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The Effect of Child Access Prevention Laws on Non-Fatal Gun Injuries

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  • Jeff DeSimone
  • Sara Markowitz

Abstract

Many states have passed child access prevention (CAP) laws, which hold the gun owner responsible if a child gains access to a gun that is not securely stored. Previous CAP law research has focused exclusively on gun-related deaths even though most gun injuries are not fatal. We use annual hospital discharge data from 1988-2001 to investigate whether CAP laws decrease non-fatal gun injuries. Results from Poisson regressions that control for various hospital, county and state characteristics, including state-specific fixed effects and time trends, indicate that CAP laws substantially reduce non-fatal gun injuries among both children and adults. Our interpretation of the estimates as causal impacts is supported by the absence of effects on self-inflicted gun injuries among adults, non-gun self-inflicted injuries, and knife assaults, the failure of violent crime levels and law leads to attain significance or alter estimated law coefficients, and larger coefficient magnitudes in states where the law covers older children.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeff DeSimone & Sara Markowitz, 2005. "The Effect of Child Access Prevention Laws on Non-Fatal Gun Injuries," NBER Working Papers 11613, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11613
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    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w11613.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John R. Lott, Jr. & John Whitley, 2001. "Safe Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides and Crime," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2001-06, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    2. Lott, John R, Jr & Whitley, John E, 2001. "Safe-Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Crime," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(2), pages 659-689, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • K3 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law

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