Do Background Checks on Private Gun Sales Stop Mass Murders?

Washington, DC – -(Ammoland.com)- A new report from the Crime Prevention Research Center is out.

Do Background Checks on Private Gun Transfers help Stop Mass Public Shootings?

Persistent claims have been made that expanding background checks to include any private transfers of guns would reduce mass public shootings.

Yet, this is the first study to systematically look to see if that is true. In fact there is no evidence that these laws reduce the risk of these attacks.

Examining all 47 mass public shootings in the US from 2000 through 2015, we find that states adopting additional background checks on private transfers see a statistically significant increase in the rate of killings ( 80 % higher ) and injuries ( 101 % ) from mass public shootings.

There is not one mass public shooting that occurred over that period that these checks would have been prevented.

President Obama keeps proposing gun control as the solution to mass public shootings.  And time after time he points to expanded background checks as key legislation. After the San Bernardino shooting in December 2015, he said:

“And there are some steps we could take not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings, but to improve the odds that they don’t happen as frequently: common – sense gun safety laws, stronger background checks.”

Again, after last October’s Umpqua Community College shooting:

“I mean normally politicians are responsive to the views of the electorate. Here you’ve got the majority of American people think it’s the right thing to do — background checks, other common sense steps that would maybe save some lives couldn’t even get a full vote. And why is that? It’s because of politics.”

Hillary Clinton has also pointed to background checks as the solution to mass shootings.

After the shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, she called for “common – sense steps like comprehensive background checks, closing the loopholes that let guns fall into the wrong hands.”

Clinton made the same calls for expanded background checks after Oregon, San Bernardino, and the killing in August of the two Roanoke, Virginia journalists. People just assume that expanded background checks will stop these mass public shootings .

Yet, there has been no attempt to do even the most basic statistical tests.  In none of these shootings nor other ones that the president or Clinton have spoken about would have been stopped if background checks on private transfers had been required.

Read the complete Report : Do Background Checks on Private Gun Transfers help Stop Mass Public Shootings?

About Crime Prevention Research Center
The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) is a research and education organization dedicated to conducting academic quality research on the relationship between laws regulating the ownership or use of guns, crime, and public safety; educating the public on the results of such research; and supporting other organizations, projects, and initiatives that are organized and operated for similar purposes. Visit: www.crimepreventionresearchcenter.org