Gun violence in the United States

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about gun violence in the United States. For gun violence globally, see Gun violence.
1901 assassination of President William McKinley by Leon Czolgosz, using a revolver, at the Pan-American Exposition reception in Buffalo, New York. McKinley died eight days later from his wounds.

Gun violence in the United States is an intensely debated political issue in the United States. Gun-related violence is most common in poor urban areas and in conjunction with gang violence, often involving juveniles or young adults.[1][2] Gun violence is not new in the United States, with the assassinations of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and of Presidents James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. High profile gun violence incidents, such as the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and, more recently, the Columbine High School massacre, the Beltway sniper attacks, the Virginia Tech massacre, and the 2011 Tucson shooting, have fueled debate over gun policies.[3]

There were 52,447 deliberate and 23,237 accidental non-fatal gunshot injuries in the United States during 2000.[4] The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides,[5] with 17,352 (55.6%) of the total 31,224 firearm-related deaths in 2007 due to suicide, while 12,632 (40.5%) were homicide deaths.[6]

Policies at the Federal, state, and local levels have attempted to address gun violence through a variety of methods, including restricting firearms purchasing by youths and other "at-risk" populations, setting waiting periods for firearm purchases, establishing gun "buy-back" programs, targeted law enforcement and policing strategies, stiff sentencing of gun law violators, education programs for parents and children, and community-outreach programs. Research has found some policies such as gun "buy-back" programs are ineffective, while Boston's Operation Ceasefire, a gang violence abatement and intervention strategy, has been effective.[7] Gun policies are also highly influenced by debates over the interpretation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court took a position for the first time on this issue in District of Columbia v. Heller, holding that the second amendment secures an individual right to own firearms.[8]

Contents

[edit] Suicides involving firearms

Some research shows an association between household firearm ownership and gun suicide rates,[7][9] while other research indicates no such association between firearm ownership and gun suicide rates.[10] During the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a strong upward trend in adolescent suicides with a gun,[11] as well as a sharp overall increase in a suicides among those age 75 and over.[12] In the United States, firearms remain the most common method of suicide, accounting for 50.7% of all suicides committed during 2006.[13]

Research also indicates no association vis-à-vis safe-storage laws of guns that are owned, and gun suicide rates, and studies that attempt to link gun ownership to likely victimology often fail to account for the presence of guns owned by other people.[14][15] Researchers have shown that safe-storage laws do not appear to affect gun suicide rates or juvenile accidental gun death.[14][15]

[edit] Violent crime related to guns

Main article: Crime in the United States

[edit] Homicides

Homicides by weapon type, 1976-2004. Gun-involved homicides have increased since falling to a low in 1999.[16]
Homicide offenders by age, 1976 - 2004.[17]
Gun and overall homicides in Washington, D.C. are concentrated in crime hot spots located in neighborhoods (including Shaw, Sursum Corda, Trinidad, Anacostia, and Congress Heights) with socio-economic disadvantage, while homicide is rare in other neighborhoods.

While people during the 19th century were concerned about violent crime, it often took the form of riots and other forms of disorder in cities.[18] Gun violence, however, sometimes played a role in these riots (see Haymarket riot). Homicide rates in cities such as Philadelphia were significantly lower than in modern times.[19]

During the 1980s and early 1990s, homicide rates surged in cities across the United States (see graphs at right).[20] Handgun homicides accounted for nearly all of the overall increase in the homicide rate, from 1985 to 1993, while homicide rates involving other weapons declined during that time frame.[21] The rising trend in homicide rates during the 1980s and early 1990s was most pronounced among youths and Hispanic and African American males in the United States, with the injury and death rates tripling for black males aged 13 through 17 and doubling for black males aged 18 through 24.[11][17] The rise in crack cocaine use in cities across the United States is often cited as a factor for increased gun violence among youths during this time period.[22][23][24]

Gun-related homicide rates in the United States are twenty to thirty-five times higher than they are in countries that are economically and politically similar to it. Higher rates are found in developing countries and those with political instability.[21][25][26]

Prevalence of homicide and violent crime is greatest in urban areas of the United States. In metropolitan areas, the homicide rate in 2005 was 6.1 per 100,000 compared with 3.5 in non-metropolitan counties.[27] In U.S. cities with populations greater than 250,000, the mean homicide rate was 12.1 per 100,000.[28] According to FBI statistics, the highest per capita rates of gun-related homicides in 2005 were in D.C. (35.4/100,000), Puerto Rico (19.6/100,000), Louisiana (9.9/100,000), & Maryland (9.9/100,000) .[29] The Bureau of Justice statistics from 2004 do not include D.C or Puerto Rico. see "Gun violence in the United States by state". Wikipedia. 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state. 

Homicide rates among 18- to 24-year-olds have declined since 1993, but remain higher than they were prior to the 1980s.[17] In 2005, the 17 through 24 age group remains significantly overrepresented in violent crime statistics, particularly homicides involving firearms.[30] In 2005, 17- through 19-year olds were 4.3% of the overall population of the United States.[31] This same age group accounted for 11.2% of those killed by firearm homicides.[32] This age group also accounted for 10.6% of all homicide offenses.[33] The 20- through 24-year-old age group accounted for 7.1% of the population,[31] while accounting for 22.5% of those killed by firearm homicides.[32] The 20 through 24 age group also accounted for 17.7% of all homicide offenses.[33] Those under age 17 are not overrepresented in homicide statistics. In 2005, 13- through 16-year-olds accounted for 6% of the overall population of the United States, but only accounted for 3.6% of firearm homicide victims,[32] and 2.7% of overall homicide offenses.[33]

People with a criminal record are also more likely to die as homicide victims.[11] Between 1990 and 1994, 75% of all homicide victims age 21 and younger in the city of Boston had a prior criminal record.[34] In Philadelphia, the percentage of those killed in gun homicides that had prior criminal records increased from 73% in 1985 to 93% in 1996.[11][35] In Richmond, Virginia, the risk of gunshot injury is 22 times higher for those males involved with crime.[36]

In 2005, 75% of the 10,100 homicides committed using firearms in the United States were committed using handguns, compared to 4% with rifles, 5% with shotguns, and the rest with a type of firearm not specified.[37] Due to the lethal potential that a gun brings to a situation, the likelihood that a death will result is significantly increased when either the victim or the attacker has a firearm.[38] The mortality rate for gunshot wounds to the heart is 84%, compared to 30% for people who sustain stab wounds to the heart.[39]

Approximately 6,500 homicides were committed using handguns in 1999; since there were roughly 70 million handguns, the chance of any particular gun being used in a homicide is very low.[40]

Further information: Gun violence in the United States by state

[edit] U.S. President assassinations and attempts

Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated while in office. Three of the incidents involved handguns and one involved a rifle. President Abraham Lincoln lived only a few hours after being hit in the head by a single .44-caliber handgun round fired by John Wilkes Booth.[41] President James A. Garfield was killed by Charles J. Guiteau using a .44-caliber handgun. President William McKinley was killed by two rounds fired from a .32-caliber revolver.[41] President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald who used a bolt-action Carcano M1891/38 rifle in 6.5 x 52 mm.[42]

Presidents Andrew Jackson and Harry S. Truman were uninjured during assassination attempts, as was President Gerald Ford in two separate attempts only a few weeks apart.[43][44][45] President Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt after being shot by John Hinckley, Jr. with a Röhm RG-14 .22-caliber revolver.[46] Former President Theodore Roosevelt was shot and wounded during the 1912 presidential campaign.[47] On February 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara attempted to assassinate Franklin Delano Roosevelt while the then President-elect was giving a speech in Miami, Florida.[48]

See also List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots

[edit] Other violent crime

In the United States, a quarter of commercial robberies are committed with guns.[49] Robberies committed with guns are three times as likely to result in fatalities compared with robberies where other weapons were used,[49][50][51] with similar patterns in cases of family violence.[52] Criminologist Philip J. Cook hypothesizes that if guns were less available, criminals may likely commit the crime anyway but with less-lethal weapons.[53] He finds that the level of gun ownership in the 50 largest U.S. cities correlates with the rate of robberies committed with guns, but not overall robbery rates.[54][55] A significant number of homicides result as a by-product of another violent crime which escalates, with the offender going into the crime without a clear or sustained intent to kill or be killed.[51][56] Overall robbery and assault rates in the United States are also comparable to other developed countries, such as Australia and Finland, notwithstanding the much lower levels of gun ownership in those countries.[53][56]

