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Sources · Banning handguns

This house would ban civilian ownership of handguns.

Fact bank v1 · 12 cards

  1. HGB-01True

    “Britain banned almost all private handguns after the 1996 Dunblane school shooting.”

    Confirmed: after the Dunblane shooting in March 1996, two laws passed in 1997 banned handguns. The first banned handguns bigger than .22 calibre (a bullet size), and the second banned the smaller .22 ones too, from early 1998.

    In England and Wales, owners handed in 110,382 larger handguns in 1997, plus 24,620 smaller ones handed in early. A further 18,170 small handguns were handed in during February 1998, making 153,172 in all. The law also set up payments to owners for the guns they gave up. Neither law covered Northern Ireland. A few kinds are still allowed, such as old-style muzzle-loading guns, guns for humanely killing animals, and old pistols kept as war trophies or collectors' items.

    “The resulting Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 banned all handguns over .22 calibre with effect from 1 October 1997.”
    Home Office (archived by The National Archives, UK Government Web Archive)·Crime in England and Wales 2001/2002: Supplementary Volume (Home Office Statistical Bulletin 01/03), chapter 9 notesGovernment / parliament · 1 Jan 2003 ↗

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  2. HGB-02Mixed

    “After Britain banned handguns in 1997, handgun crime went up, not down.”

    Partly true: crimes involving handguns recorded by police in England and Wales more than doubled, from 2,636 in 1997/98 to 5,871 in 2001/02. But they then fell a long way, to 1,665 in the year to March 2025.

    The rules for counting crimes changed in April 1998 and again in 2002, so older and newer figures cannot be directly compared, and officials say the 2002 change may have pushed some 2001/02 figures up. On the newer basis, the ONS says handgun offences fell 51%, from 5,549 in the year to March 2003 to 2,726 in the year to March 2019. Most handgun crimes are threats: in the year to March 2019, handguns were fired in 16% of the offences they were used in. Neither the rise nor the fall on its own proves what the ban did.

    “offences involving handguns have fallen by 51%, from a peak of 5,549 in the year ending March 2003 to 2,726”
    Office for National Statistics·Offences involving the use of firearms: year ending March 2019Official statistics · 13 Feb 2020 ↗

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  3. HGB-03Mostly true

    “Owning a handgun makes a person much more likely to die by suicide.”

    Mostly right: in a study of 26.3 million Californians, men who owned handguns died by suicide at 3.34 times the rate of men who did not. For women owners it was 7.16 times. Studies like this show a strong link, but not final proof that the gun is the cause.

    The extra deaths were gun suicides: male owners were 7.82 times, and female owners 35.15 times, as likely to die this way. Owners were not more likely to die by suicide in other ways. The risk was highest just after buying a first handgun, but 52% of owners' gun suicides came more than a year later. A 2018 RAND review said research could not yet rule out every other explanation, such as people who are already thinking about suicide buying a gun. But it said the reasons to think guns raise suicide risk are strong enough that people could reasonably assume they do.

    “Handgun ownership is associated with a greatly elevated and enduring risk of suicide by firearm.”
    New England Journal of Medicine (via NCBI PubMed, NIH)·Handgun Ownership and Suicide in California (Studdert et al., New England Journal of Medicine, PubMed abstract)Government / parliament · 4 Jun 2020 ↗

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  4. HGB-04Mostly false

    “Keeping a gun at home makes you and your family safer.”

    The evidence points the other way: a 2014 review pooling 16 studies found people with access to guns at home had about 3 times the odds of dying by suicide (3.24) and twice the odds of being murdered (2.00).

    These studies show a link, not proof that the gun causes the deaths, and people who keep guns may differ in other ways. A study of 17.6 million Californians found that adults who lived with a handgun owner were murdered at more than twice the rate (2.33 times) of those living with non-owners. At home, they were 7 times as likely to be shot dead by a spouse or partner, and 84% of those victims were women.

