Select Firearm Violence Prevention Strategies

A report titled "Summary of Select Firearm Violence Prevention Strategies" was recently released by the National Institute of Justice, a research wing of the Department of Justice. This report states, "The existing stock of assault weapons is large, undercutting the effectiveness of bans with exemptions. Therefore a complete elimination of assault weapons would not have a large impact on gun homicides." This report found no significant link between "assault weapons" and murders, stating, "Since assault weapons are not a major contributor to U.S. gun homicides and the existing stock of guns is large, an assault weapon ban is unlikely to have an impact on gun violence."

The report goes on to state that it sees no epidemic of mass shootings, saying, "Fatalities from mass shootings (those with 4 or more victims in a particular place and time) account on average for 35 fatalities per year. Policies that address the larger firearm homicide issue will have a far greater impact even if they do not address the particular issues of mass shootings."

The study also found a number of reasons why gun buy-backs are ineffective the way they are generally implemented: "1. The buybacks are too small to have an impact. 2. The guns turned in are at low risk of ever being used in a crime. 3. Replacement guns are easily acquired." The report concludes, "Unless these three points are overcome, a gun buyback cannot be effective."

On the issue of reducing the size of magazines, the report says, "In order to have an impact, large capacity magazine regulation needs to sharply curtail their availability to include restrictions on importation, manufacture, sale, and possession. An exemption for previously owned magazines would nearly eliminate any impact. The program would need to be coupled with an extensive buy-back of existing large capacity magazines. With an exemption the impact of the restrictions would only be felt when the magazines degrade or when they no longer are compatible with guns in circulation. This would take decades to realize."

Another interesting point noted in this report is that a 2000 study by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms stated that 47 percent of crime guns are obtained through a straw purchase, and another 26 percent are stolen. According to the report, "These figures indicate informal transfers dominate the crime gun market. A perfect universal background check system can address the gun shows and might deter many unregulated private sellers. However this does not address the largest sources (straw purchase and theft), which would most likely become larger if background checks at gun shows and private sellers were addressed."

This report, published by Eric Holder’s Justice Department, undermines most of the talking points the Obama administration has been using in recent weeks in its pursuit of more limitations on guns, ammo, and accessories.