The 3 Gun-Control Laws That Work Best in the U.S.

The United States remains an outlier when it comes to gun control. When Australia witnessed a mass shooting in 1996, it almost immediately enacted stricter gun-control measures, and saw faster falls in firearm deaths and suicides. After 50 people were killed in attacks on two mosques in New Zealand last month, that country’s prime minister quickly called for bans on semiautomatic guns, assault rifles, and high-capacity magazines, leading many (including Scientific American) to ask, “Why Not U.S.?” But in America, gun control remains largely the province of individual states, where policies vary widely.

A new study by researchers Michael Siegel, Molly Pahn, Ziming Xuan, Eric Fleegler, and David Hemenway finds conclusive evidence that states with stricter gun-control laws have lower rates of both murders and suicides. (Nearly two-thirds of U.S. gun deaths are suicides.) We covered an earlier study that found that states with higher rates of gun ownership had higher rates of teen suicide. Research by one of us (Richard) has found that states with stricter gun-control laws have fewer gun deaths. And a meta-analysis of more than 130 studies across 10 nations found strong evidence of the same.