See also Assault with a deadly weapon

[edit] Gun ownership

The General Social Survey (GSS) is a primary source for data on firearm ownership, with surveys periodically done by other organizations such as Harris Interactive.[57] In 2004, 36.5% of Americans reported having a gun in their home and in 1997, 40% of Americans reported having a gun in their homes. At this time there were approximately 44 million gun owners in the United States. This means that 25 percent of all adults owned at least one firearm. These owners possessed 192 million firearms, of which 65 million were handguns.[58] The number of American homes reporting have a gun in their homes is down from 46% as reported in 1989.[59] Philip J. Cook suggests that increased numbers of female-headed households may be a factor in declining household ownership figures.[21] A National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms (NSPOF), conducted in 1994, indicates that Americans own 192 million guns, with 36% of these consisting of rifles, 34% handguns, 26% shotguns, and 4% of other types of long guns.[60] Most firearm owners own multiple firearms, with the NSPOF survey indicating 25% of adults own firearms.[60] In the United States, 11% of households report actively being involved in hunting,[59] with the remaining firearm owners having guns for self-protection and other reasons. Throughout the 1970s and much of the 1980s, the rate of gun ownership in the home ranged from 45-50%.[59] Gun ownership also varies across geographic regions, ranging from 25% rates of ownership in the Northeastern United States to 60% rates of ownership in the East South Central States.[61] The GSS survey and other proxy measures of gun ownership do not provide adequate macro-level detail to allow conclusions on the relationship between overall firearm ownership and gun violence.[21] Criminologist Gary Kleck compared various survey and proxy measures and found no correlation between overall firearm ownership and gun violence.[14]

[edit] Self-protection

Between 1987 and 1990, David McDowall found that guns were used in defense during a crime incident 64,615 times annually.[62] This equates to two times out of 1,000 incidents (0.2%) that occurred in this time frame.[62] For violent crimes (assault, robbery, and rape), guns were used 0.83% of the time in self-defense.[62] Of the times that guns were used in self-defense, 71% of the crimes were committed by strangers, with the rest of the incidents evenly divided between offenders that were acquaintances or persons well-known to the victim.[62] Of all incidents where a gun was used for self-defense, victims shot at the offender 28% of the time.[62] In 20% of the self-defense incidents, the guns were used by police officers.[62] During this same time period, 1987 and 1990, there were 46,319 gun homicides,[63] and the National Crime Victimization Survey estimates that 2,628,532 nonfatal crimes involving guns occurred.[62]

The findings of the McDowall's study for the American Journal of Public Health contrast with the findings of a 1993 study by Gary Kleck, who finds that as many as 2.45 million crimes are thwarted each year in the United States, and in most cases, the potential victim never fires a shot in these cases where firearms are used constructively for self-protection.[64] The results of the Kleck studies have been cited many times in scholarly and popular media.[65][66][67][68][69][70][71]

McDowall cites methodological issues with the Kleck studies, stating that Kleck used a very small sample size and did not confine self-defense to attempted victimizations where physical attacks had already commenced.[62] The former criticism, however, is inaccurate — Kleck's survey with Marc Gertz in fact used the largest sample size of any survey that ever asked respondents about defensive gun use — 4,977 cases, far more than is typical in national surveys.[72] A study of gun use in the 1990s, by David Hemenway at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, found that criminal use of guns is far more common than self-defense use of guns.[73] By the Kleck study, however, most successful preventions of victimizations are accomplished without a shot being fired, which are not counted as a self-defense firearm usage by either the Hemenway or McDowall studies.[62][64][73] Hemenway, however, also argues that the Kleck figure is inconsistent with other known statistics for crime, citing that Kleck's figures apparently show that guns are many times more often used for self-defense in burglaries, than there are incidents of bulgaries of properties containing gun owners with awake occupants.[74] Hemenway concludes that under reasonable assumptions of random errors in sampling, because of the rarity of the event, the 2.5 million figure should be considered only as the top end of a 0-2.5 million confidence interval, suggesting a highly unreliable result that is likely a great overestimate, with the true figure at least 10 times less.

[edit] Public policy

Main article: Gun politics in the United States

Public policy as related to preventing gun violence is an ongoing political and social debate regarding both the restriction and availability of firearms within the United States. Policy at the Federal level is/has been governed by the Second Amendment, National Firearms Act, Gun Control Act of 1968, Firearm Owners Protection Act, Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, and the Domestic Violence Offender Act. Gun policy in the United States has been revised many times with acts such as the Firearm Owners Protection Act, which loosened provisions for gun sales while also strengthening automatic firearms law.[75] Recently at the local and state level, gun laws such as handgun bans have been overturned by the Supreme Court in cases such as District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago, these cases hold that an individual person has a right to possess a firearm for legitimate purposes, Columbia v. Heller only addressed the issue on Federal enclaves, while McDonald v Chicago addressed the issue as relating to the individual states.[76]

Gun control proponents often cite the relatively high number of homicides committed with firearms as reason to support stricter gun control laws.[77] Firearm laws are a subject of great debate in the United States, with firearms also widely used for recreational purposes, and for personal protection.[7] Gun rights advocates cite the use of firearms for self-protection and to deter violent crime as reasons why more guns can reduce crime.[78][79][80] Gun rights advocates also say criminals are the least likely to obey firearms laws, and so limiting access to guns by law-abiding people makes them more vulnerable to armed criminals.[62]

[edit] Access to firearms

The most common type of gun confiscated by police and traced by the ATF are .38 special revolvers, such as this Smith and Wesson Model 60 .38 Special revolver with a 3-inch barrel.[81]

U.S. policy aims to maintain the right of legitimate users to own most types of firearms, while restricting access to firearms by those individuals in high risk groups.[53] Gun dealers in the United States are prohibited from selling handguns to those under the age of 21, and long guns to those under the age of 18.[53] There are also restrictions on selling guns to out-of-state residents.[53]

Assuming access to guns, the top ten types of guns involved in crime in the U.S. show a definite trend in favoring handguns over long guns. The top ten guns used in crime, as reported by the ATF in 1993, included the Smith & Wesson .38 Special and .357 revolvers; Raven Arms .25 caliber, Davis P-380 .380 caliber, Ruger .22 caliber, Lorcin L-380 .380 caliber, and Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handguns; Mossberg and Remington 12 gauge shotguns; and the Tec DC-9.[81] An earlier 1985 study of 1,800 incarcerated felons showed that criminals prefer revolvers and other non-semi-automatic firearms over semi-automatic firearms.[82] In Pittsburgh, a change in preferences towards pistols occurred in the early 1990s, coinciding with the arrival of crack cocaine and rise of violent youth gangs.[83] Background checks in California, during 1998 to 2000, resulted in 1% of sales being initially denied.[84] The types of guns most often denied included semiautomatic pistols with short barrels and of medium caliber.[84]

Among juveniles (for example, minors under the age of 16, 17, or 18, depending on legal jurisdiction) serving in correctional facilities, 86% owned a gun at some point, with 66% acquiring their first gun by age 14.[2] There is also a tendency for juvenile offenders to own many firearms, with 65% owning three or more.[2] Juveniles most often acquire guns from family, friends, drug dealers, and street contacts.[2] Inner-city youths cite "self-protection from enemies" as the top reason for carrying a gun.[2] In Rochester, New York, 22% of young males have carried a firearm illegally, though most for only a short period of time.[85] There is little overlap between legal gun ownership and illegal gun carrying among youths.[85]

[edit] Firearms market

Source of firearms possessed by Federal inmates, 1997[86]
ATF inspector at a federally licensed gun dealer

Policy that is targeted at the supply side of the firearms market is based on limited research, with this an active area of ongoing research.[7] One important consideration is that only 60-70% of firearms sales in the United States are transacted through federally licensed firearm dealers, with the remainder taking place in the "secondary market."[87][88] Most sales to youths and convicted felons take place in the "secondary market," in which previously-owned firearms are transferred by unlicensed individuals.[89][90] Access to "secondary markets" is generally less convenient and involves such risks as the gun perhaps having been used previously in a homicide.[91] Unlicensed private sellers are permitted by law to sell privately-owned guns at gun shows, or at private locations, in 24 states (as of 1998).[92] Regulations that limit the number of handgun sales in the primary, regulated market to one handgun a month per customer have been shown to be effective at reducing illegal gun trafficking by reducing the supply into the "secondary market."[93] Taxes on firearms and ammunition purchases are another means for government to influence the primary market.[40]

