Firearm Registration and Owner Licensing - the International Experience: California State Assembly testimony (original) (raw)

Nonfatal Firearm Misuse: Licence Status of Perpetrators and Legality of the Firearms

1996

Over the study period, 78 incidents yielded information on 97 perpetrators and 100 firearms. Of the 97 perpetrators, 66 per cent were unlicensed, 20 per cent were licensed, the licence status of 8 per cent of the perpetrators was unknown and the remaining 7 per cent were using air guns, and therefore a licence was not required. Half of the perpetrators involved in domestic disputes were licensed. Of the 100 firearms, 44 per cent were classified as 'legal firearms' and 56 per cent were classified as 'illegal firearms'. These findings suggest that strategies aimed at reducing or preventing injury due to firearm misuse must focus on both licensed and unlicensed individuals and both legal and illegal firearms.

National Experiences with Firearms Regulation: Evaluating the Implications for Public Safety 1

Activists promise that tightening up on firearm regulations will make society safer by reducing criminal violence and even suicide rates. This brief review of selected countries in the British Commonwealth suggests that recently introduced firearm legislation has failed to reduce either violent crime rates or suicide rates in any of these countries. If the goal is to improve public safety, governments are urged to seek more cost effective approaches. Widely televised firearm murders in France, Germany, and Switzerland in the past few years have spurred politicians in Europe to introduce changes in their countries' already strict gun laws to make them even more restrictive. Most of us will remember the headlines about a depressed student in Germany who ran amok and killed several people in his school after he'd been expelled. In both France and Switzerland, angry individuals have stormed into local councils and begun shooting legislators seemingly at random.

GUNS UNDER FIRE: Initial results of the 2005 firearms amnesty

South African Crime Quarterly, 2016

On 1 January 2005 government launched the largest ever firearms amnesty. By 31 March 50,233 firearms had been surrendered. Due to public demand, the amnesty was extended to 30 June. This article assesses the impact of the first three months of the amnesty. Although media coverage focused on the illegal weapons handed in, the nearly 28,000 licensed guns surrendered represent just over one year’s supply of lost guns that will now not enter the illegal market. And considering the widespread use of handguns in violent crime, the removal of over 43,000 handguns from circulation represents a substantial victory.

Risk Management in relation to Firearms Licensing

An evaluation into risk management by the MPS firearms enquiry team (FET) in relation to firearms licensing. This included an assessment of current methods for assessing risk and an analysis of data on certificates that were refused on application, refused on renewal, revoked or voluntarily surrendered over a period of just over 20 years. The MPS assesses the risk posed by granting or renewing an individual’s shotgun and/or Firearm Certificate in robust, fair and clear ways, consistent with legal and national requirements and which follow the guidance of the Home Office, College of Policing and others. None-the-less, assessing risk, in the sense of estimating the likelihood of an individual posing a threat in the future, is a challenging undertaking, made particularly difficult in the context of firearms licensing by the ambiguities inherent in the law and in national policy. Our research lead to a few suggestions as to how the risk assessment and decision-making processes carried out by the FET (SCO19) could be further improved.

Evaluating the Effect of State Regulation of Federally Licensed Firearm Dealers on Firearm Homicide

American Journal of Public Health, 2014

Effective federal regulation of firearm dealers has proven difficult. Consequently, many states choose to implement their own regulations. We examined the impact of state-required licensing, record keeping of sales, allowable inspections, and mandatory theft reporting on firearm homicide from 1995 to 2010. We found that lower homicide rates were associated with states that required licensing and inspections. We concluded that firearm dealer regulations might be an effective harm reduction strategy for firearm homicide.