It is well known that many crimes in the United States are committed with firearms. Less adequately documented is the frequency with which victims use guns in self-defense. We used National Crime Victimization Survey data to examine incidents where victims employed guns against offenders. Between 1987 and 1990 there were an estimated 258,460 incidents of firearm defense, an annual mean of 64,615. Victims used firearms in 0.18% of all crimes recorded by the survey and in 0.83% of violent offenses. Firearm self-defense is rare compared with gun crimes.

The incidence of defensive firearm use by US crime victims, 1987 through 1990

Purpose – The purpose of the present analysis is to test the relative impact of trust in police, social cohesion, and fear of crime on neighborhood‐level rates of concealed pistol license (CPL) holding. The dynamics of both formal and informal social control are hypothesized to affect neighborhood CPL concentrations.Design/methodology/approach – Data were neighborhood‐level and came from a city survey and the state Department of Licensing. A path model was estimated.Findings – Police service level had a negative indirect effect on neighborhood CPL concentrations through fear of crime, but had a strong positive direct effect. Social cohesion also had a strong positive direct effect on CPL rates.Research limitations/implications – The study suggests that lawful concealed hand‐gun carrying should be viewed as a way in which neighborhoods exercise informal social control. People in socially cohesive areas may carry concealed hand‐guns not only because they fear for their own safety, but also because they feel...

A Neighborhood-Level Analysis of Concealed Hand-Gun Permits

Many states have recently adopted “shall-issue” gun laws making it is easier for applicants to receive permits for carrying concealed weapons. The policy shift is based on assumptions regarding cri...

Gun Felons and Gun Regulation: Offenders' Views About and Reactions to "Shall-Issue" Policies for Carrying Concealed Weapons

THE RELAXING OF VIRGINIA'S CONCEALED WEAPON LAW: ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE CRIME RATES FOR MURDER, AGGRAVATED ASSAULT AND ROBBERY Jerry S. Conner, M.S. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 1997. Major Director: Laura J. Moriarty, Ph.D. Department of Criminal Justice The primary objective of this research is to examine the relationship between the relaxation of Virginia's concealed weapon law, which became effective July 1, 1995, and three crime-related variables. Although there have been two major studies conducted in this area on a national basis, this research represents the first time a study has been conducted in Virginia. A secondary objective of this research is to examine relevant data to determine if this change in the law influenced the purchasing behavior of citizens regarding handguns and the issuance rate for concealed weapon permits. An interrupted time-series design is employed in examining the data for three crime-related variables over a six-year period, July 1, 1990 through June 30, 1996. Multiple Linear Regression is used to determine the characteristics

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The Relaxing of Virginia's Concealed Weapon Law: Its Relationship to the Crime Rates for Murder, Aggravated Assault and Robbery

Hold your fire - gun-control wont stop rising violence

tag=1 data=Hold your fire : gun control won't stop rising violence. by David B. Kopel

tag=2 data=Kopel, David B.

tag=3 data=Policy Review,

tag=5 data=63

tag=6 data=Winter 1993

tag=7 data=58-65.

tag=8 data=FIREARMS

tag=10 data=To some well-meaning Americans, the antidote to gun crimes is gun control. Provided by MICAH, Canberra.

tag=11 data=1993/5/5

tag=12 data=93/0242

tag=13 data=CAB

Hold your fire : gun control won't stop rising violence. by David B. Kopel

In recent years, the debate over gull policy has been dominated by two federal initiatives: the Brady bill's waiting period for the purchase of handguns and tile ban on so-called assault weapons. While these federal issues have riveted tile nation's attention, however, a quiet revolution in gun policy has spread throughout the states. Ten years ago, only a half-dozen states routinely issued permits for trained citizens to carry concealed handguns for personal protection. Most states gave police departments wide latitude to issue such permits, which were rarely given to persons other than retired police officers and people with political connections. Today, however, 30 states comprising half the nation's population grant concealed-carry permits to law-abiding citizens. In the long run, this movement will be far more significant than either the Brady waiting period (which expires in 1998) or the ban on certain semiautomatics (which expires in 2004). This movement began in the early 1980s, when gun-rights activists in Florida joined with law-enforcement lobbies such as the Florida Chiefs of Police Association to reform the state's handgun law. They proposed legislation that entitled any citizen who clears a fingeprint-based background check and passes gun-safety classes to receive a permit to carry a concealed handgun for protection. Although the legislature passed the concealed-carry, bill several times, it was vetoed repeatedly by Democratic governor Bob Graham. But his successor, Republican governor Bob Martinez, signed the bill in 1987. Since then, a steady progression of states has adopted concealed-carry laws modeled on Flolida's, and more are likely to follow. Whenever a state legislature first considers a concealed-carry bill, opponents typically warn of horrible consequences: Permit holders will slaughter each other in traffic disputes, while would-be Rambos shoot bystanders in incompetent attempts to thwart crime. But within a year of passage, the issue usually drops off the news media's radar screen, while gun-control advocates in the legislature conclude that the law wasn't so bad after all. In some respects, the concealed-carry movement has become a women's issue. In fact, about a quarter of those who apply for and receive carry permits are women. When Alaska governor Walter Hickel signed concealed-carry legislation in 1993, he explained that the constituents he found most compelling were "the women who called and said they worked late and had to cross dark parking lots, and why couldn't they carry a concealed gun? Leading advocates for concealed-carry laws include female victims of crime such as Suzanna Gratia Hupp, whose parents were murdered five years ago in a mass killing in Killeen, Texas; Rebecca John Wyatt, the founder of Safety for Women and Responsible Motherhood; and Marion Hammer, the new president of the National Rifle Association and an activist in the Florida concealed-carry debate. Hammer once brandished her handgun to ward off a gang of would-be robbers. Has this movement toward concealed-carry has made America safer or more dangerous? In an article for the Tennessee Law Review, historian Clayton Cramer and I examined homicide rates in states that had adopted concealed-carry laws, adjusted for the effects of national homicide trends. In all but one slate we examined, homicide rates did not appear to change as a result of the laws. We saw fluctuations, of course, but nothing out of the ordinary. The lone exception was Florida, where the murder rate started an immediate, steady decline. Before the law, Floridians were about 36 percent more likely to be murdered than other Americans; after a few years, the Florida rate was equal to or slightly less than the national rate. As for other violent crimes, Florida was the worst state in the nation both before and after the new law. Florida's overall violent-crime rate, however, rose much more slowly since 1987 than did the national violent-crime rate. …

David B. Kopel

Papers

Hold your fire - gun-control wont stop rising violence

Hold your fire : gun control won't stop rising violence. by David B. Kopel

The Untold Triumph of Concealed-Carry Permits