As Connecticut gun manufacturers mull relocation offers by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and others, University of Connecticut economists say it”™s unlikely that many companies will chose to relocate, even after the passage of Connecticut”™s more restrictive gun control package.
The latest Connecticut Economy quarterly review, published by UConn, contends there is no correlation between the number of gun manufacturers in each state and the strictness of a state”™s gun laws.
Steven P. Lanza, executive editor of the quarterly review, said there is neither a positive nor negative relationship between the two variables.
“And it makes sense,” Lanza said. “They”™re selling to a national and even global market, and what”™s happening right here in their immediate vicinity has very little impact on their bottom lines. What matters is the national and international laws.”
With the passage of Connecticut”™s new gun control package, at least one manufacturer in the state has announced plans to leave, while other gunmakers have said they”™re entertaining offers. Lanza said it”™s very possible gun manufacturers may choose to leave the state in protest of the new law, but those would be extreme cases. Once a manufacturer grows to depend on a local supply base and workforce, it can be hard to leave, Lanza said.
After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 children and six adults were massacred, many states have re-examined their gun control laws. Connecticut chose to further regulate background checks, place restrictions on the types of guns allowed for sale and impose limits in the amount of rounds ammunition clips could hold. Still, most states have chosen to loosen their restrictions, Lanza said. With the belief that gun violence can best be deterred by making guns more widely available, lawmakers in many states have gone the opposite way and created more permissive concealed-weapon laws.
Yet, according to Lanza, higher gun ownership levels are likely to result in more gun deaths.
Lanza said the report shows there is a relatively strong, positive relationship between the number of gun owners in a given area and the number of gun deaths. If a state”™s gun ownership rate increases by 10 percent, there will be a more than 25 percent increase in the fatality rate, Lanza said.
The models are based off of data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
“There appears to be a really strong link between gun ownership and gun deaths, or a state”™s ability to minimize gun deaths,” Lanza said. “Of course that connection gets weaker when you introduce more controls or models, but the results show that there probably is a modest connection between gun death and gun ownership.”
Conversely, Lanza said gun deaths are likely to decrease when a state”™s gun laws are more restrictive.
Using CDC data and each state”™s Brady Campaign score ”” which grades each state”™s gun laws on a 100-point scale with higher scores indicating stricter laws ”” Lanza said for every 10-point increase in the Brady score there is a 10 percent decrease in gun fatality rates.
“There is a wealth of evidence that tends to suggest that these control help a bit,” Lanza said. “And they probably don”™t hurt when it comes to causing a state or area to lose jobs.”
