The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was signed into law in June 2022, combining gun safety provisions with mental health and school security resources and marking the first congressional gun control measure in nearly three decades. Senator Chris Murphy attributed a subsequent decline in mass shootings to that law, citing Gun Violence Archive data that showed fewer mass shootings in 2024 compared with 2023. A deadly August 27 Minneapolis school shooting killed two children and injured 18 others, with the shooter dying by suicide. Experts say the law might have contributed but note that academic research demonstrating direct causality is lacking and multiple other correlates could explain the drop.
Murphy referred to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that then-President Joe Biden signed into law in June 2022 after mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and a Uvalde, Texas elementary school. The legislation combined gun safety provisions with mental health and school security resources and marked the first congressional gun control measure in nearly three decades.
Murphy's spokesperson said the senator referred to the number of mass shootings as measured by the Gun Violence Archive, an online database that showed a decrease in mass shootings in 2024 compared with 2023. However, assessing whether the 2022 law caused the decrease is difficult to determine. Experts said the law might have played a role, but they are unaware of academic research addressing that question.
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