA was enacted, the NFA may not have been responsible for this decrease and "a change in social and cultural attitudes" may have instead been at least partly responsible.[116] A 2011 study found that "Australia's prohibition of certain types of firearms" has not prevented mass shootings.[117] In 2016, Chapman co-authored another study that found that after the NFA was passed, there were no mass shootings in the country (as of May 2016), and that gun-related death rates declined more quickly after the NFA than they did before it. The study also found, however, that non-gun suicide and homicide rates declined even more quickly after the NFA, leading the authors to conclude that "it is not possible to determine whether the change in firearm deaths can be attributed to the gun law reforms."[118]

Other countries

Possession of long guns by country:
  No permit required for both repeating and semi-automatic long guns
  Partially licensed – repeating long guns permitless, semi-automatic with permit
  Allowed with permit – no good reason required or simple declaration of reason1
  Allowed with permit – good reason (like sport shooting license or proving danger to life) required1
  Prohibited with exceptions or prohibited in practice – few licenses are issued
  Prohibited – civilians are banned from obtaining long guns
  Different rules regarding shotguns and rifles
1Some countries in these categories may place additional restrictions or ban semi-automatic long guns
Possession of handguns by country:
  No permit required – permits or licenses are not required to obtain handguns
  Allowed with permit – no good reason required or simple declaration of reason
  Allowed with permit – good reason (like sport shooting license or proving danger to life) required
  Prohibited with exceptions or prohibited in practice – few licenses are issued
  Prohibited – civilians are banned from obtaining handguns
Notes:

- Map describes policy regarding obtaining new firearms regardless whether firearms that were produced before ban were grandfathered.

A 2007 study found evidence that gun control laws passed in Austria in 1997 reduced the rates of firearm suicide and homicide in that country.[119] In Brazil, after disarmament laws were passed in 2003,[120] gun-related mortality declined by 8% in 2004 relative to the previous year, the first decline observed in a decade. Gun-related hospitalizations also reversed their previous trend by decreasing 4.6% from 2003 to 2004.[121] A 2006 study found that after gun control laws were passed in New Zealand in 1992, suicides committed with guns declined significantly, especially among youth. This study however found that overall suicide rates did not change significantly.[122] A case-control study conducted in New Zealand found that gun ownership was significantly associated with a greater risk of gun suicides, but not suicides overall.[123]

A 2010 study looked at the effect of a policy adopted by the Israeli Defense Forces that restricted access to guns among adolescents on suicide rates, and found that "Following the policy change, suicide rates decreased significantly by 40%." The authors concluded that "The results of this study illustrate the ability of a relatively simple change in policy to have a major impact on suicide rates."[124] A 2013 study showed that after the Military of Switzerland adopted the Army XXI reform, which restricted gun availability, in 2003, suicide rates – both overall and firearm-related – decreased.[125] Another 2013 study looking at four restrictive gun laws passed in Norway found that two of them may have reduced firearm mortality among men, but that the evidence was more inconclusive with respect to all of the laws they studied.[126] A 2014 study found that after South Africa's Firearm Control Act was passed in 2000, homicide rates in the country declined, and concluded that "stricter gun control mediated by the FCA accounted for a significant decrease in homicide overall, and firearm homicide in particular, during the study period [2001–2005]."[127] A 2000 study found that a ban on carrying guns in Colombia was associated with reductions in homicide rates in two cities in the country, namely, Cali and Bogotá.[128]

See also

International

United States

Notes

  1. ^ a b As of April 2022, the only countries with permissive gun legislation are: Chad, the Republic of Congo, Honduras, Micronesia, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Switzerland, Tanzania, the United States, Yemen, and Zambia.
  2. ^ This figure excludes older, pre-automatic small arms from military and law enforcement stockpiles or 'craft-produced' civilian firearms.[8]
  3. ^ Composed of 'insurgents and militias, including dormant and state-related groups'.[10]
  4. ^ However, as of 2009, active non-state armed groups, numbering about 285,000 combatants, control only about 350,000 small arms.[11]
  5. ^ Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, and Taiwan (Republic of China) prohibit civilian ownership of firearms in almost all instances. Eritrea and Somalia also prohibit civilian possession of firearms as part of their implementation of the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms. In the Solomon Islands, civilian firearm ownership is restricted to members of the Regional Assistance Mission.[12]
  6. ^ The survey, carried out by the Small Arms Survey included 28 countries (42 jurisdictions in total). The countries included in the sample were:
    • Africa: Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda;
    • Americas: Belize, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, United States, Venezuela;
    • Asia: India, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Turkey, Yemen;
    • Europe: Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Russian Federation, Switzerland, United Kingdom;
    • Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea.[14]
    The study states that "while the sample is diverse and balanced, it may not be representative of the systems in place in countries outside the sample".[15]
  7. ^ The impetus behind this study was twofold: firstly, there were concerns over the incidence of firearm-related crimes, accidents and suicides; secondly, there was the apprehension that existing regulatory instruments administering the ownership, storage and training in the use of firearms held by civilians might be inadequate.[17]
  8. ^ The US government was opposed to a section of the draft proposal calling on countries 'to seriously consider the prohibition of unrestricted trade and private ownership of small arms and light weapons'.[19]
  9. ^ The full title is 'The Bamako Declaration on an African Common Position on the Illicit Proliferation, Circulation and Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons (2000)'.[21]

References

  1. ^ Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (2005). Federal Firearms Regulations Reference Guide (PDF). Archived 2021-04-24 at the Wayback Machine U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved: January 3, 2016.
  2. ^ "Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 2022-05-30. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  3. ^ Alpers, Philip; Wilson, Marcus (9 June 2020). "Guns in the United Nations: Firearm Regulation - Guiding Policy". Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney. Archived from the original on 2021-04-18. Retrieved 2016-08-27 – via GunPolicy.org.
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Bibliography

Further reading

  • Rakoff, Jed S., "The Last of His Kind" (review of John Paul Stevens, The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years, Little, Brown, 549 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXVI, no. 14 (26 September 2019), pp. 20, 22, 24. John Paul Stevens, "a throwback to the postwar liberal Republican [U.S. Supreme Court] appointees", questioned the validity of "the doctrine of sovereign immunity, which holds that you cannot sue any state or federal government agency, or any of its officers or employees, for any wrong they may have committed against you, unless the state or federal government consents to being sued" (p. 20); the propriety of "the increasing resistance of the U.S. Supreme Court to most meaningful forms of gun control" (p. 22); and "the constitutionality of the death penalty... because of incontrovertible evidence that innocent people have been sentenced to death." (pp. 22, 24.)
  • Squires, Peter. Gender and Firearms: My Body, My Choice, My Gun. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2024.

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