Federally licensed firearm dealers in the primary (new and used gun) market are regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Firearm manufacturers are required to put serial numbers on all new firearms. This allows the ATF to trace guns involved in crimes back to their last Federal Firearms License (FFL) reported change of ownership transaction, although not past the first private sale involving any particular gun. A report by the ATF released in 1999, found that 0.4% of federally-licensed dealers sold half of the guns used criminally in 1996 and 1997.[3][94] This is sometimes done through "straw purchases."[3] State laws, such as those in California, that restrict the number of gun purchases in a month may help stem such "straw purchases."[3] An estimated 500,000 guns are also stolen each year, allowing them to get into the hands of prohibited users.[40][87] During the ATF's Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative (YCGII), which involved expanded tracing of firearms recovered by law enforcement agencies,[95] only 18% of guns used criminally that were recovered in 1998 were in possession of the original owner.[96] Guns recovered by police during criminal investigations often have been previously sold by legitimate retail sales outlets to legal owners and then diverted to criminal use over elapsed times ranging from just a few months to just a few years,[96][97][98] which makes them relatively new compared with firearms in general circulation.[40][99]

[edit] Federal legislation

Main article: Gun law in the United States

The first Federal legislation related to firearms was the Second Amendment, ratified in 1791. For 143 years, this was the only major Federal legislation regarding firearms. The next Federal firearm legislation was the National Firearms Act of 1934. This Act created regulations for the sale of firearms, established taxes on their sale, and required registration of some types of firearms such as machine guns.[100]

In the aftermath of the Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations, the Gun Control Act of 1968 was enacted. This Act regulated gun commerce, restricting mail order sales, and allowing shipments only to licensed firearm dealers. The Act also prohibited felons, those under indictment, fugitives, illegal aliens, drug users, those dishonorably discharged from the military, and those in mental institutions from owning guns.[53] The law also restricted importation of Saturday night specials and other types of guns, and limited the sale of automatic weapons and semi-automatic weapons conversion kits.[3]

The Firearm Owners Protection Act, also known as the McClure-Volkmer Act, was passed in 1986. It changed some restrictions in the 1968 Act, allowing federally-licensed gun dealers, as well as individual unlicensed private sellers, to sell at gun shows, while continuing to require licensed gun dealers to require background checks.[3] The 1986 Act also restricted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms from conducting repetitive inspections, reduced the amount of recordkeeping required of gun dealers, raised the burden of proof for convicting gun law violators, and changed restrictions on convicted felons from owning firearms.[3]

In the years following the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, people buying guns were required to show identification and sign a statement affirming that they were not in any of the prohibited categories.[53] Many states enacted background check laws that went beyond the federal requirements.[101] The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act passed by Congress in 1993 imposed a waiting period before the purchase of a handgun, allowing a background check.[102] The Brady Act also required the establishment of a national system to provide instant criminal background checks, with checks to be done by firearms dealers.[103] The Brady Act only applied to people who bought guns from licensed dealers, whereas most felons buy guns from a black market.[104][104] Restrictions, such as waiting periods, are opposed by many, who argue that they impose costs and inconveniences on legitimate gun purchasers, such as hunters.[40]

Semi-automatic versions of the AK-47 assault rifle were affected under the 1994 ban.

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, enacted in 1994, included the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and was a response to public concern over mass shootings.[105] This provision prohibited the manufacture and importation of some semiautomatic firearms that exhibitied military style features such as a folding stock, pistol grip and flash suppressor, as well as magazines holding more than ten rounds.[105] A grandfather clause was included that allowed firearms manufactured before 1994 to remain legal. A short-term evaluation by University of Pennsylvania criminologists, Christopher S. Koper and Jeffrey A. Roth, did not find any clear impact of this legislation on gun violence.[106] Given the short study time period of the evaluation, the National Academy of Sciences also advised caution in drawing any conclusions.[40] In September 2004, the assault weapon ban expired, with its sunset clause.[107]

The Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, 'the Lautenberg Amendment' , prohibited anyone previously convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from owning a firearm.[108] It also banned shipment, transport, ownership and use of guns or ammunition by individuals convicted of misdemeanor or felony domestic violence. This law also outlawed the sale or gift of a firearm or ammunition to such a person. It was passed in 1996, and became effective in 1997. Some opponents believe that the law conflicts with the right to keep and bear arms protected by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and this law has modified the Second Amendment to a revocable privilege from a fundamental protection. Opponents of this law tend to describe the law by the name "the Lautenberg Amendment." The law applies to everyone, including police officers and military personnel, and can cause difficulties by prohibiting active duty military and police from carrying guns, due to prior civilian misdemeanor convictions.[109]

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, police and National Guard units in New Orleans confiscated firearms from private citizens in an attempt to prevent violence. In reaction, Congress passed the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006 in the form of an amendment to Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2007. Section 706 of the Act prohibits federal employees and those receiving federal funds from confiscating legally-possessed firearms during a disaster.[110]

[edit] State legislation

Main article: Gun (Firearm) laws in the United States (by state)

[edit] Right-to-carry

Right-to-carry laws expanded in the 1990s as homicide rates from gun violence in the United States increased, largely in response to incidents such as the Luby's massacre of 1991 in Texas which directly resulted in the passage of a carrying concealed weapon, or CCW, law in Texas in 1995.[111] As Rorie Sherman, staff reporter for the National Law Journal wrote in an article published on April 18, 1994, "It is a time of unparalleled desperation about crime. But the mood is decidedly 'I'll do it myself' and 'Don't get in my way.'"[112]

The result was laws that permitted persons to carry firearms openly, known as open carry, often without any permit required, in 22 states by 1998.[113] Laws that permitted persons to carry concealed handguns, sometimes termed a concealed handgun license, CHL, or concealed pistol license, CPL in some jurisdictions instead of CCW, existed in 34 states in the United States by 2004.[7] Since then, the number of states with CCW laws has increased; as of 2012, 49 states have some form of CCW laws on the books.[114]

Economist John Lott has argued that right-to-carry laws create a perception that more potential crime victims might be carrying firearms, and thus serve as a deterrent against crime.[115] Lott's study has been criticized for not adequately controlling for other factors, including other state laws also enacted, such as Florida's laws requiring background checks and waiting period for handgun buyers.[116] When Lott's data was re-analyzed by some researchers, the only statistically significant effect of concealed-carry laws found was an increase in assaults,[116] with similar findings by Jens Ludwig.[117] Since concealed-carry permits are only given to adults, Philip J. Cook suggests that analysis should focus on the relationship with adult and not juvenile gun incident rates.[53] He finds no statistically significant effect.[53] The National Academy of Science has found no evidence that shows right-to-carry laws have an impact, either way, on rates of violent crime.[7] NAS suggests that new analytical approaches and datasets at the county or local level are needed to evaluate adequately the impact of right-to-carry laws.[118]

[edit] Child Access Prevention (CAP)

Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws, enacted by many states, require parents to store firearms safely, to minimize access by children to guns, while maintaining ease of access by adults.[119] CAP laws hold gun owners liable should a child gain access to a loaded gun that is not properly stored.[119] Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that, on average, one child died every three days in accidental incidents in the United States from 2000 to 2005.[120] In most states, CAP law violations are considered misdemeanors.[119] Florida's CAP law, enacted in 1989, permits felony prosecution of violators.[119] Research indicates that CAP laws are correlated with a reduction in unintentional gun deaths by 23%,[121] and gun suicides among those aged 14 through 17 by 11%.[122] A study by Lott did not detect a relationship between CAP laws and accidental gun deaths or suicides among those age 19 and under between 1979 and 1996.[15] The National Bureau of Economic Research has found that CAP laws are correlated with a reduction of non-fatal gun injuries among both children and adults by 30-40%.[119] Research also indicates that CAP laws are most highly correlated with reductions of non-fatal gun injuries in states where violations are considered felonies, whereas in states that consider violations as misdemeanors, the potential impact of CAP laws is not statistically significant.[123] All of these studies are correlational, and do not account for other potential contributing factors.

