Oliphant Stephen N, Crifasi Cassandra K, Doucette Mitchell L, Topazian Rachel J, McCourt Alexander D, Kennedy Katrina S, Zeoli April M
Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Department of Health Policy and Management, Center for Gun Violence Solutions, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Violence Gend. 2025 Jun 9;12(2):67-73. doi: 10.1089/vio.2024.0035. eCollection 2025 Jun.
The share of intimate partner homicides (IPHs) committed with firearms has increased steadily since 2013. To date, limited research has examined whether firearm purchaser licensing laws, which mandate a more robust screening process for firearm purchases, impact rates of firearm IPH. We obtained weighted and imputed counts of IPH from a modified version of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Supplementary Homicide Reports for the 1990-2019 study period. We used augmented synthetic controls to assess purchaser licensing adoption in Connecticut and Maryland, repeal in Missouri, and partial repeal in Michigan. We stratified outcomes by victim race and firearm involvement to examine differential impacts of licensing policy changes. In Missouri, repealing licensing requirements was associated with significant increases in firearm IPH (27.6%) and overall IPH (21.0%). The harmful effects of Missouri's repeal were evident among Black victims of firearm IPH, whereas no significant changes were observed in firearm IPH rates among white victims. The partial repeal in Michigan was not associated with significant changes in firearm IPH. The impact of purchaser licensing adoption on IPH in Connecticut and Maryland was less clear as there were no significant changes in firearm IPH rates. Our findings suggest that removing a safeguard to prevent illegal firearm purchases may contribute to increases in IPH that differentially impact Black individuals. Future research should leverage recent purchaser licensing policy changes to further explore how these requirements may influence IPH trends.
自2013年以来,使用枪支实施的亲密伴侣杀人案(IPH)比例一直在稳步上升。迄今为止,仅有有限的研究考察了枪支购买许可法(该法律要求对枪支购买进行更严格的筛查程序)是否会影响枪支相关亲密伴侣杀人案的发生率。我们从联邦调查局1990 - 2019年研究期间的《补充杀人报告》修改版中获取了亲密伴侣杀人案的加权及估算数量。我们使用增强合成控制法来评估康涅狄格州和马里兰州采用购买许可法、密苏里州废除该法以及密歇根州部分废除该法的情况。我们按受害者种族和枪支使用情况对结果进行分层,以研究许可政策变化的不同影响。在密苏里州,废除许可要求与枪支相关亲密伴侣杀人案显著增加(27.6%)以及总体亲密伴侣杀人案增加(21.0%)有关。密苏里州废除该法的有害影响在枪支相关亲密伴侣杀人案的黑人受害者中明显可见,而白人受害者的枪支相关亲密伴侣杀人案发生率未观察到显著变化。密歇根州的部分废除与枪支相关亲密伴侣杀人案的显著变化无关。购买许可法在康涅狄格州和马里兰州对亲密伴侣杀人案的影响不太明确,因为枪支相关亲密伴侣杀人案发生率没有显著变化。我们的研究结果表明,取消防止非法购买枪支的保障措施可能会导致亲密伴侣杀人案增加,且对黑人个体有不同程度的影响。未来的研究应利用近期购买许可政策的变化,进一步探索这些要求如何影响亲密伴侣杀人案的趋势。