Massachusetts' strict gun control laws apparently didn't stop the Tamerlan or Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from getting guns

The Massachusetts' gun control law may be associated with higher violent crime rates, but it didn't stop the Tsarnaev brothers from getting ahold of guns.  From Politico:

The two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon and engaging in a massive firefight with police last week weren’t licensed to own guns, according to a report. 

Cambridge, Mass., police told Reuters they had not issued a gun license to 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died after the firefight. The police departments in both Cambridge and Dartmouth said they didn’t issue 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a firearms identification card, which would’ve allowed him to own rifles holding less than 10 rounds and shotguns. Dzhokhar, who is under 21, wasn’t eligible for a regular handgun license. . . .

Yet, the number of legal gun owners has fallen from 1.54 million to just over 200,000.  The main point though is that murder and violent crime rates have gone up.