Gun Violence Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Most risk management activity in the healthcare sector is retrospective, based on learning from experience. This is feasible where the risks are routine, but emergency operations plans (EOP) guide the response to events that are both high... more

The term deviance is outlined in Tami Bereska’s book Deviance, Conformity, and Social Control in Canada (2018) as “a person, behaviour, or characteristic that is socially typed as deviant and subjected to measures of social control”.... more

The term deviance is outlined in Tami Bereska’s book Deviance, Conformity, and Social Control in Canada (2018) as “a person, behaviour, or characteristic that is socially typed as deviant and subjected to measures of social control”. Deviance can be explained through various theoretical perspectives, but this paper will be examining deviance from the Functionalist Perspective; using Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory to examine the March for Our Lives movement through a perspective of deviance.

This analysis of gun violence of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in Germany follows four lines of inquiry: First, it specifies what was seen as violence and asks whether this understanding changed. Second, it examines the... more

This analysis of gun violence of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in Germany follows four lines of inquiry: First, it specifies what was seen as violence and asks whether this understanding changed. Second, it examines the contextual, structural, and cultural factors that influence the occurrence of violent behavior.
Third, it examines the actors: Who acts violently, when, and why? And who was relevant in establishing which control regimes? Fourth, it analyses the kinds of control measures that were debated and the ways and means by which control was exerted. This historical case study identifies the mechanisms that are crucial for the perception of violence and uncover some of the mechanisms of violence control relationships. It shows how public attention and communication, information, and
scandalization are important triggers for violence control. It will also reveal how the violence control relationship is closely associated with political, social, and technological factors and therefore needs to be continuously renegotiated.

This article argues that historical lessons in gun control point the way to potential improvements in U.S. gun control in the future. The article begins by examining Australia’s response to the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, where the... more

This article argues that historical lessons in gun control point the way to potential improvements in U.S. gun control in the future. The article begins by examining Australia’s response to the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, where the country acted quickly to ban certain weapons under the leadership of a conservative prime minister. Having had eleven mass shootings in the decade before the ban, Australia had zero in the two decades after. The article notes that similar programs were proposed in America by President Franklin Roosevelt, among others, and argues that they are likely to be enacted within the next generation or two.

We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-Soviet Georgia. While neighbouring states retain restrictive Soviet-era gun laws, in Georgia, state failure, armed conflict and proliferation... more

We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-Soviet Georgia. While neighbouring states retain restrictive Soviet-era gun laws, in Georgia, state failure, armed conflict and proliferation of weapons during the 1990s all impelled recent governments towards moderate gun policies, including liberal rules on handgun ownership, strict rules on gun carriage and a national gun registry. We conceptualize gun policy as the product of relatively durable institutional legacies and underlying social attitudes—in this case, a distinctive post-communist ‘gunscape’—which constrain future policy development; and specific political conjunctures, which provide opportunities for limited policy experimentation. While Georgian gun owners desire weapons for self-defence, sport and the affirmation of masculinity, they do not seek to defy the state or replace its role in collective security, leading to a moderate ‘harm reduction’ approach to regulation that may be applicable in other post-conflict societies.

The research paper briefly addresses the problem of the issues of social justice facing people within the United States. A solution to this problem will establish fairness or balanced relation between persons and equality in factors such... more

The research paper briefly addresses the problem of the issues of social justice facing people within the United States. A solution to this problem will establish fairness or balanced relation between persons and equality in factors such as the distribution of wealth, quality health care, gun violence, good education, and LGBTQ, and racial freedom for all people. In order to solve this problem scholars and academia's along with social justice groups mentioned within this document should advocate to local and state legislators to impact change. Taking this one approach will ensure America will be a safer level in terms of fairness in opportunities, equality in human rights, and reduced discrimination in the United States in the coming five years.

The warrant of the dead refers to an explicit or implicit claim that the dead place a demand on the living. The living are called on to act and the dead are invoked as justification for that action: since they died, we should do X. Seeing... more

The warrant of the dead refers to an explicit or implicit claim that the dead place a demand on the living. The living are called on to act and the dead are invoked as justification for that action: since they died, we should do X. Seeing this rhetorical move as a warrant is useful because the connection between the dead and the requested action of the living is often assumed rather than argued outright. This essay examines how, why, and to what effect President Barack Obama used the warrant of the dead in his gun control rhetoric since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook
Elementary School on December 14, 2012. By extending,
expanding, and intensifying memories of the victims of gun
violence, Obama used the warrant of the dead to try to establish sustained concern for those victims and thus sustained commitment to gun control. Yet Obama’s effort to transform gun control supporters into gun control activists proved largely ineffective. Examining this partial rhetorical failure offers rhetorical scholars important insights about the warrant of the dead, the gun debate, and, more generally, the challenges of public argument and deliberation in an era of fleeting engagement.

