4. Get guns out of the hands of domestic abusers[1]. Nearly half of women murdered in America are killed by a present or past lover, yet the existing laws in this area are full of loopholes.
5. Require safe storage of guns, preferably in a safe or at least with a trigger lock. One study[2] found that only a minority of gun owners in the U.S. keep all their guns secure. When guns aren’t stored safely, it is easier for children to find them and play with them, for teenagers to use them for suicides, or for burglars to steal them. Some 300,000 guns are stolen each year in the United States.
6. Make serial numbers harder to file off, and require microstamping, so that cartridges can be traced back to the gun that fired the bullets.
7. Invest in “smart guns”[3] that require a PIN, fingerprint or nearby bracelet to fire. It’s outrageous that someone who steals my iPhone is foiled by my PIN, but stolen guns can be immediately fired. Smart guns shouldn’t be obligatory, but they should be an option. The way forward is probably for a police force to experiment with smart guns, giving them credibility with the public.
8. Support community anti-violence programs, like Cure Violence[4] and Becoming a Man[5], that work with at-risk young people and show excellent success in reducing shootings. One study[6] showed each dollar invested resulted in at least $5 in savings from reduced crime.
9. Limit buyers in most cases to one or two gun purchases a month, to reduce gun trafficking.
10. Invest in gun buybacks. Since 1994, Americans have acquired an additional 100 million guns[7]. The average
