Using science to inform gun control

An utterly delusional belief is taking hold among some of our society’s most gullible people that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax. Since many of the parents of the 20 children murdered there by a reclusive, unstable gunman have worked to limit access to guns, perhaps those who fervently attached to their firearms have made some sort of outlandish mental leap to discredit them.

But these sad delusions are just the tip of a dangerous iceberg.

A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms official has issued a paper urging looser gun restrictions, including lifting the nationwide ban on gun silencers.

Legislators in six states are considering “constitutional carry” laws that would allow anyone to carry a weapon without a license.

Two states are considering implementing statutes similar to Florida’s “stand-your-ground” law, regardless of statistics showing gun deaths have increased nearly 25 percent since the Sunshine State’s law was enacted.

Offering a glimpse of what’s to come with Republicans in charge, the House of Representatives last week voted 235-180 to roll back an Obama Administration regulation intended to keep guns away from people so mentally disordered that they cannot work, and thus are dependent on Social Security benefits.

But there is a ray of hope, and it’s coming from California. Last week’s UC Davis released the first study of guns from the new Violence Prevention Research Program. Lawmakers here, and hopefully far beyond, should take note.

The UC Davis study draws a clear connection between alcohol abuse and gun crimes. Gun owners convicted of driving under the influence and other alcohol-related crimes were four to five times more likely to be arrested in the future for firearm-related crimes.

The study said purchasers with only one DUI conviction and no arrests or convictions for other crimes were 4.2 times more likely to be arrested for a firearm-related or violent crime than people with no history of alcohol abuse. It also found that those who own firearms are more likely to have five or more drinks on one occasion.

The study is shocking, but not for its findings. One might assume that alcohol abusers make less than responsible gun owners. The shock is that more studies of this type aren’t being done.

That’s by design.

University of California President Janet Napolitano said last year she will award $5 million to the Firearm Violence Research Center, headed by Dr. Garen Wintemute, an author of the latest study. Once operating, the research center should become a national model. Of course, it won’t, so long as The National Rifle Association – which spent $50 million to sway the 2016 election, controls Congress’ Republican majority.

At the NRA’s behest, Congress 20 years ago forbade our leading national health institute – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – from doing gun-related research. A National Institutes of Health gun research program, started in 2013, lapsed last month. In 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a 10-year restriction on gun ownership by people convicted of multiple alcohol and drug-abuse crimes. In his message in vetoing Senate Bill 755 by then Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, he was unpersuaded that there was a connection..

Now that more science clearly demonstrates that connection, lawmakers should take up where Wolk left off. At least in California, perhaps science can inform gun policy.

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Using science to inform gun control."