We tested the hypothesis that greater enforcement of existing laws against carrying concealed weapons could reduce firearms violence with a quasi-experimental, target beat/comparison beat design. Over a six-month period in a ten-by-eight-block area with a homicide rate 20 times higher than the national average, intensive patrol near gun crime hot spots produced a 65 percent increase in firearms seized by police. Gun crimes declined in the target area by 49 percent, with no significant displacement to any patrol beat surrounding the target area. Neither gun crimes nor guns seized changed significantly in the comparison beat several miles away.
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Sherman et al. (1995) studied this question.
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