    “Access to firearms is associated with risk for completed suicide and being the victim of homicide.”
    Annals of Internal Medicine (via NCBI PubMed, NIH)·The accessibility of firearms and risk for suicide and homicide victimization among household members: a systematic review and meta-analysis (Anglemyer et al., Annals of Internal Medicine, PubMed abstract)Government / parliament · 21 Jan 2014 ↗

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  5. HGB-05Mixed

    “A gun kept at home is 43 times more likely to kill a family member than an intruder.”

    Misleading: a 1986 study of one US county found about 43 gun deaths at home for every killing in self-defence. But 37 of those 43 were suicides, and the study only counted deaths.

    The study looked at gun deaths in King County, Washington, from 1978 to 1983. For each self-defence killing there were 37 suicides, 4.6 criminal killings and 1.3 accidental deaths. Only 2 of the 398 deaths in the home were intruders shot while trying to get in. Because it only counted deaths, it misses times a gun scared someone off without anyone dying. A later study by the same lead author found a gun at home was linked to 2.7 times the odds of being murdered there. Almost all of that extra risk came from killings by a family member or someone close.

    “For every case of self-protection homicide involving a firearm kept in the home, there were 1.3 accidental deaths, 4.6 criminal homicides, and 37 suicides”
    New England Journal of Medicine (via NCBI PubMed, NIH)·Protection or peril? An analysis of firearm-related deaths in the home (Kellermann and Reay, New England Journal of Medicine, PubMed abstract)Government / parliament · 12 Jun 1986 ↗

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  6. HGB-06Mostly true

    “When Washington DC banned handguns in 1976, gun murders and gun suicides fell by about a quarter.”

    Mostly right: a 1991 study found gun murders fell 25% and gun suicides 23% after the law, with no similar drop in nearby Maryland and Virginia. But one study of one city shows a link in time, not proof.

    The law banned buying, selling, transferring or owning handguns. The study covered 1968 to 1987 and estimated that about 47 deaths a year were prevented. Killings and suicides by other methods did not rise, as you might expect if people had simply switched weapons. The US Supreme Court struck the ban down in 2008.

    “the adoption of the gun-licensing law coincided with an abrupt decline in homicides by firearms (a reduction of 3.3 per month, or 25 percent)”
    New England Journal of Medicine (via NCBI PubMed, NIH)·Effects of restrictive licensing of handguns on homicide and suicide in the District of Columbia (Loftin et al., New England Journal of Medicine, PubMed abstract)Government / parliament · 5 Dec 1991 ↗

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  7. HGB-07True

    “In the US, a handgun ban would go against the Constitution: the Supreme Court has already struck one down.”

    Confirmed: in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court struck down Washington DC's ban on keeping working handguns at home.

    The Court said the Second Amendment protects a person's right to have a gun, at least for self-defence at home, where it said the need is 'most acute'. In 2010 (McDonald v. City of Chicago), it said this right also limits state and local laws. The Court also said the right 'is not unlimited', so many other gun rules can still stand. This is about US law only, and it does not tell us whether a ban would save lives.

    “the Heller Court struck down the District of Columbia's prohibition on the private possession of operative handguns in the home”
    Congressional Research Service (via Congress.gov)·The Second Amendment at the Supreme Court: New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen (CRS Legal Sidebar LSB10773)Government / parliament · 29 Jun 2022 ↗

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  8. HGB-08True

    “Most gun murders in America are done with handguns, not rifles or 'assault weapons'.”

    Confirmed: in FBI data for 2024, handguns were involved in 53% of the 11,717 US gun murders with data. Rifles were involved in 3% and shotguns in 1%.

    In the other 42%, the gun was another kind or its type was not recorded, so the real handgun share is at least 53%. The rifle group includes the guns sometimes called 'assault weapons'. Not every police force sends full data to the FBI, so these figures do not cover every murder.