[edit] Local restrictions

Some local jurisdictions in the United States have more restrictive laws, such as Washington, D.C.'s Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975, which banned residents from owning handguns, and required permitted firearms be disassembled and locked with a trigger lock. On March 9, 2007, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled the Washington, D.C. handgun ban unconstitutional.[124] The appeal of that case later led to the Supreme Court's ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller that D.C.'s ban was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.

New York City is also known for its strict gun control laws. Despite local laws, guns are often trafficked into cities from other parts of the United States, particularly the southern states.[94][125] Results from the ATF's Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative indicate that the percentage of imported guns involved in crimes is tied to the stringency of local firearm laws.[95]

[edit] Prevention programs

Violence prevention and educational programs have been established in many schools and communities across the United States. These programs aim to change personal behavior of both children and their parents, encouraging children to stay away from guns, ensure parents store guns safely, and encourage children to solve disputes without resorting to violence.[126] Programs aimed at altering behavior range from passive (requiring no effort on part of the individual) to active (supervising children, or placing a trigger lock on a gun).[126] The more effort required of people, the more difficult it is to implement a prevention strategy.[127][128] Prevention strategies focused on modifying the situational environment and the firearm itself may be more effective.[126] Empirical evaluation of gun violence prevention programs has been limited.[7] Of the evaluations that have been done, results indicate such programs have minimal effectiveness.[126]

[edit] The 1-866-SPEAK-UP Hotline

SPEAK UP is a national youth violence prevention initiative created by The Center to Prevent Youth Violence,[129] which provides young people with tools to improve the safety of their schools and communities. The SPEAK UP program features the first-ever, anonymous, national hot-line for young people to report threats of violence in their communities or at school. The 1-866-SPEAK-UP hot-line is the only national hot-line for students to anonymously report weapon threats 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. The hot-line is operated in accordance with a rigid protocol developed in collaboration with national education and law enforcement authorities, including the FBI. Trained counselors, with instant access to translators for 140 languages, collect information from callers and then immediately report the threat to appropriate school and law enforcement officials. The counselors also have access to an extensive database of local, city, and state referral sources, which they can offer callers who call with issues unrelated to youth violence. Since its launch in 2002, the hotline has received over 38,000 calls from youth nationwide.[130][131]

[edit] Gun safety parent counseling

One of the most widely used parent counseling programs is Steps to Prevent Firearm Injury program (STOP), which was developed in 1994 by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.[126] STOP was superseded by STOP 2 in 1998, which has a broader focus including more communities and health care providers.[126] STOP has been evaluated and found not to have a significant effect on gun ownership or firearm storage practices by inner-city parents.[132] Marjorie S. Hardy suggests further evaluation of STOP is needed, as this evaluation had a limited sample size and lacked a control group.[126]

[edit] Children

Prevention programs geared towards children have also not been greatly successful.[126] Many inherent challenges arise when working with children, including their tendency to perceive themselves as invulnerable to injury,[133] limited ability to apply lessons learned,[134][135] their innate curiosity,[134] and peer pressure.

The goal of gun safety programs, usually administered by local firearms dealers and shooting clubs, is to teach older children and adolescents how to handle firearms safely.[126] There has been no systematic evaluation of the effect of these programs on children.[126] For adults, no positive effect on gun storage practices has been found as a result of these programs.[136][137] Also, researchers have found that gun safety programs for children may likely increase a child's interest in obtaining and using guns, which they cannot be expected to use safely all the time, even with training.[138]

One approach taken is gun avoidance, such as when encountering a firearm at a neighbor's home. The Eddie Eagle Gun Safety Program, administered by the National Rifle Association (NRA), is geared towards younger children from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade, and teaches kids that real guns are not toys by emphasizing a "just say no" approach.[126] The Eddie Eagle program is based on training children in a four-step action to take when they see a firearm: (1) Stop! (2) Don't touch! (3) Leave the area. (4) Go tell an adult. Materials, such as coloring books and posters, back the lessons up and provide the repetition necessary in any child-education program. The ineffectiveness of the "just say no" approach promoted by the NRA's Eddie the Eagle program was highlighted in an investigative piece by ABC's Diane Sawyer in 1999.[2] Sawyer's piece was based on academic studies conducted by Dr. Marjorie Hardy, assistant professor of psychology at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. [3] Dr. Hardy's study tracked the behavior of elementary age schoolchildren who spent a day learning the Eddie the Eagle four-step action plan from a uniformed police officer. The children were then placed into a playroom which contained a hidden gun. When the children found the gun, they did not run away from the gun, but rather, they inevitably played with it, pulled the trigger while looking into the barrel, or aimed the gun at a playmate and pulled the trigger. The study concluded that children's natural curiosity was far more powerful than the parental admonition to "Just say no". [4]

Some gun control advocacy groups have developed their own programs, such as Straight Talk about Risks (STAR), administered by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and Hands without Guns, run by the Joshua Horwitz Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence.[126]

[edit] Community programs

Programs targeted at entire communities, such as community revitalization, after-school programs, and media campaigns, may be more effective in reducing the general level of violence that children are exposed to.[139][140] Community-based programs that have specifically targeted gun violence include Safe Kids/Healthy Neighborhoods Injury Prevention Program in New York City,[141][142] and Safe Homes and Havens in Chicago.[126] Evaluation of such community-based programs is difficult, due to many confounding factors and the multifaceted nature of such programs.[126]

[edit] Intervention programs

Sociologist James D. Wright suggests that to convince inner-city youths not to carry guns "requires convincing them that they can survive in their neighborhood without being armed, that they can come and go in peace, that being unarmed will not cause them to be victimized, intimidated, or slain."[2] Intervention programs, such as CeaseFire Chicago, Operation Ceasefire in Boston and Project Exile in Richmond, Virginia during the 1990s, have been shown to be effective.[7][143] Other intervention strategies, such as gun "buy-back" programs have been demonstrated to be ineffective.[40]

[edit] Gun "buy-back" programs

Gun "buy-back" programs are a strategy aimed at influencing the firearms market by taking guns "off the streets".[40] Gun "buy-back" programs have been shown to be ineffective,[144][145] with the National Academy of Sciences citing theory underlying these programs as "badly flawed."[40] Guns surrendered tend to be those least likely to be involved in crime, such as old, malfunctioning guns with little resale value, muzzleloading or other blackpowder guns, antiques chambered for obsolete cartridges that are no longer commercially manufactured or sold, or guns that individuals inherit but have little value in possessing.[146] Other limitations of gun "buy-back" programs include the fact that it is relatively easy to obtain gun replacements, often of better guns than were relinquished in the "buy-back."[40] Also, the number of handguns used in crime (approximately 7,500 per year) is very small compared to the approximately 70 million handguns in the United States (i.e., 0.011%).[40]

"Gun Bounty" programs launched in several Florida cities have shown more promise. These programs involve cash rewards for anonymous tips about illegal weapons that leads to an arrest and a weapons charge. Since its inception May 2007, the Miami program led to 264 arrests, confiscation of 432 guns owned illegally and $2.2 million in drugs, as well as solved several murder and burglary cases.[147]

[edit] Operation Ceasefire

In 1995, Operation Ceasefire was established as a strategy for stemming the epidemic of youth gun violence in Boston. Violence was particularly concentrated in poor, inner-city neighborhoods including Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan.[148] There were 22 youths (under the age of 24) killed in Boston in 1987, with that figure rising to 73 in 1990.[148] Operation Ceasefire entailed a problem-oriented policing approach, and focused on specific places that were crime hot spots—two strategies that when combined have been shown to be quite effective.[149][150][151] Particular focus was placed on two elements of the gun violence problem, including illicit gun trafficking[152] and gang violence.[148] Within two years of implementing Operation Ceasefire in Boston, the number of youth homicides dropped to ten, with only one handgun-related youth homicide occurring in 1999 and 2000.[3] The Operation Ceasefire strategy has since been replicated in other cities, including Los Angeles.[153]

