Study Says More Gun Laws = Fewer Deaths

Amid the ongoing debates on gun control, an analysis of four years of data on gun-related homicides and suicides suggests states with the most gun control laws have the fewest gun-related deaths. 

The results of the study were published Wednesday, March 6, in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. According to an Associated Press report, in states with the most gun control-related laws, far fewer people were shot to death or killed themselves with guns than in states with the fewest laws, the study found. And overall, states with the most laws had a 42 percent lower gun death rate than states with the fewest number of laws.

The results are based on data gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2007 to 2010 and information on gun control measures compiled by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. 

Dr. Eric Fleegler, the study's lead author and an emergency department pediatrician and researcher at Boston Children's Hospital, said the study suggests but doesn't prove that gun laws — or something else — led to fewer gun deaths, the Associated Press reports. Fleegler is among hundreds of doctors who have signed a petition urging President Barack Obama and Congress to pass gun safety legislation. 

Gun rights advocates argue that strict gun laws have failed to curb high murder rates in some cities, including Chicago and Washington, D.C., while Fleegler said his study didn't examine city-level laws. 

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