Effects of Missouri’s Repeal of Its Handgun Purchaser Licensing Law on Homicides: The Repeal Coincided with a Sharp Increase in the Percentage of Crime Guns Recovered by Missouri Police From 56.4% in 2006 to 71.8% in 2012
A study from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research:
ABSTRACT
In the United States, homicide is a leading cause of death for young males and a major cause of racial disparities in life expectancy for men. There is intense debate and little rigorous research on the effects of firearm sales regulation on homicides. This study estimates the impact of Missouri’s 2007 repeal of its permit-to-purchase (PTP) handgun law on states’ homicide rates and controls for changes in poverty, unemployment, crime, incarceration, policing levels, and other policies that could potentially affect homicides. Using death certificate data available through 2010, the repeal of Missouri’s PTP law was associated with an increase in annual increase in firearm homicides rates of 1.09 per 100,000 (+23%), but was unrelated to changes in non-firearm homicide rates. Using Uniform Crime Reporting data from police through 2012, the law’s repeal was associated with increased annual murders rates of 0.93 per 100,000 (+16%). These estimated effects translate to increases of between 55 and 63 homicides per year in Missouri.
INTRODUCTION
Homicide is the second leading cause of death for people age 15-34 in the United States, and the leading cause of death for black males in this age group. Homicide also accounts for 5 percent of the years of potential life lost (YPLL) in the U.S., and is the second leading cause of the racial disparity in life expectancy between black and white males. Two-thirds of all homicides in the US are committed with firearms and the firearm homicide rate in the US is 19.5 times higher than the average firearm homicide rate in other high-income countries.
It has been argued that weaknesses in federal and state firearms laws contribute to the unusually high homicide rate in the US, especially the lack of background checks or recordkeeping requirements for private, unlicensed sellers of firearms. Many perpetrators of homicide have backgrounds that would prohibit them from possessing firearms as a result of prior convictions for felony crimes or for misdemeanors involving domestic violence, being under a restraining order for domestic violence, young age, or other disqualifications. Federal law requires background checks and record-keeping for sales by federally licensed firearms dealers, but exempts these regulations when the firearm seller is unlicensed. Fifteen states require individuals purchasing handguns from unlicensed sellers to pass background checks and 10 of these states require all handgun purchasers to acquire a permit-to-purchase (PTP) license.
PTP systems require prospective handgun purchasers to obtain a license verifying that they have passed a background check. All handgun sellers, both licensed dealers and private sellers, may only sell to those with a current PTP license. Most states with PTP handgun licensing require applicants to apply for the license directly at a law enforcement agency. In all other states, individuals wishing to purchase a handgun from a licensed dealer must complete a purchase application form. The dealer or dealer’s employee submits the form to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Instant Check System (NICS), or in some cases to state police, to determine whether the applicant is prohibited from possessing firearms.
Prior research has shown that cities and states that require background checks and recordkeeping for handgun sales by unlicensed sellers and stricter PTP handgun licensing laws have lower levels of guns being diverted to criminals within a year of retail sale and fewer guns exported to criminals across state borders. A recent study found a cross-sectional association between states having PTP handgun licensing or other forms of universal background check requirements for gun sales and lower homicide rates.
Missouri repealed its PTP handgun licensing law effective August 28, 2007. Missouri’s law had been in place since 1921 and required all handgun purchasers to have a valid PTP license (good for 30 days) in order to lawfully purchase a handgun from any seller, licensed or unlicensed. Applicants applied in person at their local sheriff’s office which facilitated the background check. Webster and colleagues reported that immediately following the repeal of Missouri’s PTP handgun law there was a two-fold increase in the percentage of guns that had unusually short intervals between the retail sale and recovery by police, an indicator of firearm diversion or trafficking. The repeal also coincided with a sharp increase in the percentage of crime guns recovered by police in Missouri that had been originally sold by in-state retailers, from 56.4 percent in 2006 to 71.8 percent in 2012.13
This study examines the effects of the repeal of Missouri’s PTP handgun licensing law on homicide rates. Because this change eliminated mandatory background checks for handguns sold by unlicensed sellers, it is of particular relevance for debates in the U.S. Congress and in several states about proposals to extend background check requirements to all firearm sales.
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