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These 2 Laws Are Tied to Lower Gun Homicide Rates

Handguns and bullets on a table.

"New research suggests restricting who can have a gun is more effective than banning a type of gun when it comes to curbing homicides."

Restricting exactly who has access to guns may be the most effective way to curb firearm deaths in America – even more so than limiting the types of guns available or when they may be used, according to new research published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

From 1997 to 2016, the U.S. saw an annual average of 3.5 gun homicides per 100,000 people, researchers say, with rates ranging from 0.7 in New Hampshire to 9.8 in Louisiana. States that had enacted two types of measures that can limit certain people's access to firearms during a slightly broader time period assessed for the published study – 1991 to 2016 – had lower gun homicide rates, while policies banning guns themselves appear to have done little to curb the death rates..."

Author: Gaby Galvin.

Outlet: U.S. News & World Report.

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