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.

The gun debate

Abstract: Introduction 1. America and Its Guns 2. Reasons for Owning a Firearm 3. The Value of Guns for Safety and Protection 4. The Costs of Gun Violence 5. Causes of Gun Violence 6. Manufacture and Marketing of Guns 7. How America Regulates Firearms 8. Effectiveness of Firearms Policy 9. Guns and Gun Control in History 10. Public Opinion and Political Party Positions on Guns 11. The Gun Rights Movement 12. The Gun Control Movement 13. Gun Policy Going Forward Bibliography Index

This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible

Abstract: This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible Charles E. Cobb Jr. New York: Basic Books, 2014, 293 pp. Charles Cobb's excellent book This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible teaches two important lessons that will make some people uncomfortable. The first lesson is summarized in the subtitle: the exercise of Second Amendment rights was a sine qua non for the survival and success of the Civil Rights Movement in the South during the 1960s. The second uncomfortable lesson, for some people, is that community organizing is vital to democracy. This Nonviolent Stuff is not the first book about armed self-defense in the Civil Rights Movement, but it does make a vital and unique contribution. Nicholas Johnson's Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms (Prometheus, 2014) surveyed the long history of self-defense by black people in America--from Frederick Douglass advising how to resist slave-catchers, to Otis McDonald winning his Supreme Court case in 2010. This survey includes a long chapter about the Civil Rights Movement, and it is the best introduction to the subject. As a law professor, Johnson pays careful attention to the national leaders of the civil rights organizations and their formally expressed views. The other major, prior book on the subject is The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement by Lance Hill (University of North Carolina Press, 2004). This overlooked gem tells the history of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed community defense organization founded in southeastern Louisiana in 1965. Especially in the Louisiana panhandle and in southwestern Mississippi, the Deacons were immensely successful at suppressing Klan violence and promoting the repeal of segregation. The Johnson and Cobb books both include careful analysis of the Deacons, but of course not in the detail provided by Hill. What makes This Nonviolent Stuff so powerful is that it provides the perspective of the community organizers themselves and explains why they overcame their aversion to forceful self-defense. In contrast to conventional histories of the Civil Rights Movement, which concentrate on famous leaders, This Non violent Stuff is history from the ground up. Cobb was a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, working in the rural Deep South. In conformity with SNCC's name, Cobb began his organizing work strongly committed to nonviolence. Even more deeply invested in nonviolence was another community organizing group, the Congress of Racial Equality. CORE had roots in the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the world's leading ecumenical organization of Christian pacifists. So how did these people end up with guns? To begin with, they went to places which already had lots of guns. The rural South has a very strong gun culture. "Gun control," such as restrictive licensing laws, originated in ex-Confederate states when white supremacists attempted to prevent freedmen from defending themselves. Nevertheless, by the middle of the 20th century, black fanners and residents of small towns had a healthy supply of firearms. Many black men had become proficient shooters during their service in World War II or Korea. They had an established tradition of self-defense--of using their anus to deter and drive off whites who might come to their homes and threaten their families. The civil rights community organizers were housed with local families. And the families made it quite clear to their long-term guests that if Klansmen showed up to attack the organizers, there was going to be an armed response. When the organizers traveled, especially at night, there was grave risk of homicide by the Klan, other terrorist groups, or unorganized thugs. So the community tended to insist that tire organizers be provided with armed escort. …

Gun Ownership and Counseling of Alabama Pediatricians

Abstract: Objective: To examine the personal behavior of primary care pediatricians in Alabama with respect to a gun control policy. The American Academy of Pediatrics supports removal of handguns from homes, safe gun storage in homes with guns, and counseling patients about gun safety practices. Design: Survey. Setting: Primary care pediatricians. Patients or Other Participants: Population-based sample. Interventions: None. Main Outcome Measures: The proportion of pediatricians who were gun and handgun owners was examined. In addition, the safety behaviors and counseling practices reported by pediatricians were examined. Results: The response rate for pediatricians was 67%. Fifty percent of pediatricians reported owning a gun. Thirty-four percent of pediatricians had a handgun in their household. Eleven percent of pediatricians had unsafe gun practices, where unsafe was defined as having a loaded gun in the home or car at least some of the time. The most common reason for owning a handgun or having a loaded gun in the home or car was personal protection. Only a third (33%) of pediatricians routinely counseled their patients about gun safety. Long gun owners were less likely to counsel patients about bike helmet safety and were less likely to use car seats and bike helmets for their own children. Conclusions: A large proportion of Alabama pediatricians are gun owners, but most store weapons safely. Although long gun owners were less likely to use car seats or bike helmets and less likely to counsel patients regarding bike helmet use, no effect of gun ownership on counseling about gun safety was identified. (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1995;149:442-446)

Price of Liberty or Never Again: Americans’ Views on Preventing Mass Murder

Abstract: Shortly following the mass murders at a concert in Las Vegas, NV and at a church Sutherland Springs, TX, a national sample (n = 1,000) was surveyed in December 2017 regarding gun control policies. ...

Gun-Control Legislation and the Impact on Suicide

Abstract: Gun control is the prototypical example of controlling the environment for the means of suicide, an effective public health approach to suicide prevention. Canada's Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1977 (Bill C-51) provides an excellent opportunity to illustrate the effects of legislative gun-control laws and the impact on suicide. The research in Canada supports the significant effect of C-51 in reducing suicides and firearm suicides, even if one controls for socioeconomic factors, although not equally for all ages. The young, a high-risk group, show the most significant decrease, without significant substitution of other methods (displacement). Studies on gun-control laws from New Zealand, the United States, and Australia support the Canadian findings. It is concluded that, although not equally applicable in all countries, gun control may well have significant applications in reducing suicide worldwide.