More on Guns

More on Guns - What Happened in Australia

The NRA defends its position on guns by pointing out that gun ownership has increased, but gun deaths have decreased. I do not know if that is true, but it may be.

However, we are looking at two issues. One is guns used in homicides, the other is mass shootings and accidental shootings.

A recent review in JAMA addresses this.

Australia has experienced no mass fatal shootings since it banned rapid-fire long guns in 1996, a JAMA study finds. The ban included guns already owned by citizens and mandated government buyback of all prohibited firearms.

Using national government statistics and news reports, researchers compared firearm deaths during two decades before the ban (1979 through 1996) and two decades afterward (1997 to May 2016). Before Australia's ban, there were 13 mass fatal shootings, with 104 deaths — versus none afterward.

Total firearm deaths also declined after the ban, from 3.6 per 100,000 population to 1.2 per 100,000. However, at the same time, non-firearm suicides and homicides also declined, so the reduction in total firearm deaths could not be directly attributed to the gun ban.

Separately, New England Journal of Medicine editorialists call for "universal background checks ... for every gun sale in every setting" in the U.S., as well as a ban on "assault weapons." I couldn't agree more.

JAMA. Published online June 22, 2016. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.8752