Results: Why American gun laws are likely to get looser, not tighter, even after Las Vegas

Just days after the horrific Las Vegas shooting on October 1, that saw 58 people killed, and hundreds injured, another shooting took place that barely made the news. This act of domestic violence in a home, Casa Grande, Arizona, which saw four people die, did not even make the news outside of the state. And hundreds of shootings go locally reported and often not even reported, in the United States every year. More than 33,000 Americans were killed by guns in 2014 — more than 90 per day. In 2015, the Washington Post found, 23 children were shot every day. Almost two-thirds of the gun deaths were suicides, which tend to receive the least attention. And these guns were for the most part, legally owned guns that the owners would insist "are carefully stored without any chance anyone will accidentally find them". Do you own a legally obtained firearm of any kind?

In the United States, there's much debate over whether gun-related legislation can diminish the likelihood of mass shootings. New research from Harvard Business School turns the question on its head: Do mass shootings lead to more gun-related legislation? The answer is yes, with an important twist. In states with Republican-controlled legislatures, mass shootings lead to a significant increase in the number of laws that loosen gun restrictions. That's one of several key findings in the study "The Impact of Mass Shootings on Gun Policy," co-authored by Michael Luca, Deepak Malhotra, and Christopher Poliquin. This year, for example, Missouri Republicans allowed people to carry guns without obtaining a permit. Georgia Republicans allowed permit-holders to carry on college campuses. Ohio Republicans allowed gun licence holders to carry their guns at daycares that don't put up No Guns signs and to store their guns in their cars on school property. Before the Las Vegas shooting, House Republicans had been pushing a bill to make it easier to buy gun silencers. They have now delayed that effort a second time. The first delay came after a shooter attacked party congressmen on a baseball field in nearby Virginia — which, tellingly, prompted some to talk about loosening gun laws, for self-defence. That debate has been argued here on Tellwut many times -- the need for a gun for self-defense, dividing the people on here into two camps: those that believe they have a right to carry a gun or have a gun at home or in their car for self-defense and those who believe that carrying a gun for any reason (other than hunting, military, police, etc) can only end badly. Which camp do you find yourself in?

Criminals, gang members, terrorists -- they will get their guns illegally no matter what. There are many ways to get a gun without going through the legalities. We are talking about guns obtained legally, if somewhat more relaxed in some areas than others. We are talking about states where it easier to get a gun than it is to get an abortion or even birth control. We are talking about the ridiculous number of accidental shooting deaths of young children who just happen to find a loaded gun in their parents' closet or behind the bed (and really isn't even ONE accidental death of a child enough). We are talking about someone who gets road rage, and uses their loaded gun to make a point. Here are some of the statistics on guns in America. Which of these do you already know?

The statistics for gun shootings involving children is even more staggering -- how many of these did you know?

The NRA argues that more education and training should be the solution, not more laws and restrictions. The NRA takes credit for improving safety through its Eddie Eagle Gun Safe program, which warns children not to touch any firearms they come across and to tell adults. However, critics dispute the effectiveness of that message, pointing to academic research that shows curious children will pick up loose guns, even when told otherwise. The sad truth is that many guns bought solely for "protection" end up taking the life of the very ones they were bought to protect. And, in the case of a gun death, even one child is one too many. Have you personally known a child who has one of these victims?