A common perception that after every mass shooting there is a big hue and cry over gun legislation that ends up resulting in little change is basically true on the federal level, but not so for state laws,
National Public Radio reports.
A
research paper recently released by the Harvard Business School, which studied legislation that was proposed following mass shooting events between 1990 and 2014, revealed that on the state level mass shootings do boost the number of gun-related bills that get passed.
The study also found that whether the new laws tighten or loosen gun laws depended on which party controlled the relevant state legislature.
The number of enacted laws that loosen gun laws went up 75 percent in Republican-controlled legislatures, although in those state legislatures controlled by Democrats there was no effect on the number of laws that were passed in the aftermath of a mass shooting, said Professor Deepak Malhotra, one of the paper's authors, told
KCUR Radio, which serves the Kansas City area.
An example of a Republican-controlled legislature that took action was in Tennessee following the mass shooting in Chattanooga in a Navy building military recruiting station, two places that were gun-free zones for everyone except police.
Since then the state legislature has approved five bills related to guns, including one that allows full-time employees of public universities to carry handguns on campuses, where guns were previously banned, according to the study.
An example of a Democratic-controlled legislature's response following a mass shooting was in California after last year's San Bernardino massacre.
While six gun control bills have been signed into law since then, the study shows that California often passes even more laws in a given year tightening restrictions on firearms when there has been no recent mass shooting.
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