    “Handguns were involved in 53% of the 11,717 U.S. gun murders and nonnegligent manslaughters for which data is available.”
    Pew Research Center·What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S.Independent research institute · 28 Apr 2026 ↗
  9. HGB-09False

    “Most people killed by guns in the US are murdered.”

    Not true: most US gun deaths are suicides. In 2024, 62% of gun deaths were suicides (27,593) and 35% were homicides (15,364).

    In all, 44,447 people died from gun injuries in 2024. The rest were police shootings, accidents or unclear cases, about 1% each. Gun suicides have outnumbered gun homicides every year since 1981, and guns were used in 57% of all US suicides in 2024. CDC figures for 2022 show the same pattern, with more than half of gun deaths being suicides.

    “In 2024, 62% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (27,593), while 35% were homicides (15,364).”
    Pew Research Center·What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S.Independent research institute · 28 Apr 2026 ↗

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  10. HGB-10Mostly false

    “Americans use guns to defend themselves about 2.5 million times a year.”

    Unlikely: RAND's review says the 2.5 million figure, from a 1993 survey, does not fit more trustworthy data, such as how many people are shot each year. The government's crime survey gives about 116,000 a year, but that is almost certainly too low.

    Estimates differ hugely, with the biggest 20 or more times the smallest, because surveys define and ask about self-defence in different ways. The 1993 survey implied people injured or killed an attacker 207,000 times a year, yet only about 100,000 people a year died or were treated in hospital for gunshot wounds. Whether using a gun protects victims is also disputed: one study found victims were hurt about as often after using a gun (4.1%) as after taking any protective action (4.2%), while a 2024 working paper found it did lower the risk of death or injury in some crimes, but that more self-defence gun use overall did not make the public safer.

    “high-end estimates—for instance, 2.5 million DGUs per year—that are not plausible given other information that is more trustworthy”
    RAND Corporation·The Challenges of Defining and Measuring Defensive Gun Use (Gun Policy in America)Independent research institute · 2 Mar 2018 ↗

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  11. HGB-11Mostly false

    “More guns, less crime: letting people carry concealed handguns cuts violent crime.”

    The best evidence says the opposite: RAND's review finds 'supportive' evidence, its strongest rating, that laws making it easy to get a concealed-carry permit increase homicides, gun homicides and violent crime.

    These 'shall-issue' laws mean officials must give a carry permit to almost anyone who can legally own a gun. One major study found states that adopted such right-to-carry laws had 13% to 15% more violent crime 10 years later than they would likely have had without the law. Earlier work by Lott and Mustard had found these laws cut crime; the newer study says its model passes a key statistical check that theirs did not. Permit holders themselves are rarely convicted of violent crimes. One suggested reason for the rise is that more guns get stolen.

    “There is supportive evidence that shall-issue concealed-carry laws increase total homicides, firearm homicides, and violent crime.”
    RAND Corporation·The Effects of Concealed-Carry Laws (Gun Policy in America)Independent research institute · 29 Jan 2026 ↗

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  12. HGB-12Mixed

    “Criminals don't buy their guns from gun shops, so gun laws only stop law-abiding people.”

    Half right: jail inmates in Chicago said they rarely got guns straight from a gun store, or by stealing them. Most came through friends and contacts. But the same study found police pressure did change how that illegal market worked.

    The 2013 survey asked 99 inmates of Cook County Jail. Only about 60% of their guns were bought or traded; others were shared or held for someone else. Buyers avoided strangers for fear of undercover police and of being caught with a gun used in a crime. It is a small study of one city, so it cannot say how a national ban would play out.

    “Rarely is the proximate source either direct purchase from a gun store, or theft.”
    Preventive Medicine (via NCBI PubMed, NIH)·Sources of guns to dangerous people: what we learn by asking them (Cook, Parker and Pollack, Preventive Medicine, PubMed abstract)Government / parliament · 30 Apr 2015 ↗

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