NCJ Number
133649
Journal
New England Journal of Medicine Volume: 325 Issue: 23 Dated: (December 5, 1991) Pages: 1615-1620
Date Published
1991
Length
6 pages
Annotation
To test the effectiveness of the 1976 law in the District of Columbia that banned the purchase, sale, transfer, or possession of a handgun by civilians, the homicides and suicides committed from 1968 through 1987 were classified according to place of occurrence, cause, mechanism of death, and time of occurrence. The number of suicides and homicides was calculated for each month and differences between the mean monthly total before and after the law went into effect were compared.
Abstract
The results revealed that the passage of the legislation was accompanied by a 25-percent decrease in homicides by firearms and a 23-percent decrease in suicides by firearms. No similar reductions were noted in the number of homicides or suicides committed by other means or in the metropolitan areas in Maryland and Virginia. There were no increases in homicides or suicides committed by other means, indicating that no other lethal methods were substituted for the banned firearms. As a result of this legislation, an estimated 47 deaths per year were prevented. 1 table, 4 figures, and 30 references