Gun Control Works
The Brady Bill was passed in 1994 requiring background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases. States were responsible for the implementation, and some simply skipped the background checks and required only the waiting period, while others approved the purchase if the background check was not completed by the end of the 5-day waiting period. Nevertheless, homicides by firearm saw a steep decline immediately:
I retrieved this data from the CDC’s website: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html
You will notice, suspiciously, that my chart stops at 1998. This is because the government changed some recording policies in 1999 that affect the numbers recorded, thus making comparisons between data less meaningful. You can look here for more information about that: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/fatal/help/datasources.htm#6.3
And, as usual, there are dissenting opinions about whether the Brady Bill is actually primarily responsible, you can go here for a good example of that:
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_brady_bill.html
That page contains many well thought out ideas on other factors that could be responsible. But it just seems too much coincidence for me to accept that the Brady bill had nothing to do with the numbers above (the decline starts right around 1994). I haven’t manipulated this data in any way, you can use the cdc link above to see it for yourself. Gun control works, close the ‘private sale loophole’ and we’ll see more significant reductions.