Broader background checks, denial criteria may help prevent mass-shooting catastrophes

sellers, who are not required to keep records and cannot obtain a background check,” Wintemute said. “We need policies that prevent these quick, anonymous and undocumented sales. We also need policies that deny gun purchases to those who we know are at high risk for violence.”

Wintemute’s research has shown that among persons who purchase firearms legally, those with a previous conviction for a misdemeanor violent crime are roughly nine times as likely as those with no criminal history to be arrested for a violent crime later. For those with two or more such prior convictions, he found the risk increases by a factor of 10 to 15. In addition, studies have shown that firearm owners who abuse alcohol are more likely than other owners to engage in violence-related firearm behavior.

“We know that comprehensive background checks and expanded denial criteria are feasible and effective, because they are in place in many states and have been evaluated,” Wintemute said. “In California, the denial policy reduced the risk of violence and firearm-related crime by 23 percent among those whose purchases were denied. But we need to broaden these and other effective state-level regulations to eliminate the flow of firearms from states where laws are lax to states where laws are stricter.”

Wintemute also notes that proposals for comprehensive background checks and denials for misdemeanor violence and for alcohol abuse enjoy broad public support, including among firearm owners. Survey data come from Wintemute’s own research as well as a series of public polls conducted for the Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

“While the individual circumstances of the mass shooting massacres in the U.S. are different, we can only change the outcome if we confront the challenge of unchecked and easy access to firearms,” Wintemute said. “Strengthening our background check and denial policies for firearm purchases will not eliminate firearm violence, but they can reduce it.”

The Violence Prevention Research Program is an organized research program of the University of California, Davis. The program focuses on addressing the causes, nature, and prevention of violence.

Current major areas of emphasis include the prediction of criminal behavior, effectiveness of waiting period/background check programs for prospective purchasers of firearms, and the determinants of firearm violence. The university says that the mission of the program is to conduct research that will further America’s efforts to understand and prevent violence.

— Read more in Garen Wintemute, “Sandy Hook could be a turning point for firearms industry,” Sacramento Bee, 27 December 2012