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The Science is Clear: More Permissive Gun Laws Equal More Deaths

Oregon Shooting
AP Photo/Ryan Kang

A woman is comforted as friends and family wait for students at the local fairgrounds after a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015.

There has been another shooting at a university.

This one a bit closer to home. One student is dead at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and four other students were hurt after a late night argument.

This comes just a week after the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon that left nine people dead.

After that shooting, the media, as usual, exploded with story after story about how the tragedy could have been prevented.

But it was curious, because most of the stories after Umpqua were less about the “debate” between people who want to regulate gun use and those who think unrestricted gun use will make us safer.

The stories were more about how there really is no debate at all.

David Hemenway wrote one of those pieces that ran last weekend in the L.A. Times. Hemenway is a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and is director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.

His story shows that scientists who study gun violence are all in agreement that more guns equal more deaths, and that stricter gun laws equal fewer deaths.

“I just thought it should be perfectly clear to the public what we know and what we don’t know,” Hemenway told KNPR's State of Nevada. 

He compared the problem to climate change and how journalists often offered another side to the argument to which scientists don't see an argument but agreement. 

He said when the science is strong on a subject "make it clear that the science is strong."

"Well I’m hoping that the reporters say is, ‘this is what the science says, now there are people who don’t believe the science..." he explained.

But, in this area, the science is strong.

It is very, very clear that in areas where there’s more guns there’s more deaths,” Hemenway said.

Hemenway said there are still some areas of gun use that don't have strong statistics for a consensus, like whether having a gun outside the home will make a person safer.

But he says, there is clear science about a gun inside the home.

“A home with a gun there is a higher risk that someone will die in that home than if there is no gun in that home,” Hemenway said.

Annette Magnus,  the executive director of Battle Born Progress, which is advocating for stronger gun laws in Nevada said she agrees that Americans have the right to bear arms, but, "I also agree that with big rights come big responsibilities.” 

She believes there needs to be more steps in place to stop domestic abusers, the violently mentally ill and other dangerous people from having access to weapons. 

One of those steps, she said, is expanded background checks that will be on the ballot in Nevada in 2016, 

Currently, background checks are done at gun stores, but not necessarily for sales at gun shows, online purchases or person-to-person sales.

“Will background checks solve all the problems? No they won’t, but if it could save even one life or one mass shooting from happening, if it can prevent that from happening, I think that’s worth it,” she said.

Magnus believes the science on guns should be used to make good policy. 

“Good policy should be backed up by good science,” she said. "What we want is smart gun laws."

However, former state senator Justin Jones believes those polices should not be the patchwork we have currently, where someone in Chicago, where the gun laws are tight, can simply cross the state line into Indiana, where the gun laws are looser, to get a weapon.

"If we're able to pass meaningful laws at the national level, then I think that there would be fewer incidents here where guns are passing across state lines into places like Chicago," Jones said. 

Jones believes there are several ways the country could reduce the number of gun deaths but allow people to have their 2nd Amendment rights. 

"I respect the 2nd Amendment but that doesn't mean we shouldn't make steps forward in terms of our policies in order to prevent gun deaths," he said.

He also supports the effort to improve background checks in Nevada and says 80 percent of Nevadans do as well. But, while most people support stronger gun controls, he pointed out that it is not most people's number one issue. 

While those who support unrestricted gun access, will cite it as their number one issue.

"When it comes to guns, it is really intensity level," he said, "The intensity level of what drives [gun owners] to the polls is much stronger."

David Hemenway, professor, Harvard School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center;  Justin Jones, former state senator and chair of the Health and Human Services Committee;  Annette Magnus, executive director, Battle Born Progress

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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Carrie Kaufman no longer works for KNPR News. She left in April 2018)