Abstract
Gun violence in the United States affects roughly 100,000 individuals per year (Webster & Vernick, 2013) and historically, research on gun violence tends to focus on federal legislation and not on the individual state level. In California, Proposition 63 was passed in on November 6th, 2016, and became effective on January 1st, 2017, and requires every individual to pass a background check before purchasing ammunition for their firearm. As well as reiterating the previous ban on high capacity magazines in the State of California. This study uses publicly available data gathered from Sacramento Police Department and Sacramento Sheriff’s Office. Focusing on all offenses involving a firearm throughout a six-year study (2014-2016) to determine the effectiveness of requiring a background check to purchase ammunition in the attempt to reduce gun violence in the State of California. Gun violence was analyzed on overall offense trend as well as a departmental level and was then compared to the overall crime trend throughout Sacramento County, California throughout the six-year study. After the implementation of Proposition 63, this research found that all variables studied showed a reduction in the number of offenses that took place. By comparing firearm offenses for Sacramento County before and after the implementation of Proposition 63, this v research found that the implementation of Proposition 63 had a direct result on the reduction of gun violence in Sacramento County, California.