[edit] Project Exile

Federally-supported gun violence intervention program

Project Exile, conducted in Richmond, Virginia during the 1990s, was a coordinated effort involving federal, state, and local officials that targeted gun violence. The strategy entailed prosecution of gun violations in Federal courts, where sentencing guidelines were tougher. Project Exile also involved outreach and education efforts through media campaigns, getting the message out about the crackdown.[154] Project Exile was evaluated and shown to be effective, however researchers also point out that Richmond might have experienced declining homicide trends anyway during the evaluation period, owing to overall national trends.[154]

[edit] Project Safe Neighborhoods

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is a national strategy for reducing gun violence that builds on the strategies implemented in Operation Ceasefire and Project Exile.[155] PSN was established in 2001, with support from the Bush administration, channelled through the United States Attorney's Offices in the United States Department of Justice. The Federal government has spent over US$1.5 billion since the program's inception on the hiring of prosecutors, and providing assistance to state and local jurisdictions in support of training and community outreach efforts.[156][157]

[edit] Research limitations

In the United States, research into firearms and violent crime is fraught with difficulties, associated with limited data on gun ownership and use,[61] firearms markets, and aggregation of crime data.[7] Research studies into gun violence have primarily taken one of two approaches: case-control studies and social ecology.[7] Gun ownership is usually determined through surveys, proxy variables, and sometimes with production and import figures. In statistical analysis of homicides and other types of crime which are rare events, these data tend to have poisson distributions, which also presents methodological challenges to researchers. With data aggregation, it is difficult to make inferences about individual behavior.[158] This problem, known as ecological fallacy, is not always handled properly by researchers, leading some to jump to conclusions that their data do not necessarily support.[159]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Bjerregaard, Beth, Alan J. Lizotte (1995). "Gun Ownership and Gang Membership". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), Vol. 86, No. 1) 86 (1): 37–58. doi:10.2307/1143999. JSTOR 1143999. NCJ 162688. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f Wright, James D., Joseph F. Sheley, and M. Dwayne Smith (1993). "Kids, Guns, and Killing Fields". Society 30 (1). NCJ 140211. 
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Rushefsky, Mark E. (2002). "Chapter 7: Criminal Justice: To Ensure Domestic Tranquility". Public Policy in the United States: At the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 076560647X. 
  4. ^ "WISQARS Nonfatal Injury Reports". National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2000.html. Retrieved 2006-11-10. 
  5. ^ "10 Leading Causes of Injury Death by Age Group Highlighting Violence-Related Injury Deaths, United States". National Vital Statistics System. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC. 2003. ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/ncipc/10LC-2003/PDF/10lc-violence.pdf. 
  6. ^ Xu, Jiaquan; Kenneth D. Kochanek, Sherry L. Murphy, Betzaida Tejada-Vera (2010-05-20). "Deaths: Final Data for 2007" (PDF). National Vital Statistics Reports (CDC) 58(19): 11. http://www.cdc.gov/NCHS/data/nvsr/nvsr58/nvsr58_19.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-07. 
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Committee on Law and Justice (2004). "Executive Summary". Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. National Academy of Science. http://www.nap.edu/books/0309091241/html/1.html. 
  8. ^ For more on Heller see the main article.
  9. ^ Kellermann, A.L., F.P. Rivara, G. Somes, et al. (1992). "Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership". New England Journal of Medicine 327 (7): 467–472. doi:10.1056/NEJM199208133270705. PMID 1308093. 
  10. ^ Miller, Matthew and Hemenway, David (2001). Firearm Prevalence and the Risk of Suicide: A Review. Harvard Health Policy Review. p. 2. http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~epihc/currentissue/Fall2001/miller.htm. "One study found a statistically significant relationship between gun ownership levels and suicide rate across 14 developed nations (e.g. where survey data on gun ownership levels were available), but the association lost its statistical significance when additional countries were included." 
  11. ^ a b c d Cook, Philip J., Jens Ludwig (2000). "Chapter 2". Gun Violence: The Real Costs. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513793-0. 
  12. ^ Ikeda, Robin M., Rachel Gorwitz, Stephen P. James, Kenneth E. Powell, James A. Mercy (1997). Fatal Firearm Injuries in the United States, 1962-1994: Violence Surveillance Summary Series, No. 3. National Center for Injury and Prevention Control. 
  13. ^ "U.S.A. Suicide: 2006 Official Final Data". American Association of Suicidology. http://www.suicidology.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=228&name=DLFE-142.pdf. 
  14. ^ a b c Kleck, Gary (2004). "Measures of Gun Ownership Levels of Macro-Level Crime and Violence Research". Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 41: 3–36. doi:10.1177/0022427803256229. NCJ 203876. http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/Measures_of_Gun_Ownership_Levels_for_Macro-Level_Crime_and_Violence_Research.pdf. "Studies that attempt to link the gun ownership of individuals to their experiences as victims (e.g., Kellermann, et al. 1993) do not effectively determine how an individual's risk of victimization is affected by gun ownership by other people, especially those not living in the gun owner's own household." 
  15. ^ a b c Lott, John, John E. Whitley (2001). "Safe-Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Crime". Journal of Law and Economics 44 (2): 659–689. doi:10.1086/338346. http://johnrlott.tripod.com/whitney.pdf. "It is frequently assumed that safe-storage laws reduce accidental gun deaths and total suicides. We find no support that safe-storage laws reduce either juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides." 
  16. ^ "Homicide trends in the U.S. - Weapons used". Bureau of Justice Statistics. http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/weapons.cfm. 
  17. ^ a b c "Homicide trends in the U.S. - Age trends". Bureau of Justice Statistics. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/teens.htm. 
  18. ^ Friedman, Lawrence M. (1993). "Chapter 8: Lawful Law and Lawless Law: Forms of American Violence". Crime and Punishment in American History. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-01461-5. 
  19. ^ Lane, Roger (1999). Violent Death in the City: Suicide, Accident, and Murder in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 0-8142-5021-1. 
  20. ^ Fox, James Alan, Marianne W. Zawitz. "Homicide trends in the United States". Bureau of Justice Statistics. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/homtrnd.htm#contents. 
  21. ^ a b c d Committee on Law and Justice (2004). "Chapter 3". Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. National Academy of Science. ISBN 0309091241. http://www.nap.edu/books/0309091241/html/53.html. 
  22. ^ Cork, Daniel (1999). "Examining Time-Space Interaction in City-Level Homicide Data: Crack Markets and the Diffusion of Guns Among Youth". Journal of Quantitative Criminology 15 (4): 379–406. doi:10.1023/A:1007540007803. NCJ 180974. 
  23. ^ Grogger, Jeff, Mike Willis (1998). "The Introduction of Crack Cocaine and the Rise of Urban Crime Rates". National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 6352. National Bureau of Economic Research. 
  24. ^ Blumstein, Alfred (1995). "Youth Violence, Guns and the Illicit-Drug Industry". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), Vol. 86, No. 1) 86 (1): 10–36. doi:10.2307/1143998. JSTOR 1143998. NCJ 162687. 
  25. ^ Krug, E.G, K.E. Powell, L.L. Dahlberg (1998). "Firearm-related deaths in the United States and 35 other high- and upper-middle income countries". International Journal of Epidemiology 27 (2): 214–221. doi:10.1093/ije/27.2.214. PMID 9602401. 
