Do states with stricter gun laws have lowest crime rates?

President Barack Obama claimed that “states with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest gun deaths.” Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, meanwhile, has made nearly the opposite claim, saying states with stringent gun control laws have “the highest gun crime rates in the nation.”

Do we need weaker gun laws to reduce gun violence?

But that report also noted weaker gun laws were common among the states with higher gun death rates: “In fact, none of the states with the most gun violence require permits to purchase rifles, shotguns, or handguns. Gun owners are also not required to register their weapons in any of these states.

Should Congress step up to curb gun violence?

Congress has to step up and act.” NRA myth: The NRA says we shouldn’t have any gun laws because criminals don’t follow gun laws. Fact: No single law will stop all crime, that’s not how laws work. But the evidence points to gun safety laws working to curb gun violence.

How many new gun laws were enacted in 2018?

In 2018, lawmakers in 26 states and Washington, D.C., enacted a record 67 new gun safety laws, the report notes. The authors stress how states should look to California as a model for gun legislation. The Golden State has cut its gun deaths in half over the last 20 years.

Do Gun laws reduce homicide rates?

What surprised us the most was that in states that enacted a combination of universal background-check laws, laws prohibiting the sale of guns to people with violent misdemeanors, and concealed carry permit laws, the homicide rates were 35 percent lower than in states with none of those three kinds of laws.

Does Illinois have the worst gun violence in America?

While it’s certainly true that Illinois has stricter gun laws than many other states, it’s not true that it has the worst gun violence overall. Has Chicago experienced recent spikes in crime? Yes. But as criminologist Gary Kleck points out, correlation does not necessarily equal causation.