IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/empleg/v19y2022i1p60-89.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Firearm Markets Comply with Firearm Restrictions? How the Massachusetts Assault Weapons Ban Enforcement Notice Changed Registered Firearm Sales

Author

Listed:
  • Meenakshi Balakrishna
  • Kenneth C. Wilbur

Abstract

How well do firearm markets comply with firearm restrictions? The Massachusetts Attorney General issued an Enforcement Notice in 2016 to announce a new interpretation of the key phrase “copies and duplicates” in the state's assault weapons ban. The Enforcement Notice increased assault rifle sales by 1349 (+560%) within 5 days, followed by a reduction of 211 (−58%) over the next 3 weeks. Assault rifle sales were 64%–66% lower in 2017 than in comparable earlier periods, suggesting that the Enforcement Notice reduced assault weapon sales but also that many banned weapons continued to be sold.

Suggested Citation

  • Meenakshi Balakrishna & Kenneth C. Wilbur, 2022. "Do Firearm Markets Comply with Firearm Restrictions? How the Massachusetts Assault Weapons Ban Enforcement Notice Changed Registered Firearm Sales," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 60-89, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:19:y:2022:i:1:p:60-89
    DOI: 10.1111/jels.12307
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.12307
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jels.12307?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luca, Michael & Malhotra, Deepak & Poliquin, Christopher, 2020. "The impact of mass shootings on gun policy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    2. Christie, William G & Schultz, Paul H, 1994. "Why Do NASDAQ Market Makers Avoid Odd-Eighth Quotes?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1813-1840, December.
    3. Raymond Fisman & Edward Miguel, 2007. "Corruption, Norms, and Legal Enforcement: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(6), pages 1020-1048, December.
    4. Scott Cunningham & Manisha Shah, 2018. "Decriminalizing Indoor Prostitution: Implications for Sexual Violence and Public Health," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(3), pages 1683-1715.
    5. Christie, William G & Harris, Jeffrey H & Schultz, Paul H, 1994. "Why Did NASDAQ Market Makers Stop Avoiding Odd-Eighth Quotes?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1841-1860, December.
    6. Kerri M. Raissian, 2016. "Hold Your Fire: Did the 1996 Federal Gun Control Act Expansion Reduce Domestic Homicides?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 67-93, January.
    7. Eric Zitzewitz, 2012. "Forensic Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 731-769, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meenakshi Balakrishna & Kenneth C. Wilbur, 2021. "Do Firearm Markets Comply with Firearm Restrictions? How the Massachusetts Assault Weapons Ban Enforcement Notice Changed Firearm Sales," Papers 2111.05272, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2021.
    2. Meenakshi Balakrishna & Kenneth C. Wilbur, 2021. "How the Massachusetts Assault Weapons Ban Enforcement Notice Changed Firearm Sales," Papers 2102.02884, arXiv.org.
    3. Gehrig, Thomas & Jackson, Matthew, 1998. "Bid-ask spreads with indirect competition among specialists," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 89-119, April.
    4. Lallouache, Mehdi & Abergel, Frédéric, 2014. "Tick size reduction and price clustering in a FX order book," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 416(C), pages 488-498.
    5. Ahmed Baig & Nasim Sabah & Drew Winters, 2019. "Have Stock Prices become more Uniformly Distributed?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(2), pages 1242-1250.
    6. James S. Ang & Kenneth J. Hunsader & Shaojun Zhang, 2019. "Order dynamics during the flash crash," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(5), pages 365-383, September.
    7. William G. Christie & Paul H. Schultz, 1995. "Policy Watch: Did Nasdaq Market Makers Implicitly Collude?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 199-208, Summer.
    8. Bill M. Cai & Charlie X. Cai & Kevin Keasey, 2007. "Influence of cultural factors on price clustering and price resistance in China's stock markets," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 47(4), pages 623-641, December.
    9. Bondarenko, Oleg, 2001. "Competing market makers, liquidity provision, and bid-ask spreads," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 269-308, June.
    10. Katrina Ellis & Roni Michaely & Maureen O'Hara, 2002. "The Making of a Dealer Market: From Entry to Equilibrium in the Trading of Nasdaq Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2289-2316, October.
    11. Jan Krahnen & Martin Weber, 2001. "Marketmaking in the Laboratory: Does Competition Matter?," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 4(1), pages 55-85, June.
    12. Sie Ting Lau & Michael S. McCorry & Thomas H. McInish & Robert A. Van Ness, 1996. "Trading Of Nasdaq Stocks On The Chicago Stock Exchange," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 19(4), pages 579-584, December.
    13. Jasiniak Magdalena, 2018. "Determinants of Investment Decisions on the Capital Market," Financial Internet Quarterly (formerly e-Finanse), Sciendo, vol. 14(2), pages 1-8, June.
    14. Carol Osler & Xuhang Wang, 2012. "The Microstructure of Currency Markets," Working Papers 49, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
    15. Kedar Kulkarni & Tarun Sabarwal, 2007. "To what extent are investment bank-differentiating factors relevant for firms floating moderate-sized IPOs?," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 297-327, July.
    16. Ahn, Hee-Joon & Cai, Jun & Cheung, Yan Leung, 2005. "Price clustering on the limit-order book: Evidence from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 421-451, November.
    17. Benjamin M. Blau & Bonnie F. Van Ness & Robert A. Van Ness, 2011. "Information in short selling: Comparing Nasdaq and the NYSE," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 1-10, January.
    18. Kalyn Coatney & Jesse Tack, 2014. "The Impacts of an Antitrust Investigation: A Case Study in Agriculture," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 44(4), pages 423-441, June.
    19. Benjamin Crost & Joseph H Felter & Hani Mansour & Daniel I Rees, 0. "Narrow Incumbent Victories and Post-Election Conflict: Evidence from the Philippines," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 34(3), pages 767-789.
    20. Andreoli-Versbach, Patrick & Franck, Jens-Uwe, 2013. "Actions Speak Louder than Words: Econometric Evidence to Target Tacit Collusion in Oligopolistic Markets," Discussion Papers in Economics 16179, University of Munich, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:19:y:2022:i:1:p:60-89. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1740-1461 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.