  26. ^ "The Seventh United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (1998 - 2000)". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Archived from the original on 2007-11-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20071112032040/http://www.unodc.org/unodc/crime_cicp_survey_seventh.html. Retrieved 2006-11-08. 
  27. ^ "Crime in the United States by Community Type". Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2005. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_02.html. 
  28. ^ "Rate: Number of Crimes per 100,000 Inhabitants by Population Group". Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2005. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_16.html. 
  29. ^ "Murder, Types of Weapons Used Percent Distribution within Region". Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2005. http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_05.html. 
  30. ^ Butts, Jeffrey A., Howard N. Snyder (November 2006). "Too Soon to Tell: Deciphering Recent Trends in Youth Violence". Issue Brief. Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago. http://www.chapinhall.org/article_abstract.aspx?ar=1437&L2=61&L3=132. 
  31. ^ a b "American Fact Finder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. 
  32. ^ a b c "Expanded Homicide Data Table 3, Murder Victims by Age by Weapon". 2005. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_08.html. 
  33. ^ a b c "Expanded Homicide Data Table 3, Murder Offenders by Age, Sex, and Race". 2005. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_03.html. 
  34. ^ Kennedy, David M., Anne M. Piehl, Anthony A. Braga (1996). "Youth Violence in Boston: Gun Markets, Serious Youth Offenders, and a Use-Reduction Strategy". Law and Contemporary Problems (Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 59, No. 1) 59 (1): 147–183. doi:10.2307/1192213. JSTOR 1192213. NCJ 162687. 
  35. ^ McGonigal, Michael D., John Cole, C. William Schwab, Donald R. Kauder, Michael F. Rotondo, Peter B. Angood (1993). "Urban Firearm Deaths: A Five-Year Perspective". Journal of Trauma 35 (4): 532–536. doi:10.1097/00005373-199310000-00006. PMID 8411275. 
  36. ^ McLaughlin, Colleen R., Jack Daniel, Scott M. Riener, Dennis E. Waite, et al.. "Factors Associated with Assault-Related Firearm Injuries in Male Adolescents". Working paper. Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice. 
  37. ^ "Expanded Homicide Data Table 7 - Murder Victims by Weapon". Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2001–2005. http://web.archive.org/web/20100412084914/http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_07.html. 
  38. ^ Cook, Philip J., Mark H. Moore (1995). "Gun Control". In Wilson, James Q., Joan Petersilia. Crime. Institute of Contemporary Studies Press. 
  39. ^ Asensio J.A., J. Murray, D. Demetriades, et al. (1998). "Penetrating cardiac injuries: A prospective study of variables predicting outcome". Journal of the American College of Surgery 186 (1): 24–34. doi:10.1016/S1072-7515(97)00144-0. PMID 9449597. 
  40. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Committee on Law and Justice (2004). "Chapter 4". Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. National Academy of Science. ISBN 0309091241. http://www.nap.edu/books/0309091241/html/72.html. 
  41. ^ a b Koller, Larry (1957). Handguns. Random House. p. 4. 
  42. ^ Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, Chapter 4
  43. ^ Ward, John William (1962). Andrew Jackson. Oxford University Press. p. 114. ISBN 0195006992. 
  44. ^ Donovan, Robert J. (1996). Tumultuous Years. University of Missouri Press. p. 291. ISBN 0393016196. 
  45. ^ Winget, Mary Mueller (2007). Gerald R. Ford. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 86. ISBN 0822515091. 
  46. ^ "Ronald Reagan's Life, 1979-1982". PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/timeline/index_3.html. Retrieved 2008-01-14. 
  47. ^ Miller, Nathan (1993). Theodore Roosevelt. HarperCollins. p. 530. ISBN 0688067840. 
  48. ^ http://digital.library.miami.edu/gov/FDRAssn.html
  49. ^ a b Cook, Philip J. (1987). "Robbery Violence". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 70 (2). NCJ 108118. 
  50. ^ Kleck, Gary, K. McElrath (1991). "The Effects of Weaponry on Human Violence". Social Forces (Social Forces, Vol. 69, No. 3) 69 (3): 669–692. doi:10.2307/2579469. JSTOR 2579469. NCJ 134329. 
  51. ^ a b Zimring, Franklin E. (1972). "The Medium is the Message: Firearm Caliber as a Determinant of Death from Assault". Journal of Legal Studies 1: 97–123. doi:10.1086/467479. NCJ 47874. 
  52. ^ Saltzman, L., J.A. Mercy, et al. (1992). "Weapon Involvement and Injury Outcomes in Family and Intimate Assaults". Journal of the American Medical Association 267 (22): 3043–3047. doi:10.1001/jama.267.22.3043. PMID 1588718. 
  53. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cook, Philip J., Jens Ludwig (2000). "Chapter 3". Gun Violence: The Real Costs. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513793-0. 
  54. ^ Cook, Philip J. (1979). "The Effect of Gun Availability on Robbery and Robbery Murder: A Cross-Section Study of Fifty Cities". Policy Studies Review Annual 3: 743–781. 
  55. ^ Kleck, Gary (1997). Targeting guns: Firearms and their control. Aldine de Gruyter. ISBN 0202305694. 
  56. ^ a b Zimring, Franklin E., Gordon Hawkins (1997). Crime Is Not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195131053. 
  57. ^ "Gun Ownership: Two in Five Americans Live in Gun-Owning Households". Harris Interactive. http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=234. Retrieved 2006-11-08. 
  58. ^ P.J. Cook and J. Ludwig, Guns in America: Results of a Comprehensive National Survey on Firearms Ownership and Use, Summary Report, Washington, DC: Police Foundation, 1997.
  59. ^ a b c General Social Survey. "GSS Cumulative Data Set (1972-2004)". http://gss.norc.org/. 
  60. ^ a b "National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms". National Institute of Justice. May 1997. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/165476.pdf. 
  61. ^ a b Azrael, Deborah, Philip J. Cook, Matthew Miller (2004). "State and Local Prevalence of Firearms Ownership Measurement, Structure, and Trends". Journal of Quantitative Criminology 20 (1): 43–62. doi:10.1023/B:JOQC.0000016699.11995.c7. NCJ 205033. 
  62. ^ a b c d e f g h i j McDowall, David, Brian Wiersema (1994). "The Incidence of Defensive Firearm Use by US Crime Victims, 1987 through 1990". American Journal of Public Health 84 (12): 1982–1984. doi:10.2105/AJPH.84.12.1982. PMC 1615397. PMID 7998641. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1615397. 
  63. ^ Uniform Crime Reports, 1987-1990. Federal Bureau of Investigation. 
  64. ^ a b LaPierre, Wayne (1994). Guns, Crime, and Freedom. Regnery Publishing. p. 23. ISBN 0895264773. 
  65. ^ Suter, E.A. (1992). "Firearms and the killing threshold (Letter)". New England Journal of Medicine 326 (17): 1159. doi:10.1056/NEJM199204233261712. PMID 1552925. 
  66. ^ Kates, D.B. (1991). "The value of civilian handgun possession as a deterrent to crime or a defense against crime". American Journal of Criminal Law 18: 113–167. NCJ 132948. 
  67. ^ "Go ahead, make our day". The New Republic. February 22, 1988. pp. 7–9. 
  68. ^ "Do guns save lives?". Time Magazine. August 12, 1988. pp. 25–26. 
  69. ^ "Are we "a nation of cowards"?". Newsweek. November 15, 1993. pp. 93–94. 
  70. ^ Kopel, D.B. (1993). Hold your fire: gun control won't stop rising violence. 63. Policy Review. pp. 58–65. NCJ 153748. 
  71. ^ Edgar A. Suter, MD. "Guns in the Medical Literature - A Failure of Peer Review". http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/Suter/med-lit.html. 
  72. ^ Kleck and Gertz; Gertz, Marc (1995). "Armed resistance to crime". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), Vol. 86, No. 1) 86 (1): 150–187 [162]. doi:10.2307/1144004. JSTOR 1144004. 
  73. ^ a b Hemenway, D., D. Azrael, M. Miller (2000). "Gun use in the United States: results from two national surveys". Injury Prevention 6 (4): 263–267. doi:10.1136/ip.6.4.263. PMC 1730664. PMID 11144624. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1730664. 
  74. ^ Hemenway, D. (1997). "The Myth of Millions of Self-Defense Gun Uses". Chance 10. 
  75. ^ "Library of Congress Record". Library of Congress. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d099:HR04332:. 
