Mr. Lehigh makes the common mistake of confusing correlation with causation. He credits Mass gun control laws with the relatively low numbers of violent firearm crime and firearm suicides in Mass when there is no factual basis for saying that these laws actually are the cause of these numbers. He ignores several other factors. First of all he actually insults the citizens of the Commonwealth by implying that without all the gun control laws Mass would turn into another Chicago. In fact by far the majority of Mass citizens are not prone to gun violence (or violence in general) in the first place, and having extraneous laws that make gun ownership difficult for law abiding citizens has no impact on the small minority of people who are prone to it. Second he ignores the relatively good job that the Boston Police do in controlling the gangs in Boston. A major part of gun violence is caused by gang wars in the major cities. Boston is the only city in Mass that cracks the top 100 U.S. cities in size (number 21) and relative to places like Chicago, L,A., and Baltimore there is much less gang activity in Boston, thus the reduced amount of gang violence and gun related gang violence. Third, he ignores that fact that Mass has some of the best mental health care in the country, which is actually primarily responsible for the relative low suicide rates, not the gun control laws. Fourth, he claims that Chicago’s gun violence can be blamed on the free availability of firearms from Indiana, ignoring that Boston is only 50 minutes from Manchester, NH and its complete lack of gun control.
My contention is that if you eliminated all of the Mass gun control laws, you would see statistically insignificant increases in violent gun crime and a possible small increase in gun suicides (but probably not an overall increase in suicides). The only law that might have actual impact, and that would only be on firearm suicides, is the requirement for an LTC/FTD to get a firearm, which makes it harder for someone without one to commit an “impulse” firearm suicide.