We may already have the answer to reducing gun deaths in the country
Feb 21, 2018, 7:16 AM
Protestors join in on a grassroots movement during a rally against gun violence in downtown Los Angeles on Monday. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
(AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
After last week’s school shooting in Parkland the president said it is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference.
“We must actually make that difference.”
Twenty-four years ago that’s exactly what we did.
In February 1994 the Brady Law imposed a waiting period to allow for background checks. And Harvard researcher Christopher Poliquin said that law created a natural experiment.
“So, we can actually compare what happened in the states that got new waiting periods in the early 1990s, and had those waiting periods actually removed by the federal government in 1998 when the FBI launched an instant background check system,” Poliquin said.
And his research found gun deaths while the waiting period was in place went down between 6 and 17 percent depending on the state. Then, in states where the waiting period was lifted four years later, gun deaths went back up.
The caveat is that he does not claim this will prevent massacres.
“I think it’s very hard to say whether any specific policy would reduce school massacres or mass shootings given they are less than 1 percent of all gun deaths in the country, but enacting a three-day waiting period based on my research and the research of others, would dramatically reduce gun homicides,” Poliquin said.
It would give a gun dealer the time to run a real background check on the teenager asking for the AR-15. Maybe even allow for a quick call to the local high school.
-
Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
