Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Monica Das

Abstract

Gun control legislation varies significantly between State’s and results from previous studies show great variation on the effectiveness of gun control. This paper attempts to empirically evaluate the relationship that gun control legislation has on violent crime rates throughout the United States. Upon reviewing literature, this study controls for several different economic factors in order to examine the various incentives criminals face when committing a crime. From a theoretical perspective gun control is simply enacted in order to curtail the access to firearms, but with vigorous illegal firearm markets and criminal use of firearms, evaluating the true effect of gun control is proven to be difficult. This empirical study shows inefficient evidence that gun control truly reduces violent crime overall but finds significance in several socioeconomic factors that can efficiently reduce violent crimes. With implications for future studies, this study suggests that for legislators, more focus of efforts should be to reevaluate current existing laws and uniformly implement them across the nation. These findings propose that violent crime rates across the nation have a variety of causes, but with the appropriate attention from both Federal and State legislators, innovative gun control laws can evolve to mitigate the ease of access of firearms across all different markets.

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Economics Commons

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