Professor: Homicide Rate Not Affected by Gun Control on Private Sales

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

LaGrange College professor John A. Tures cross-examined various figures on gun crime and found that homicide rates are not markedly different for states with gun control for private sales versus states without.

He did this as a project with his students, wherein they examined a study that provided an overview of findings from a wide spectrum of angles and political persuasions, including findings that are considered nonpartisan. These findings included figures from The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the NRA-ILA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to the Ledger Enquirer, Tures was initially persuaded that “the average gun-related homicide rate per 100,000 people among gun control states (3.31) was lower than those with no regulation of private gun sales (4.28).” Then he realized that an error exists in the way figures from certain states are tallied.

For example, “Two gun control states, and nine gun rights states, had too few gun homicides to calculate a rate, and were left out of the study.”  So Tores and hist students created an extra table for the study, adding in the figures that had been left out of the original. The result was “that there was little to no difference in the results” between gun control states and states with more relaxed gun laws.

Tores wrote: “We cannot conclude that states that regulate private gun sales have a higher, or lower, gun homicide rate.”

This finding is pertinent because gun control proponents respond to nearly every mass public attack by pushing for an expansion of background checks. Such an expansion is tantamount to regulating private gun sales. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is pushing such regulation now, as a response to the October 1 Vegas attack, although the Vegas attacker passed background checks for his firearms.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com

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