Those in favor of stronger gun control laws may have a reason to celebrate as there are 3 state laws that could reduce gun deaths. Around 90 percent of gun-related deaths could be minimized if universal background checks on firearm and ammunition purchases and firearm identification would be widely implemented in the United States as federal laws.

A study led by Bindu Kalesan at Boston University together with his colleagues wanted to find out if passing stricter implementations on firearms could cut gun death rates.

Their state-level study was published in the journal The Lancet.

Deaths Down to 90%?

Researchers looked at more than 30,000 gun-related deaths in all US states in 2010 and 25 existing firearm laws in the country. The researchers also took into account factors like homicides, unemployment rates and firearm export rates. They found that nine laws were linked to increased gun deaths while another nine were linked with decreased gun deaths. The rest of the laws had no association.

The researchers say that their findings suggest that gun-related mortality could be reduced to 90 percent with the stricter implementation of the three state laws that were strongly linked to reduced deaths.

CNN notes that universal background checks on anyone who is purchasing firearms accounts for 39 percent reduced deaths. Ammunition background check is linked to 18 percent reduced death rate. Meanwhile, requiring identification for firearms accounted for 16 percent reduced gun-related deaths.

"Implementing universal background checks for the purchase of firearms or ammunition, and firearm identification nationally could substantially reduce mortality in the U.S," senior author Dr. Sandro Galea of Boston University said in a press release, per EurekAlert.

Kalesan states that despite the country's numerous gun control laws, only a few of them reduced gun mortality, which brings focus on having more practical gun laws.

"Background checks for all people buying guns and ammunition, including private sales, are the most effective laws we have to reduce the number of gun deaths in the U.S," she adds.

Los Angeles Times reports that the three critical gun-death prevention federal laws mentioned in the research are not practiced by all states in the United States.

NRA Finds the Study Erroneous

The National Rifle Association (NRA) pointed out that the methodology of the study disregards the fact that different states have various for prevention of suicides. US News & World Report states that more than 60 percent of gun-related deaths are due to suicide. Additionally, more than 20,000 people commit suicide with a gun annually.

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