  76. ^ Barnes, Robert (2009-10-01). "Justices to Decide if State Gun Laws Violate Rights". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/30/AR2009093001723.html. Retrieved 2010-02-19. "the 5 to 4 opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller did not address the question of whether the Second Amendment extends beyond the federal government and federal enclaves such as Washington." 
  77. ^ Kassirer, Jerome P. (1991). "Firearms and the killing threshold. (Editorial)". New England Journal of Medicine 325 (23): 1647–1651. doi:10.1056/NEJM199112053252311. PMID 1944455. 
  78. ^ Baker, James Jay (July 1992). "Second amendment message in Los Angeles". American Rifleman: 32–34. 
  79. ^ Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD. "The Second Amendment - Reaching a Consensus as an Individual Right". http://www.haciendapub.com/comm13.html. 
  80. ^ Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD. "Guns and Violence". http://www.haciendapub.com/edcor12.html. 
  81. ^ a b LaPierre, Wayne (1994). Guns, Crime, and Freedom. Regnery Publishing. p. 58. ISBN 0895264773. 
  82. ^ James D. Wright and Peter H. Rossi (1986). ARMED AND CONSIDERED DANGEROUS: A Survey of Felons and their Firearms. Aldine de Gruyter. ISBN 0202305430. 
  83. ^ Cohen, Jacqueline, Wilpen Gorr, Piyusha Singh (December 2002). "Guns and Youth Violence: An Examination of Crime Guns in One City". Final report. National Institute of Justice/Carnegie Mellon University. http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/wpapers/retrievePDF?id=2002-46. 
  84. ^ a b Wright, M.A., G.J. Wintemute, B E Claire (2005). "People and guns involved in denied and completed handgun sales". Injury Prevention 11 (4): 247–250. doi:10.1136/ip.2005.008482. PMC 1730243. PMID 16081756. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1730243. 
  85. ^ a b Lizotte, Alan J., Gregory J. Howard, Marvin D. Krohn, Terence P. Thornberry (1997). "Patterns of Illegal Gun Carrying Among Urban Young Males". Valparaiso University Law Review 31 (2). 
  86. ^ "Federal Firearm Offenders, 1992-98". Bureau of Justice Statistics. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ffo98.pdf. 
  87. ^ a b Cook, Philip J., S.Molliconi, T.B. Cole (1995). "Regulating Gun Markets". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), Vol. 86, No. 1) 86 (1): 59–92. doi:10.2307/1144000. JSTOR 1144000. NCJ 162689. 
  88. ^ Cook, Philip J., Jens Ludwig (1996). Guns in America: Results of a Comprehensive Survey of Gun Ownership and Use. Police Foundation. 
  89. ^ Wright, James D., Peter H. Rossi (1994). Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms. Aldine de Gruyter. ISBN 0202305430. 
  90. ^ Ash, Peter, Arthur L. Kellermann, et al. (1996). "Gun Acquisition and Use by Juvenile Offenders". Journal of the American Medical Association 275 (22): 1754–1758. doi:10.1001/jama.275.22.1754. PMID 8637174. 
  91. ^ Cook, Philip J., Jens Ludwig (2000). "Chapter 9". Gun Violence: The Real Costs. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513793-0. 
  92. ^ Boston T. Party (Kenneth W. Royce) (1998). Boston on Guns & Courage. Javelin Press. pp. 3:15. ISBN 1888766042. 
  93. ^ Weil, Douglas S., Rebecca C. Knox (1996). "Effects of Limiting Handgun Purchases on Interstate Transfer of Firearms". Journal of the American Medical Association 275 (22): 1759–1761. doi:10.1001/jama.275.22.1759. PMID 8637175. 
  94. ^ a b Butterfield, Fox (July 1, 1999). "Gun Flows to Criminals Laid to Tiny Fraction of Dealers". The New York Times. 
  95. ^ a b "Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative (1998)". Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. http://www.atf.gov/firearms/ycgii/. 
  96. ^ a b Cook, Philip J., Anthony A. Braga (2001). "Comprehensive firearms tracing: Strategic and investigative uses of new data on firearms markets". Arizona Law Review 43: 277–309. 
  97. ^ Kennedy, D.M., A.A. Braga, A.M. Piehl (1996). "Youth violence in Boston: Gun markets, serious youth offenders, and a use-reduction strategy". Law and Contemporary Problems (Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 59, No. 1) 59 (1): 147–196. doi:10.2307/1192213. JSTOR 1192213. NCJ 169549. 
  98. ^ Wachtel, J. (1998). "Sources of crime guns in Los Angeles, California". Policing: an International Journal of Police Strategies and Management 21 (2): 220–239. doi:10.1108/13639519810220127. NCJ 174254. 
  99. ^ Pierce, G.L., A.A. Braga, C. Koper, J. McDevitt, D. Carlson, J. Roth, A. Saiz (2001). The Characteristics and Dynamics of Gun Markets: Implications for a Supply-Side Enforcement Strategy (Final Report). Center for Criminal Justice Policy Research, Northeastern University and the National Institute of Justice. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/208079.pdf. 
  100. ^ Friedman, Lawrence M. (1993). Crime and Punishment in American History. Basic Books. p. 267. ISBN 0-465-01461-5. 
  101. ^ Cook, Philip J., James Blose (1981). "State Programs for Screening Handgun Buyers". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science May 1981: 80–91. doi:10.1177/000271628145500108. NCJ 79101. 
  102. ^ The Brady Act did not require background checks, but mandates the waiting period so that background checks can be done. The background check provision has been challenged on grounds that it violates the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. In the 1997 case, Printz v. United States, the Supreme Court voided that part of the Brady Act. (Rushefsky, 2002)
  103. ^ "Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act". Congress of the United States/Government Printing Office. http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=103_cong_bills&docid=f:h1025enr.txt.pdf. 
  104. ^ a b Emerald: Article Request
  105. ^ a b Roth, Jeffrey A., Christopher S. Koper (1999). Impacts of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: 1994–96. National Institute of Justice. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/173405.pdf. 
  106. ^ Koper, Christopher S., Jeffrey A. Roth (2001). "The impact of the 1994 federal assault weapon ban on gun markets: An assessment of short-term primary and secondary market effects". Journal of Quantitative Criminology 18 (3): 239–266. doi:10.1023/A:1016055919939. NCJ 196844. 
  107. ^ Lawrence, Jill (September 12, 2004). "Federal ban on assault weapons expires". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-09-12-weapons-ban_x.htm. 
  108. ^ This was ex post facto, in the opinion of then-representative Bob Barr, [1] House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Crime, Committee on the Judiciary, March 5, 1997
  109. ^ "Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban Fact Sheet" (asp). National Center for Women & Policing. http://www.womenandpolicing.org/gunban.asp. Retrieved 2007-02-05. 
  110. ^ "House Report 109-699 - Making Appropriations For The Department Of Homeland Security For The Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2007, And For Other Purposes". The Library of Congress - THOMAS Home - Bills, Resolutions. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/R?cp109:FLD010:@1(hr699). 
  111. ^ "Guns in America, Part II". San Antonio Express-News. http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/nation/guns/part2/gunside1.html. Retrieved 2006-11-15. [dead link]
  112. ^ LaPierre, Wayne (1994). Guns, Crime, and Freedom. Regnery Publishing. p. 98. ISBN 0895264773. 
  113. ^ Boston T. Party (Kenneth W. Royce) (1998). "Chapter 3". Boston on Guns & Courage. Javelin Press. pp. 3:15. ISBN 1888766042. 
  114. ^ "'Conceal and carry' begins in Wisconsin". KARE. November 1, 2011. http://www.kare11.com/news/article/944700/14/Conceal-and-carry-begins-in-Wisconsin. 
  115. ^ Lott, Jr., John R., David B. Mustard (1997). "Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns". Journal of Legal Studies 26 (1): 1–68. doi:10.1086/467988. NCJ 174718. 
  116. ^ a b Black, Dan, Daniel Nagin (1998). "Do 'Right to Carry' Laws Reduce Violent Crime?". Journal of Legal Studies 27 (1): 209–219. doi:10.1086/468019. NCJ 177169. 
  117. ^ Ludwig, Jens (1998). "Concealed-Gun-Carrying Laws and Violent Crime: Evidence from State Panel Data". International Review of Law and Economics 18 (3): 239–254. doi:10.1016/S0144-8188(98)00012-X. 
  118. ^ Committee on Law and Justice (2004). "Chapter 6". Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. National Academy of Science. ISBN 0309091241. http://www.nap.edu/books/0309091241/html/120.html. 
  119. ^ a b c d e DeSimone, Jeff, Sara Markowitz (September 2005). "The Effect of Child Access Prevention Laws on Non-Fatal Gun Injuries". NBER Working Paper No. 11613. National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/W11613. 
