Researchers Linked Missouri's Repealed Gun Law with an Increase in Homicides

Starting in 1921, if you wanted to purchase a handgun in Missouri, you had to go to the local sheriff’s office so they could vet your application to make sure you are legally allowed to own one. According to a new study by researchers from Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, repealing this “permit to purchase” law in 2007—so private sellers could sell their guns to someone who hasn’t gotten a background check—has contributed to a 16 percent increase in Missouri’s murder rate. That means an additional 55 to 63 murders per year in the state between 2008 and 2012.

"Coincident exactly with the policy change, there was an immediate upward trajectory to the homicide rates in Missouri," the study’s lead author Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, told the BBC. "That upward trajectory did not happen with homicides that did not involve guns; it did not occur to any neighboring state; the national trend was doing the opposite – it was trending downward; and it was not specific to one or two localities – it was, for the most part, state-wide."

The analysis of data compiled from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system controlled for changes in policing, incarceration, burglaries, unemployment, poverty, and other state laws adopted during the study period that could affect violent crime. "This study provides compelling confirmation that weaknesses in firearm laws lead to deaths from gun violence," said Webster in a release. The paper is set to appear in a forthcoming issue of Journal of Urban Health.

For firearm sales by federally licensed firearm dealers, federal law requires prospective purchasers to pass a criminal background check and the sellers have to maintain a record of the sale. But federal law and laws in most states exempt these regulations when the firearm seller is unlicensed.

"Because many perpetrators of homicide have backgrounds that would prohibit them from possessing firearms under federal law, they seek out private dealers to acquire their weapons," study author Jon Vernick said.

In written statement submitted to the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights in 2013, Webster explained how he analyzed 2004 survey data from a nationally representative sample of state prison inmates who were incarcerated for crime committed with handguns and found that 80 percent of those inmates had acquired their handguns via a transaction with unlicensed, private sellers. Only 9.9 percent of inmates surveyed reported that they had stolen the gun used in the crime.

Before the 2007 permit to purchase law was repealed, Sgt. Judy Farnsworth of the Jackson County, Mo. sheriff’s office, told the Kansas City Star that the end of the law removed the remaining safeguards on individual-to-individual sales. “It’s always a concern, but there’s not a lot we can do about it,” Farnsworth said.

The Johns Hopkins researchers advocate requiring a background check system for all gun sales, which is something that a 2013 public opinion survey found that 89 percent of Americans and 84 percent of gun owners also support.

Given that there is data that strongly suggests it would save lives, and the majority of Americans support it, it would take some sort of huge lobbying organization that’s funded by those who have something to gain from gun sales, regardless of the intent of the buyer, but surely the American people would see right through that.