Permit to Purchase for Decline in Death:An Analysis of Gun Law Requirements and Their Effect on Gun Violence Levels

Across StatesUC Davis Monica Silver monicasilver2@gmail.com

What is Permit to Purchase?•State laws requiring firearms purchasers and owners to be “permitted” or “licensed” prior to the point of purchase•Often include criminal background checks, mental health background checks, and safety training programs•Some states require firearms purchasers to carry identification cards as part of their policy

Laws Providing the Best Results•Separating the 13 states with permit to purchase laws based on their requirements allows for insight into which are making the greatest impact on gun violence levels

Figure 2. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence scores states based on their gun laws annually; state scores from 2013 (data from smartgunlaws.org)

Figure 1. Comparison of states with the lowest gun death levels and states with the strictest gun laws (data from smartgunlaws.org)

Figure 3. The 13 states with permitting laws gun deaths per 100,000 people vs. gun ownership percentages (data from New Trajectory by Ceasefire Oregon)

• States with mental health background check requirements and safety training program requirements have less average gun deaths

• States also tend to have less average gun deaths when all firearm types require permits or licenses, not just handguns

Figure 4. Average number of gun deaths per 100,000 people for each permitting requirements categories (data from New Trajectory by Ceasefire Oregon)

Implications for Future Gun Laws•Including a mental health background check process in California would strengthen its’ permit to purchase policy

•Instituting a federal policy requiring all handgun purchasers, if not all types of firearms purchasers, to have permits or licenses will help lessen gun violence levels across the nation

•Tracking firearm purchases at the local and state level will help target states and regions struggling with instances of gun violence

ReferencesSmartgunlaws.org/gun-policy. Law Center to Prevent Gun

Violence, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.Web log post. New Trajectory. Ceasefire Oregon, n.d. Web. 27

Feb. 2016.

The Rising Gun Violence Epidemic•There are over 30,000 deaths due to gun violence annually in the U.S. •Over 77% of Americans support stronger gun laws, but only 13 states have gun licensing or permitting processes, including California•Many groups, such as the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, have collected data to demonstrate that stricter gun laws do, in fact, lessen gun violence overall •The question remaining is which permitting requirements make for the strictest and most efficient gun laws?