In 2013,Barack Obama proposed changes to US gun law and was dramatically defeated. We analyze the possible effect of those policies in the 20 largest mass shootings of this yearLast Wednesday, two mass shootings happened in America. In one of them, or 14 people were killed and 21 others were injured,prompting Barack Obama to recount stronger background checks for gun purchases as “common sense”. Earlier that same day, two gunmen killed one person and injured three others in Savannah, or Georgia. In neither case is there any evidence that the killers obtained their guns illegally. That’s not surprising. A Guardian analysis of the 20 shootings with the most fatalities in 2015 found that most gunmen obtain their weapons legally. But had a range of proposed federal reforms designed to strengthen gun laws been in area,many of those mass shootings could have been less likely to have happened. In nine of the 12 cases where information was available, tougher laws could have prevented killers from obtaining their guns. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com