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.

State Firearm Sales and Criminal Activity: Evidence from Firearm Background Checks

Abstract: The FBI has reported the number of monthly firearm background checks in every state since November 1998. This article uses data on background checks at the state level to explore the relationship between guns and crime. The background checks capture an individual's intention to purchase a firearm and explain 96% of the variation in gun manufacturing at a national level. Fixed effect negative binomial regressions show a positive, but insignificant, relationship between background checks and violent crimes. Property crimes are negatively related to background checks and statistically significant at the 10% level. The results suggest that gun control policies should be coupled with other initiatives if policy makers intend to reduce gun-related crime.

Beyond Gun Control: Examining Neoliberalism, Pro-Gun Politics and Gun Violence in the United States

Abstract: INTRODUCTIONThe widely reported mass shootings of 2012 have once again reinvigorated the long-standing debate about gun control in the United States. Particularly in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, CTwhich many have regarded as a "tipping point"- calls for stricter gun control seem more popular than ever (Hindman, 2012). Spurred by these developments, President Obama announced, in January of 2013, a series of legislative proposals and executive actions intended to tighten gun control and minimize gun violence (What's in Obama's Gun Control Proposals, 2013). At the same time, it is clear that a majority of Americans remain uncompromising about their right to own firearms. Indeed, shortly after the tragedy in Newtown, a Gallup poll found that opposition to ban handguns hit a record high, with 74 percent of Americans opposing such a ban (Saad, 2012). Furthermore, during the same period, gun dealers in various parts of the country reported record gun sales, particularly for AR-15s-the weapon used by Adam Lanza in the Newtown shooting (Shropshire, 2012).While much has been written about America's "gun culture" and how this culture is tied to a long history of anti-statist individualism in the US, much less attention has been given to how this culture (i.e., the set of values and beliefs that underpin pro-gun/anti-gun control politics) has, especially in recent decades, been supported and reinforced by the prevailing market ideology commonly referred to as neoliberalism.3 This paper contributes to the existing literature by addressing directly how the legitimacy of pro-gun politics in this country, especially in recent years, has relied on specific beliefs and cultural tropes that are at the heart of neoliberalism.4 Widely regarded as the dominant political-economic paradigm of our time, neoliberalism entails a view of the world that downplays the social realm and emphasizes the individual as the only viable unit of concern and analysis (e.g., Esposito 2011). Neoliberalism stresses competitive individualism as a natural outgrowth of human freedom, encourages a religious-like faith in the presumed powers of the free market to promote freedom and an optimal order, and understands the state as a protector of the prevailing market order as opposed to a guarantor of social or economic justice. In effect, supporters of neoliberalism envision an ideal universe as one consisting of autonomous, self-contained individuals freely pursuing their selfinterests with minimal political interventions.Efforts to promote this neoliberal vision of the world involve among other things, doing away with "big government" (otherwise known as a "nanny state"), emphasizing personal responsibility instead of social justice, prioritizing the private realm over the public sphere, and treating social problems as personal issues. This paper addresses how these typical neoliberal tenets are linked to (and support) pro-gun politics in the U.S. After providing a general overview of neoliberalism within the context of the gun control debate, we address the following key points: (1) the quasi-sacred status accorded by many gun enthusiasts to the Second Amendment has, especially in recent years, been invoked as a rhetorical tool to justify citizens' right to defend their liberty and property against the presumed evils neoliberals associate with "big government" (i.e., tyrannical state intrusion on private lives, increased regulations, etc.); (2) America's gun culture is tied to notions of selfreliance and "rugged individualism" that current neoliberal ideology associates with virtue and responsibility; (3) the sort of hyper-masculine subject associated with pro-gun politics-the type of individual prepared to take any measure, including violence, to protect "what is his"-is compatible with (and reinforced by) the sorts of values and forms of agency encouraged within a neoliberal market society (i.e., being competitive and doing whatever is necessary to survive and thrive in a "winner take all society"); and (4) unjustified gun violence is typically understood by many opponents of gun control and throughout much of the mainstream media as a personal trouble involving irresponsible, evil, or sick individuals rather than a societal problema position that is consistent with the neoliberal tendency to personalize social problems, thereby discouraging questions about the social dimension of this issue. …

The changing politics of gun control

Abstract: Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 Jackboots or Lace Panties? The Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco, and Firearms Chapter 4 Congress and Gun Control Chapter 5 Madison's Mistake? Judicial Construction of the Second Amendment Chapter 6 Gun Control Politics in California Chapter 7 The Structure of Public Support for Gun Control: The 1998 Battle over Question 3 in Maryland Chapter 8 Virginia: The Politcs of Concealed Weapons Chapter 9 Gun Control Laws in the States: Political and Apolitical Influences Chapter 10 Going Hunting Where the Ducks Are: The National Rifle Association and the Grass Roots Chapter 11 Trying to Stop the Craziness of This Business: Gun Control Groups Chapter 12 Public Opinion and Gun Control: Appearance and Transparence in Support and Opposition Chapter 13 The Electoral Politics of Gun Ownership Chapter 14 Index

Assessing the impact of knowledge and location on college students' perceptions of gun control and campus carry policies: a multisite comparison

Abstract: Recent incidents of mass shootings in schools have raised questions about the availability of “military-style” firearms and need for campus carry policies. Previous research that has measured students’ attitudes toward gun control has neglected the Northeastern Region of the United States and failed to include measures of students’ knowledge of current firearm legislation in prediction models. Using a sample of 1,518 students enrolled in 3 universities across two regions of the United States (e.g., Northeast and Midwest), the present study expands on prior literature by comparing regional variants in student gun owners, and perceptions of gun legislation. Results indicate that, with the exception of “military-style” rifles, students in the Northeast are more likely to have access to every other type of firearm assessed (e.g., rifle, shotgun, handgun), but significantly less likely to have completed a formal gun safety course. Knowledge of current gun legislation is a direct negative predictor of support for general gun control, and a direct positive predictor of support for faculty campus carry, however, race moderates the relationship between knowledge and support for gun control. These findings indicate that there may be a need for formal general gun safety education courses in the Northeast Region of the United States. Previous models that failed to control for knowledge of current gun legislation may have been misspecified.

Caught in the Crossfire: A Defense of the Cultural Theory of Gun-Risk Perceptions

Abstract: In this article, Dan Kahan and Donald Braman expand upon the cultural theory of gun-risk perception and respond to the commentaries on their previous article, More Statistics, Less Persuasion: A Cultural Theory of Gun-Risk Perceptions, 151 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1291 (2003). Their critics argue that the authors are too quick to dismiss the power of empirical information to influence individuals’ positions on gun control. But in analyzing the variety of their critics’ arguments, Kahan and Braman note the strange pattern of opinions that has emerged on the relative importance of culture and data in the gun debate. What could explain the puzzling congruence of opinion among staunch procontrollers and anticontrolles, all of whom concluded that data mattered most? What commonality could explain the agreement of a Texas law professor and a British social anthropologist that culture is in fact more important? Committed to furnishing empirical proof of the powerlessness of empirical proofs, Kahan and Braman constructed a regression analysis to answer these questions. They conclude in this article that this final study conclusively proves their assertion that statistics are incapable of persuading anyone to accept anything they don’t already believe; or, in other words, that the cultural basis of gun-risk perceptions better explains public perceptions in the gun control debate than a pure empirical information theory.