  120. ^ "Boy finds forgotten gun, accidentally shoots self in head". CNN. April 21, 2009. "http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/04/21/forgotten.gun/index.html?eref=edition" 
  121. ^ Cummings, Peter, David C. Grossman, Frederick P. Rivara, Thomas D. Koepsell (1997). "State Gun Safe Storage Laws and Child Mortality Due to Firearms". Journal of the American Medical Association 278 (13): 1084–1086. doi:10.1001/jama.278.13.1084. PMID 9315767. 
  122. ^ Webster, Daniel, John Vernick, et al. (2004). "Association between Youth-Focused Firearm Laws and Youth Suicides". Journal of the American Medical Association 292 (5): 594–601. doi:10.1001/jama.292.5.594. PMID 15292085. 
  123. ^ Webster, D.W., M. Starnes (2000). "Reexamining the association between child access prevention gun laws and unintentional shooting deaths of children". Pediatric 106 (6): 1466–1469. doi:10.1542/peds.106.6.1466. PMID 11099605. 
  124. ^ "Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down D.C. Handgun Ban" Bloomberg News, March 9, 2007
  125. ^ Wintemute, Garen (2000). "Guns and Gun Violence". In Blumstein, Alfred, Joel Wallman. The Crime Drop in America. Cambridge University Press. 
  126. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Hardy, Marjorie S. (2002). "Behavior-Oriented Approaches to Reducing Gun Violence". The Future of Children (Woodrow Wilson School / The Brookings Institution) 12 (2): 101–118. NCJ 196785. 
  127. ^ Christophersen, E.R. (1993). "Improving compliance in childhood injury control". Developmental aspects of health compliance behavior. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 219–231. 
  128. ^ Williams, A.F.; Farrell, RJ; Kelly, CP (1982). "Passive and active measures for controlling disease and injury". Health Psychology 1 (3): 399–409. doi:10.1037/h0090242. PMID 11586556. 
  129. ^ "The Center to Prevent Youth Violence". http://www.cpyv.org. Retrieved 29 August 2011. 
  130. ^ http://www.paxusa.org/speakup/about.html
  131. ^ "What is SPEAK UP?". http://www.cpyv.org/programs/what-is-speak-up/. Retrieved 29 August 2011. [dead link]
  132. ^ Oatis, Pamela J., Nancy M. Fenn Buderer, Peter Cummings, Rosemarie Fleitz (1999). "Pediatric practice based evaluation of the Steps to Prevent Firearm Injury program". Injury Prevention 5 (1): 48–52. doi:10.1136/ip.5.1.48. PMC 1730460. PMID 10323570. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1730460. 
  133. ^ Benthin, A., P. Slovic, H. Severan (1993). "A psychometric study of adolescent risk perception". Journal of Adolescence 16 (2): 153–168. doi:10.1006/jado.1993.1014. PMID 8376640. 
  134. ^ a b Hyson, M.C., G.G. Bollin (1990). "Children's appraisal of home and neighborhood risks: Questions for the 1990s". Children's Environments Quarterly 7 (3): 50–60. 
  135. ^ Coppens, N.M. (1985). "Cognitive development and locus of control as predictors of preschoolers' understanding of safety and prevention". Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 6: 43–55. doi:10.1016/0193-3973(85)90015-2. 
  136. ^ Cook, P.J., J. Ludwig (May 1997). "Guns in America: National survey on private ownership and use of firearms". Research in Brief. National Institute of Justice. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/165476.pdf. 
  137. ^ Hemenway, D., S. Solnek, D.R. Azrael (1995). "Firearm training and storage". Journal of the American Medical Association 273 (1): 46–50. doi:10.1001/jama.273.1.46. PMID 7996649. 
  138. ^ Wilson, M.H., S.P. Baker, S.P. Teret, et al. (1991). Saving children: A guide to injury prevention. Oxford University Press. 
  139. ^ Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, Committee on Preventative Psychiatry (1999). "Violent behavior in children and youth: Preventative intervention from a psychiatric perspective". Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 38 (3): 235–241. doi:10.1097/00004583-199903000-00008. 
  140. ^ Arrendondo, S., T. Aultman-Bettride, T.P. Johnson, et al. (1999). Preventing youth handgun violence: A national study with trends and patterns for the state of Colorado. Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. 
  141. ^ Davidson, L.L., M S Durkin, L Kuhn, P O'Connor, B Barlow, M C Heagarty (1994). "The impact of the Safe Kids/Healthy Neighborhoods Injury Prevention Program in Harlem, 1988 through 1991". American Journal of Public Health 84 (4): 580–586. doi:10.2105/AJPH.84.4.580. PMC 1614780. PMID 8154560. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1614780. 
  142. ^ Klassen, T.P., I.M. MacKay, A.W. Moher, A. I. Jones (2000). "Community-based prevention interventions". The Future of Children (The Future of Children, Vol. 10, No. 1) 10 (1): 83–110. doi:10.2307/1602826. JSTOR 1602826. 
  143. ^ Braga, Anthony A., David M. Kennedy, Elin J. Waring, Anne M. Piehl (2001). "Problem-Oriented Policing, Deterrence, and Youth Violence: An Evaluation of Boston's Operation Ceasefire". Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 38 (3). NCJ 189562. 
  144. ^ Callahan, C.M., F.P. Rivara, T.D. Koepsell (1994). "Money for guns: Evaluation of the Seattle gun "buy-back" program". Public Health Reports 109 (4): 472–477. PMC 1403522. PMID 8041845. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1403522. 
  145. ^ Rosenfeld, R. (1996). "Gun buy-backs: Crime control or community mobilization?". In M.R. Plotkin. Under Fire: Gun Buy-Backs, Exchanges, and Amnesty Programs. Police Executive Research Forum. NCJ 161877. 
  146. ^ Kennedy, David M., Anne M. Piehl, Anthony A. Braga (1996). "Gun buy-backs: Where do we stand and where do we go?". In M.R. Plotkin. Under Fire: Gun Buy-Backs, Exchanges, and Amnesty Programs. Police Executive Research Forum. NCJ 161877. 
  147. ^ "County Gun Buy Back Program Touted as a Success". 2010-05-26. http://cbs4.com/local/gun.bounty.program.2.1718353.html. Retrieved June 1, 2010. 
  148. ^ a b c Kennedy, David M., Anthony A. Braga, Anne M. Piehl (2001). Reducing Gun Violence: The Boston Gun Project's Operation Ceasefire. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/188741.pdf. 
  149. ^ Braga, Anthony A., David L. Weisburd, et al. (1999). "Problem-oriented policing in violent crime places: A randomized controlled experiment". Criminology 7 (3): 541–580. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1999.tb00496.x. NCJ 178770. 
  150. ^ Weisburd, D., L. Green (1995). "Policing drug hot spots: The Jersey City drug market analysis experiment". Justice Quarterly 12 (4): 711–735. doi:10.1080/07418829500096261. NCJ 167667. 
  151. ^ Sherman, L.W., D. Rogan (1995). "Effects of gun seizures on gun violence: "Hot spots" patrol in Kansas City". Justice Quarterly 12 (4): 673–694. doi:10.1080/07418829500096241. NCJ 167665. 
  152. ^ Braga, Anthony A., Glenn L. Pierce (2005). "Disrupting Illegal Firearms Markets in Boston: The Effects of Operation Ceasefire on the Supply of New Handguns to Criminals". Criminology and Public Policy 4 (4). NCJ 212303. 
  153. ^ National Institute of Justice (February 2005). Research Report: Reducing Gun Violence - Operation Ceasefire in Los Angeles. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/192378.pdf. 
  154. ^ a b Raphael, Stephen, Jens Ludwig (2003). "Prison Sentence Enhancements: The Case of Project Exile". In Ludwig, Jens, Philip I. Cook. Evaluating Gun Policy: Effects on Crime and Violence. Brookings Institution Press. NCJ 203345. 
  155. ^ U.S. Department of Justice (May 13, 2003). "Project Safe Neighborhoods - Fact Sheet". http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/html/PSNFactS.pdf. 
  156. ^ "Project Safe Neighborhoods: FAQs". U.S. Department of Justice. http://www.psn.gov/about/faqs.html. 
  157. ^ Committee on Law and Justice (2004). "Chapter 9". Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. National Academy of Science. ISBN 0309091241. 
  158. ^ Committee on Law and Justice (2004). "Chapter 1". Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. National Academy of Science. ISBN 0309091241. http://www.nap.edu/books/0309091241/html/11.html. 
  159. ^ Committee on Law and Justice (2004). "Chapter 2". Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. National Academy of Science. ISBN 0309091241. http://www.nap.edu/books/0309091241/html/19.html. 

[edit] External links

  • Gun violence - National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gun_violence_in_the_United_States&oldid=489046245"
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages