Firearms Law and Fatal Police Shootings: A Panel Data Analysis

TL;DR

This study examines how firearms legislation and ownership diffusion influence fatal police shootings in the U.S., finding stricter regulations and gun owner accountability reduce such incidents, while ownership diffusion alone has no significant effect.

Contribution

It provides new panel data evidence on the impact of firearms laws and ownership diffusion on police shooting fatalities over seven years.

Findings

Stricter firearms regulations reduce police shootings.

Gun owner accountability measures are most effective.

Gun ownership diffusion has no significant effect.

Abstract

Among industrialized countries, U.S. holds two somehow inglorious records: the highest rate of fatal police shootings and the highest rate of deaths related to firearms. The latter has been associated with strong diffusion of firearms ownership largely due to loose legislation in several member states. The present paper investigates the relation between firearms legislation\diffusion and the number of fatal police shooting episodes using a seven-year panel dataset. While our results confirm the negative impact of stricter firearms regulations found in previous cross-sectional studies, we find that the diffusion of guns ownership has no statistically significant effect. Furthermore, regulations pertaining to the sphere of gun owner accountability seem to be the most effective in reducing fatal police shootings.