Background check laws save lives.

NRA fails to recognize the Iowa law and the law passed by Maryland in 2013 have been proven to save lives.

The people of Iowa and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley have this in common: They have both been attacked this year by the gun lobby.

Earlier this year, the gun lobby waged an unsuccessful campaign to repeal Iowa's life-saving handgun purchaser licensing law. And, just last week, the National Rifle Association attacked Governor O'Malley for enacting a similar law in Maryland in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre. The current issue of the National Rifle Association magazine features Governor O’Malley on its cover and states that he "imposed the most draconian new gun bans anywhere in the country” in 2013.

What the NRA fails to recognize is that the the Iowa law and the law passed by Maryland in 2013, both of which require a background check and a license from the state police before purchasing a handgun, have been proven to save lives in other states.

We know from research conducted by experts from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health that after Connecticut enacted handgun purchaser licensing legislation in 1994, gun homicides went down by 40 percent but that when Missouri repealed such a law in 2007, gun homicides went up by 25 percent.

For more information about the effectiveness of handgun purchaser licensing programs, check out our website, www.taleoftwostates.com.

We hope every state in the country will follow Iowa and Maryland's lead and enact handgun purchaser licensing legislation.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/readers/2015/08/28/background-check-laws-save-lives/32402993/