Study finds safe storage and minimum gun age would curb violence • Minnesota Reformer

The deadliest school shooting in Georgia history occurred earlier this month when a 14-year-old gunman armed with a military-style rifle killed two students and two teachers and injured nine others at Apalachee High School in Winder, a town about an hour away northeast of Atlanta.

Days later, former President Donald Trump became the target of what the FBI described as an apparent assassination attempt at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, just nine weeks after surviving another attempt on his life.

Gun policy has been a topic of debate in America for decades, and its importance has increased as gun-related deaths and mass shootings have increased nearly every year since 2014, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that tracks gun violence in the United States.

Many Americans despair of ever containing the epidemic, but a new report says certain laws can make a difference.

The report released in July by Rand, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, concluded that minimum age requirements for purchasing firearms appear to reduce youth suicide rates. Additionally, it was noted that laws aimed at restricting children’s access to stored weapons could also reduce the number of firearm suicides, accidental shootings, and firearm homicides among youth.

This is the fourth time since 2018 that Rand has released “The Science of Gun Policy” report. Previous editions examined the effectiveness of other gun regulations, such as: B. Background checks and concealed carry laws, and their impact on outcomes such as crime and suicide.

The Science of Gun Policy report examines laws one at a time. But a separate Rand study published in July, this one in the journal JAMA Network Open, examines the combined impact of several state-level gun laws, including background checks, minimum age requirements, waiting periods, child entry restrictions, and concealed carry and uphold your basic laws.

“We should try to look at the policies together because on their own each one can have a small impact, but when you start layering these restrictions on top of each other, they can really start to make a difference,” said Terry Schell, the Lead author of the study and a senior behavioral scientist at Rand told Stateline. “It’s worth considering.”

The study found that states with the most restrictive gun policies had a 20% lower firearm death rate than states with the most permissive laws, suggesting that comprehensive policy approaches could be more effective than individual measures in curbing gun violence.

“There is hope that there is a policy combination that could reduce the firearm mortality rate,” Schell said.

A deadly year so far

According to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University, the Georgia school shooting was the 30th mass killing in the United States this year, defined as an attack in which four or more people, excluding the perpetrator, be killed. So far, at least 131 people have died in these killings.

Mass shootings that occur close to elections often have a significant impact on public perceptions of guns, according to gun policy experts. But much of the discussion and debate surrounding firearms has been clouded by partisan rhetoric and money, said Warren Eller, an associate professor of public management at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

“[Gun policy is] is going to play a bigger role, at least in the dialogue about it – whether it’s a meaningful dialogue or not, I think, is a whole different thing,” Eller said in a telephone interview with Stateline.

This year, more than a dozen states have passed a range of new gun laws, including measures related to storage requirements, gun-free zones, bans on gun purchase tracking and bans on carrying firearms.

Following the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the US state of Georgia have proposed various measures to curb gun violence.

Georgia House Speaker, Republican Rep. Jon Burns, wrote in a letter to the House Republican Caucus that lawmakers will consider new policies during the 2025 legislative session to support student mental health, technologies to detect Evaluate weapons and promote safe weapons storage.

“While House Republicans have already made significant investments to strengthen security in our schools, improve access to mental health care and ensure the safety of our students, I am committed to not only continuing this work but additional action “To ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again in our state,” Burns wrote in the letter.

But Burns’ proposals fall short of Democrats’ calls for measures such as universal background checks and a red flag law that would allow police or their relatives to petition a court to stop a vulnerable person from purchasing or possessing a firearm prevent.

In February, the Georgia House of Representatives passed a bill to create a state income tax credit of up to $300 for the purchase of gun safes, trigger locks, other safety devices or training courses on safe firearms handling. That bill did not pass the Senate, but a similar Senate bill exempting gun safes and other security devices from state sales tax took effect in July.

Two other gun-related bills also became law in July. The first law prohibits the tracing of firearm purchases, while the second law establishes a tax exemption for weapons and related items.

A special panel of Georgia state senators also met several times this year to consider possible legislation aimed at keeping firearms securely locked and out of the hands of children.

Resistance to gun measures

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents much of the nation’s firearms industry, argues that universal background checks are ineffective and that they do not prevent firearms from getting to criminals. The foundation also argues that universal background checks would require a national registry of gun owners, which it fears could lead to confiscation.

The group argues that many of the existing warning label laws lack sufficient legal protections for due process. The group advocates for safe storage of firearms but opposes laws mandating specific storage requirements, citing a U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the justices ruled that trigger locks that disable firearms violate the Second Amendment .

The group primarily advocates for stricter enforcement of existing laws and emphasizes that mental health should be a priority in the fight against gun violence.

“We can’t have no deposit policies. We cannot allow the police to be defunded. … We need to hold people accountable for their criminal actions,” Lawrence Keane, the organization’s senior vice president and general counsel, said in an interview with Stateline. “We believe that many of these high-profile, tragic incidents are fundamentally about mental health.”

Mental health is often cited as a major factor in gun violence. While it may play an important role, it is difficult to reconcile specific mental health diagnoses with policy solutions, according to Eller of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Much of the gun violence in the United States stems from white-collar crime, Eller said in the interview, but much policy discussion focuses narrowly on school shootings and assault weapons. These problems should be addressed, he said, but they account for a small percentage of gun violence in this country.

There have been at least 24 mass shootings in U.S. schools, defined as incidents in which four or more people were killed, since 1982, according to a database maintained by Mother Jones, a nonprofit news magazine. These school shootings account for about 16% of the 151 mass shootings that have occurred in the U.S. during this period.

Like Minnesota reformers, Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network operating as a 501c(3) public charity supported by grants and a coalition of donors. Stateline maintains editorial independence. If you have any questions, please contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger: [email protected]. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.