Study: where gun laws are weaker, there are more mass shootings

Saturday, March 9th, 2019

Study: where gun laws are weaker, there are more mass shootings

Author: German Lopez
Source: VOX
Publication Date: Mar 8, 2019, 8:00am EST
Link: Study: where gun laws are weaker, there are more mass shootings

Stephan: Weaker laws mean more mass shootings is such an obvious interrelationship that I have always wondered why it is so contested. Now we have data; it will be interesting to see what Congress does with this information.

Credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty

There are more mass shootings in states with weaker gun laws, according to a new study published in The BMJ, a medical journal, on Wednesday.

The study, from researchers at Columbia, New York University, Boston University, and the University of Pennsylvania, analyzed states’ mass shooting rates, the permissiveness of their firearm laws, and levels of gun ownership from 1998 to 2015. It then tested each of these to see if there was a link.

The result: Where there are more guns, there are more mass shootings. And where gun laws are weaker, there are more mass shootings.