RICHARD EPSTEIN: John Paul Stevens’ Gun Problem.

So what is this fight about anyhow? Justice Stevens would like to impose regulations that raise the age of gun ownership from 18 to 21; he would like more “comprehensive” background checks before issuing permits; and he would like to outlaw bump stocks. But how many lives would these and similar measures save? It goes largely unnoticed that the rate of gun deaths in the United States since 1993 has fallen by about one half, even as the number of guns has increased. Between 2012 and 2016, on average 35,141 people died from gun violence each year. Homicides accounted for 12,726 deaths, or less than 40 percent of the total, while suicides accounted for 21,637, or over 60 percent of the total. During this period, the number of guns in the country rose by 50 percent. At the same time, the population rose from around 260 million to around 316 million in 2013, or about 17.6 percent. Suicide rates have declined only slightly over that same period. It is hard to imagine how any gun control law could tamp down on the number of gun suicides.

As to gun violence against other persons, rifles and shot guns contribute to only a small fraction of the killings—770 in 2016 compared to 7,105 by handguns and 3,077 by other kinds of guns. Knives were used in 1,604 killings as well. Death from mass killings have, as should be expected, fluctuated wildly over the past 30-plus years. In over half of those years, the total has been under 20 deaths per year. The highest years were 2013 at 70 and 2016 at 60. In the worst years, therefore, these horrific killings have amounted to only 0.6 percent of the total gun homicides. The popular salience of mass killings is intense. But no one offers any estimate of the lives saved if Stevens’ reforms were put into place. If the desire is to stop gun killings, it is far better to look elsewhere.

Stopping “gun killings” isn’t the desire, it’s the excuse.