Showing papers on "Gun control published in 1983"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the processing of these Gun Law cases in Detroit Recorders Court, as well as the effects of the law on crime, and find that most of the goals of the Law's proponents are not met.
Abstract: Michigan's Felony Firearm Statute (Gun Law) imposed a two-year mandatory add-on sentence for defendants convicted of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. The Law was widely advertised with proponents claiming that it would introduce greater equity in sentences, ensure certainty of punishment, and decrease violent crime in the state. We examine the processing of these Gun Law cases in Detroit Recorders Court, as well as the effects of the law on crime, and find that most of the goals of the Law's proponents are not met. Notwithstanding a rigid prosecutorial policy which prohibited plea bargaining in these gun cases, alternative mechanisms developed to mitigate the Law's effects and, in most instances, to preserve the "going rate" for various crime categories. Similarly, using an interrupted time-series model, we are unable to uncover effects of the law, or the associated publicity campaign, on violent crime.
118 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a model to explain legal handgum demand that emphasizes the level of collective security as a key factor, and find that low confidence in collective security contributes to both the need for and the resistance to gun control policies.
Abstract: One controversial element in the debate on firearms policy is whether crime and civil disorders contribute significantly to the private demand for firearms. In this paper we present a model to explain legal handgum demand that emphasizes the level of collective security as a key factor. Time-series data on legal gun demand in Detroit from 1951 to 1977 are consistent with a model in which individuals respond to three determinants of collective security: high violent crime rates, civil disordes, and police strength. The analysis suggests that low confidence in collective security contributes to both the need for and the resistance to gun control policies.
112 citations
TL;DR: In this article, two random telephone surveys were conducted to assess the motivations underlying public support for handgun control, and the data from both surveys suggested that such support was linked most strongly to citizen beliefs about the effect of a handgun ban on the overall crime rate.
Abstract: Two random telephone surveys were conducted-one in Evanston, Illinois and one in Morton Grove, Illinois-to assess the motivations underlying public support for handgun control. The data from both surveys suggested that such support was linked most strongly to citizen beliefs about the effect of a handgun ban on the overall crime rate. Little support was found for either the suggestion that gun control opposition is linked to concerns about personal protection against crime or for the suggestion that views about gun control are part of a more general ideological orientation.
41 citations
TL;DR: The case for legal restrictions on gun ownership and use as a strategy for reducing criminal violence relies on factual assumptions about the nature of firearm ownership and violent behavior as mentioned in this paper, which are substantially at variance with the available empirical evidence.
Abstract: The case for legal restrictions on gun ownership and use as a strategy for reducing criminal violence relies on factual assumptions about the nature of gun ownership and violent behavior. Five of the most crucial ones are identified and subjected to a comparison with the available empirical evidence. All of the following assumptions were found to be substantially at variance with the evidence: (1) Guns are five times deadlier than the weapons most likely to be substituted for them in assaults in which guns are not available. (2) The sight of a gun can elicit aggression, due to the learned association between guns and violence. (3) If guns are made more expensive, more difficult to obtain, or legally risky to own, people will do without them. (4) Guns are useless for self-defense or protection of one's family, home, or business, and have no deterrent effect on criminals. (5) Homicides are largely “crimes of passion” committed by otherwise law-abiding citizens not distinguishable from other people. Therefore, control must be directed at all gun owners rather than select criminal subgroups.
32 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of state laws on the rates of gun violence was analyzed and it was suggested that the possible reason for such ineffectiveness is not necessarily the nature of the solutions (laws), but rather the misunderstanding of the problem (gun violence) by policy implementers.
Abstract: This analysis attempts to measure the impact of state laws upon the rates of gun violence. While controlling for several standard social phenomena and using two different statistical techniques, it appears that laws governing the use of handguns in the various states have little effect on the rates of gun crime. It is suggested that the possible reason for such ineffectiveness is not necessasrily the nature of the solutions (laws), but rather the misunderstanding of the problem (gun violence) by policy implementers. Language: en
18 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated how, if at all, the neighborhood environments of urban blacks and whites affect their patterns and levels of gun ownership, what their attitudes are toward gun regulation, and whether there is a relationship between gun regulation attitudes and firearms ownership.
