Nations show tough gun laws can curb shootings

As Congress mulls firearms deal, data suggests legislation reduces risk, deaths

Gun-law reform in the US will be up for debate this week in Congress, with the issue taking up the most pressing legislation at the federal level in more than three decades.

A bipartisan group of senators-10 Republicans and 10 Democrats-have reached a deal to reduce gun violence in response to public outrage after the May 14 murders of 10 black shoppers in Buffalo, New York, and the May 24 massacre of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

It is unclear whether senators will be able to get the work done before the July 4 recess.

The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that tracks firearm-related incidents in the US, has recorded 246 mass shootings in 2022. The archive defines mass shootings as "four or more people shot and/or killed in a single incident, at the same general time/location not including the shooter".

Professor David Studdert, an expert in the field of health law at Stanford Law School, told China Daily, "Mass shootings happen in other countries, but the frequency with which they occur in the US is unmatched elsewhere."

Carl Bogus, a law professor at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, told China Daily, "We know that rigorous gun control does work, because other nations with similar crime levels do not have the same levels of lethal violence simply because guns are less prevalent."

Countries that have made significant changes to gun laws after mass shootings include the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Norway and Germany.

On May 31, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proposed a bill that includes a freeze on the sale and transfer of handguns, a new red-flag law, a ban on the sale of large-capacity magazines and modifications to long-gun magazines that hold five rounds.

The UK has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world. Today, it has about five guns per 100 people.

History revisited

Switzerland has a high number of guns, about 2 million held among a population of 8.3 million. Yet the nation has not had a mass shooting since 2001, when a man visited a parliament building in Zug and killed 14 people and himself.

Martin Killias, a retired professor of criminology and criminal law at the University of Zurich Law School, said he believes the downsizing of the Swiss Army from 600,000 to about 100,000 and strict laws have prevented gun crime.

"Important factors are the strict background checks before gun permits are being issued, including psychiatric and medical records; the right of the police to withdraw guns immediately if ever an individual shows risks of violent behavior, for example, domestic disputes," Killias told China Daily.

Killias said the Swiss view gun ownership differently than other countries, such as the US. They are "seen as a memory of a military past, a tool for sports (hunting, target shooting), but not as a symbol of freedom," he said. "Therefore, the issue never was politicized as it always was in the US."

Norway, which has one of Europe's highest gun-ownership rates, banned semi-automatic weapons in 2021. The move followed atrocities in 2011 when a far-right extremist attacked the country's government quarter in Oslo with a truck bomb before heading to a youth camp where he shot and killed 69 people, most of them teenagers.

Germany has one of the highest rates of gun ownership worldwide yet one of the lowest rates of gun-related deaths. In 2002, the country moved to tighten gun laws after a 19-year-old gunman stormed a school in the central city of Erfurt and killed 16 people. Today, gun owners in Germany must be at least 21 years old.