Three State Laws Can Reduce Death Rate From Gun Violence By More Than 90%: Study

There are three federal laws that have been designed to oversee gun purchases as well as ownership. They can significantly pull down the rate of gun deaths by more than 80 percent in the U.S., say researchers at Boston University.

The experts tried to check if drawing up a universal background check for gun purchases, ammunition purchases, and firearm identification would bring down the gun-related deaths or not.

While examining the statistics on gun deaths that had been recorded in 2010 in every state, the analysts also studied the types of laws enforced in 2009. They found that of the 25 existing state gun laws, they could link nine of them to a "reduced rate" of gun deaths.

"Very few of the existing state-specific firearms laws are associated with reduced mortality, and this evidence underscores the importance of focusing on relevant and effective firearms legislation," said Sandro Galea senior study author.

The law that made the greatest impact on gun deaths included universal background checks, which brought down gun-related death rates by 39 percent. For ammunition purchases and firearm identification, the death rates were brought down by 18 percent and 16 percent.

"The findings suggest that very few of the existing state gun-control laws actually reduce gun deaths, highlighting the importance of focusing on relevant and effective gun legislation," added Bindu Kalesan, an assistant professor of medicine at Boston University and lead author of the study.

If all the three laws are enforced, the death rate could be brought down from 10.1 per 100,000 people in 2010 to 0.16 per 100,000. However, it would be many years after enforcement that the laws would be able to make a significant impact.

The study was published in The Lancet.