Abstract: Consensus has not been reached on whether a relationsip exists among violent crime, fear of crime, and firearms ownership. The questions addressed here are how, if at all, the neighborhood environments of urban blacks and whites affect their patterns and levels of gun ownership, what their attitudes are toward gun regulation, and whether there is a relationship between gun regulation attitudes and firearms ownership. Data collected through a mail questionnaire from white and black residents of high and low homicide risk neighborhoods in Detroit were used to test the questions. Results indicate, for the most part, that blacks and whites hold different attitudes toward gun regulation, that gun regulation attitudes affect gun ownership patterns, and that only in one instance did neighborhood environment explain gun ownership relatively well.
17 citations
TL;DR: In this article, five political functions of firearms control laws are discussed and examples are provided, and the possible relationship between such policies and the distribution of political power is discussed and discussed.
Abstract: Most of the debate over gun control policy has slighted the possible relationship between such policies and the distribution of political power. Five political functions of firearms control laws are discussed and examples are provided. Language: en
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the existence of some widely held values in the United States public that favor the possession of guns, the limitations on the ability of public agencies in United States to enforce restraints on the possession, and the implications of the fact that so many guns are already in the hands of the public greatly reduce the possibility that effective measures will be introduced to reduce the existing supply of guns.
Abstract: Policy analysis has failed to guide gun control policy away from its current impasse because analysts have avoided facing several crucially important features of the current reality: the existence of some widely held values in the United States public that favor the possession of guns; the limitations on the ability of public agencies in the United States to enforce restraints on the possession of handguns; and the implications of the fact that so many guns are already in the hands of the public. These factors greatly reduce the possibility that effective measures will be introduced to reduce the existing supply of guns. Some effective measures of gun control may be possible nonetheless, mainly through the mobilization of large metropolitan police forces.
7 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a survey-based counter-construction developed by the gun lobby is used to argue that the public's desire for serious gun control has been blocked by the "gun lobby."
Abstract: Opinion survey data have been used to assert that the public's desire for serious gun control has been blocked by the "gun lobby." This construction is opposed by a survey-based counter construction developed by the gun lobby. The superiority of the gun lobby's construction is supported by this article's survey data and by analysis of actual elections in 1976 in Massachusetts and in 1982 in California. What blocks the public from getting strict gun control is that the public does not want it. Language: en
6 citations
TL;DR: The authors pointed out that the conventional social scientific treatment of controversial social phenomena often has much more in common with sagecraft than it does with social science and argued that cosmopolitan ethnocentrism and the sage orientation that it fosters do little to encourage the intellectual curiosity and skepticism so vital to the social scientific enterprise.
Abstract: This article is not about the gun control issue per se; instead, it considers the way in which this issue has been treated by social scientists. The article points to some of the shortcomings in what is commonly referred to as the conventional social scientific approach to controversial social matters. While the subject examined in the article is gun control, other equally controversial issues, such as school busing or the legalization of marijuana, could have been used as well to make the same points.SUMMARYUsing the gun control issue as a case in point, this article has argued that the conventional social scientific treatment of controversial social phenomena often has much more in common with sagecraft than it does with social science. The social scientific treatment of the gun issue passed on to the general public through magazine articles, the published findings of various social-science-assisted commissions, and social science textbooks, is generally identical to the pro-gun control argument accepted by that segment of American society with which the more prominent social scientists are more likely to identify--namely urban, college educated, philosophically and politically liberal, upper-middle class, or cosmopolitan America. It would appear that cosmopolitan ethnocentrism and the sage orientation that it fosters do little to encourage the intellectual curiosity and skepticism so vital to the social scientific enterprise. Language: en
5 citations