Trinidad and Tobago is one of the most violent nations in the Caribbean and Latin America region. In response to the increasing homicides and gun crimes, the state has developed programmes that emphasise securitisation without meaningful... more

Trinidad and Tobago is one of the most violent nations in the Caribbean and Latin America region. In response to the increasing homicides and gun crimes, the state has developed programmes that emphasise securitisation without meaningful incorporation of strategies to transform social and gender inequalities. Analyses of crime and violence as well as peace-building programmes and projects, ignore the role of patriarchal notions of manhood, namely, toxic masculinity, and its intersections with social exclusion that perpetuate violence in communities. The challenge for a ‘future Caribbean’ is to redefine received meanings of our social identities for which masculinity and social exclusion require urgent attention.

This essay offers a counter-reading of Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, a controversial video game about the infamous school shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 in which players adopt the roles of the shooters Eric Harris and Dylan... more

This essay offers a counter-reading of Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, a controversial video game about the infamous school shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 in which players adopt the roles of the shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebod. Focusing on the game’s unique procedural rhetoric, we argue that SCMRPG! juxtaposes interactive, non-realistic violence–reflected in a campy nineties video game aesthetic–with photographic evidence, extant dialogue, and a detailed narrative of the tragic events at Columbine to promote critical thought about gun violence generally and school shootings in particular. The essay concludes with a brief reflection of the vital that role video games can play in critical pedagogy.

The issue of gun control has come into sharp focus in recent years, prompted primarily by tragedies such as the Sandy Hook school shooting in the U.S., the Dunblane Massacre in the UK and the École Polytechnique Massacre in Canada. In all... more

The issue of gun control has come into sharp focus in recent years, prompted primarily by tragedies such as the Sandy Hook school shooting in the U.S., the Dunblane Massacre in the UK and the École Polytechnique Massacre in Canada. In all three countries tension exists between what appear to be polar opposite sectors: those who wish to severely restrict access to guns through tighter gun control, and those who advocate for more liberal access to guns, with a belief that a right to purchase a gun represents an issue of individual freedom. In this paper a comparative analysis is performed of the differences that exist between Canada, the UK and the U.S. on gun control legislation. The genesis of these differences are traced, and interpreted through the following theories: the rational-activist model, the pressure group model, and the veto players theory. A review of existing research would suggest several factors that explain current differences in legislation between the three countries. The first factor explored is the power of public opinion and its influence on gun control policy. In the UK, public opinion has played a major role in influencing gun control policy insofar as a public sentiment for tighter gun control, especially after seminal events such as massacres, has facilitated and promoted the current strict gun control laws. In contrast, in the U.S. several examples point to the fact that public opinion has been a non-facilitating factor in changing legislation. In Canada, public opinion has had a mixed record of influencing legislation. Examples that underscore the complex interaction between public opinion and other influential factors are reviewed. The second factor that will be analyzed is the impact of organized interest groups and collective. Groups such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the U.S. have successfully impacted current legislation through consistent lobbying. Similarly, although in an opposite direction, the Coalition for Gun Control has led to stricter gun control in Canada. Public opinion and interest groups however, are not the only factors affecting gun control legislation; to a large extent these factors operate within existing political frameworks. The third factor will be analyzing the effects that political systems, as well as previous legal statutes have on gun control legislation. Importantly, in the U.S., the political doctrine of separation of powers, coupled with the Second Amendment of the U.S. constitution, have played central roles in the ongoing gun control debate.

