Licensing effective at cutting gun crime
To the editor:
As part of his comprehensive gun control agenda, Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker proposes federal licensing of firearm owners. Not surprisingly, gun rights advocates vehemently oppose the policy. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, governor of Florida at the time of both the Pulse Night Club and Parkland School mass shootings, derisively responded on Twitter, “What’s next? Will we have to register sharp knives?”
What is surprising, however, is that John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, declined to endorse the policy. As reported in The New York Times, Feinblatt said the organization only supports proposals that have been “fully researched and proven to have public support.”
In fact, there is strong evidence that licensing reduces gun violence and unquestionable support among the public. In a just-released Quinnipiac University poll, voters supported a permit-to-purchase (PTP) requirement by a nearly 4-to-1 margin, including two-thirds of gun owners and Republicans.
Studies demonstrate that state licensing programs reduce gun deaths. In the 10 years following the 1995 introduction of a permit requirement in Connecticut, gun homicides declined by 40 percent (whereas homicide by other means did not change.) Conversely, in the three years following Missouri’s repeal of its PTP law in 2007, firearm homicide rates increased 23 percent, again with no change in non-firearm homicide rates. Other studies show that PTP reduces homicide in urban areas, lowers firearm suicide and lowers the risk of police officers being shot or killed in the line of duty.
Requiring an in-person appearance at a law enforcement office (required by most state-level licensing programs) reduces fraudulent straw purchases on behalf of individuals who are prohibited from possessing firearms. It improves accurate verification of prospective purchasers’ government IDs, an area of notorious inaccuracy by federally licensed firearms dealers. PTP reduces gun suicide by interrupting the impulsive nature of most suicide attempts.
There is ample research to support Cory Booker’s position that gun licensing would save lives, backed by solid public support. Right now the main barrier keeping it from becoming federal law are GOP senators and a president that side with the gun lobby over the safety of Americans. Jonathan Perloe Cos Cob