Gun control really works - here's the science to prove it

AP

• After yet another mass shooting, many in the US are wondering what sort of gun control measures might work to prevent more violence in the future.
• Despite restrictions on researching gun deaths, scientists have been able to evaluate how effective certain policies are at reducing gun deaths.
• Policies that seem to successfully reduce gun violence rates include stricter background checks, limiting access to dangerous weapons, and prohibiting domestic abusers from owning weapons.

There are close to as many guns in the US as there are people. There may be more, there may be fewer, depending on which study you look at - there's no exact count since there isn't a national database of gun purchases or firearm owners, and no legal requirement to get a license to become a gun owner.

That's one of the many obstacles researchers come up against when trying to evaluate why so many people die from guns in the US.

But as the country tries to figure what - if anything - can and should be done in the wake of yet another devastating mass shooting, this one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, it's worth taking a look at the evidence we do have on the impacts of gun regulations.

Despite some Congressional limitations on gun research, scientists have been able to evaluate the effects of gun control legislation that has been enacted in the US and in other places around the world.

Here's what the data shows.