Gun control has been a hot topic of debate for the last few years in the United States. A research team has evaluated effectiveness of laws that regulate use of arms by public. The team found that three federal laws could bring down level of gun deaths in the US by more than 90%.

A team at Boston University studied various laws to know their level of effectiveness to select most appropriate laws to control gun usage. The study was published on Thursday in The Lancet.

The laws that researchers have found to be effective in reducing gun deaths were background checks for firearm purchases, background checks on ammunition purchases and firearm identification. The team concluded the results after analyzing influence of 25 existing state laws to bring down fatal incidents. Nine of the laws were linked to lower rates of gun-related deaths.

"We wanted to see which restrictive gun laws really work, as opposed to saying 'restrictive laws work,' and figure out if we are pushing for a law which might not work," said Bindu Kalesan, assistant professor of medicine at Boston University and lead author of the study.

Kalesan and her colleagues came up with their findings after reviewing the data on number of gun-related deaths in every state in 2010 and the types of laws that existed in those states in 2009. Some of the laws were restrictive laws, such as background checks and child access prevention laws, and permissive laws. The factors such as rates of gun ownership, unemployment and homicides that were responsible for gun deaths were also taken into consideration.

The universal background checks were found to have positive influence as they possibly caused 39% reduction in gun deaths, while ammunition background checks were associated with an 18% drop. Firearm identification, a law which makes it feasible to determine the gun that fired a bullet, reduced the rate by 16%.

It is anticipated that 57% reduction in gun deaths would be led by expanding background checks, while background checks for ammunition purchases would decrease gun death rates by 81% and firearm identification would reduce the rate by 83%. However, these levels of reduction will not be immediate rather would take several years.