Topic
Gun control
About: Gun control is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1211 publications have been published within this topic receiving 16516 citations. The topic is also known as: firearms control & gun law.
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01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: In this paper, the Spectre of the Gun: Historical and cultural perspectives of the American 'Gun Culture' is discussed. But the authors focus on the media coverage of the 'gun question' and do not address the issue of mental health.
Abstract: 1. Introduction: Why guns? 2. The Spectre of the Gun: Historical and cultural perspectives 3. The Making of the American 'Gun Culture' 4. Discovery and Construction: Media coverage of the 'gun question' 5. Tragedy, Aftermath and Politics 6. Taking Stock of the Gun Control Arguments 7. Conclusion: Culture and ricochets
52 citations
Journal Article•
52 citations
TL;DR: This article found that living near a mass shooting should increase support for stricter gun control by making the threat of gun violence more salient, and that this effect does not vary by partisanship, but does vary as a function of salience-related event factors, such as repetition, magnitude and recency.
Abstract: The recent spate of mass public shootings in the United States raises important questions about how these tragic events might impact mass opinion and public policy. Integrating research on focusing events, contextual effects and perceived threat, this article stipulates that residing near a mass shooting should increase support for gun control by making the threat of gun violence more salient. Drawing upon multiple data sources on mass public shootings paired with large-N survey data, it demonstrates that increased proximity to a mass shooting is associated with heightened public support for stricter gun control. Importantly, the results show that this effect does not vary by partisanship, but does vary as a function of salience-related event factors, such as repetition, magnitude and recency. Critically, the core result is replicated using panel data. Together, these results suggest a process of context-driven policy feedback between existing gun laws, egregious gun violence and demand for policy change.
52 citations
TL;DR: Gun ownership, rather than the strictness of gun control laws, was found to be the strongest correlate of the rates of suicide and homicide by guns.
Abstract: The relationship of the extent of gun ownership and the strictness of gun control laws to suicide and homicide rates in the nine major geographic regions of the United States was explored. Gun ownership, rather than the strictness of gun control laws, was found to be the strongest correlate of the rates of suicide and homicide by guns. Regions with a higher extent of gun ownership had higher rates of suicide and homicide by firearms.
51 citations
TL;DR: The Rhetoric of reaction has been applied to the issue of gun control in the United States as mentioned in this paper, arguing that the proposed reform will have results exactly the opposite of those intended by the reform's proponents.
Abstract: In his 1991 book The Rhetoric of Reaction, Albert O. Hirschman identified three arguments that are commonly mustered against proposed "progressive" reforms.1 One argument contends that the proposed reform will have results exactly the opposite of those intended by the reform's proponents; the second is that the reform will have no effect at all; and the third is that the reform will come at the cost of degrading fundamental rights or values-freedom itself, for instance.2 The labels for these three arguments form the subtitle of Hirschman's book: "Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy."3 Gun control has long been a contentious issue in the United States. A wide spectrum of laws regulating the manufacture, import, sale, possession, and use of guns, with the ultimate purpose of reducing gun violence, can be deemed "gun control laws." Such laws have attracted a good deal of opposition. Given his argument, Hirschman should be pleased to learn that the "rhetoric of reaction" has indeed been brought to bear on the issue of gun control: Gun-control laws don't work. What is worse, they act perversely. While legitimate users of firearms encounter intense regulation, scrutiny, and bureaucratic control, illicit markets easily adapt to whatever difficulties a free society throws in their way. Also, efforts to curtail the supply of firearms inflict collateral damage on freedom and privacy interests that have long been considered central to American public life. Thanks to the seemingly never-ending war on drugs and long experience attempting to suppress prostitution and pornography, we know a great deal about how illicit markets function and how costly to the public attempts to control them can be.4
50 citations