Study: Expanded background check laws have little effect

By Andrew Shepperson

Strict background check laws in two states have had little to no effect on the number of background checks conducted for gun sales, a new study has shown.
The study, conducted by gun violence experts from the Center for Gun Policy and Research and the Violence Prevention Research Program, looked at expanded background check laws in three states–Washington, Colorado, and Delaware–to see if more background checks were actually processed as a result of the stricter laws.
The results, published in the medical journal Injury Prevention, show that no overall changes were found in Washington and Colorado. However, Delaware did see an increase in background checks conducted, which ranged from 22 to 34 percent depending on the type of firearm.
The researchers did note that external data showed Washington had a small increase in background checks for private party gun sales, and Colorado had a similarly small increase in background checks conducted for sales not held at gun shows.
“These aren’t the results I hoped to see. I hoped to see an effect. But it’s much more important to see what’s actually happened,” Garen Wintemute, a University of California Davis emergency room physician and main author on the study, told The Guardian.
Researchers surmised that non-compliance and poor enforcement played

Source: Guns.com