In my attempt to come to an understanding why so many people oppose and resist common sense firearms safety regulations, I have developed a proposition that regulations on firearms challenge the promises of a patriarchal system based on... more

In my attempt to come to an understanding why so many people oppose and resist common sense firearms safety regulations, I have developed a proposition that regulations on firearms challenge the promises of a patriarchal system based on notions of hypermasculinity with the elements taken to the extreme of control, domination over others and the environment, competitiveness, autonomy, rugged individualism, strength, toughness, forcefulness, and decisiveness, and, of course, never having to ask for help or assistance. Concepts of cooperation and community responsibility are pushed to the sidelines and discarded. To test out my theory, I distributed to several Facebook pages my understanding for the reasons why the United States remains among the last of the more developed Western countries to institute meaningful and appropriate firearms safety measures. This article discusses participants’ comments from a Facebook group that opposes firearms safety measures by highlighting the gendered connections of firearms violence.

One of the most controversial elements of research in gun prevalence and violence is the debate surrounding which proxy for gun prevalence best captures the true variation in gun availability. We test the effectiveness of several common... more

One of the most controversial elements of research in gun prevalence and violence is the debate surrounding which proxy for gun prevalence best captures the true variation in gun availability. We test the effectiveness of several common gun prevalence proxy variables using what is arguably the best measure of changes in gun availability: firearm sales. Utilizing a comprehensive list of gun sales by county in the state of Pennsylvania, we make a number of observations: First, gun sales are positively correlated with federal firearm licenses (gun dealers) per mile. Second gun sales are negatively correlated with federal firearm licenses per capita, and the proportion of gun suicides to total suicides -- though this changes some when controlling for county fixed effects. Additionally, we replicate the results of Johnson and Robinson (2021) using gun sales. We find increases in handgun sales are positively correlated with gun homicides. Long-gun sales are negatively correlated with homicide. Finally, we discuss the limitations of using legal gun sales as a gun prevalence measure in a more general context, as it fails to take into account the migration of guns. Consequently, we advise researchers to use gun dealers as a measure of gun prevalence and specifically one that considers markets bleeding over arbitrary lines.

Objectives: We examine how news media portrays the causes of mass shootings for shooters of different races. Specifically, we explore whether White men are disproportionately framed as mentally ill, and what narratives media tend to... more

Objectives: We examine how news media portrays the causes of mass shootings for shooters of different races. Specifically, we explore whether White men are disproportionately framed as mentally ill, and what narratives media tend to invoke when covering mass shootings through the lens of mental illness as opposed to other explanatory frames. Methods: The study examines a unique data set of 433 news documents covering 219 mass shootings between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2015. It analyzes the data using a mixed methods approach, combining logistic regression with content analysis. Results: Quantitative findings show that Whites and Latinos are more likely to have their crime attributed to mental illness than Blacks. Qualitative findings show that rhetoric within these discussions frame White men as sympathetic characters, while Black

The Centre for Armed Violence Reduction (CAVR) focuses on preventing the flow of illicit conventional arms. This is the second edition of our Implementation Guide for the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and the UN Small Arms Programme of Action... more

The Centre for Armed Violence Reduction (CAVR) focuses on preventing the flow of illicit conventional arms. This is the second edition of our Implementation Guide for the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and the UN Small Arms Programme of Action (UNPoA). Launched at the United Nations in New York, the Guide is used around the world at international meetings and distributed to government officials. Our aim is to help governments develop an effective interagency coordinating mechanism, to adopt the Arms Trade Treaty and to speed implementation of the UNPoA.

In the wake of the recent shootings of twenty children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut, there has been a renewed effort to pass national gun control legislation in the US Congress as well as new... more

In the wake of the recent shootings of twenty children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut, there has been a renewed effort to pass national gun control legislation in the US Congress as well as new gun control regulations in a number of state legislatures. Understanding the correlations that may or may not exist between levels of gun ownership and the rates of homicide and suicide at the state level can help to determine the likely effectiveness of new gun control legislation or regulations at both the state and national level that are designed to reduce firearm deaths. The purpose of this comparative design analysis is to examine three scholarly articles that analyze the relationship between state and regional levels of gun ownership and the number of firearm related homicides and suicides in these geographic areas. The basic premise being explored is the idea that laws which restrict the sale of guns will reduce the levels of gun ownership in a state or region (IV), which will in turn, reduce the number of firearm related homicides and suicides (DV) in that same state or region. The research design comparisons of the three selected articles will be presented in Section 3.0. Since this comparative study examines the scholarly treatment of levels of gun ownership and gun related violence, for frame of reference a brief overview of the debate about comparisons between the United States and other nations regarding the relationship between their rates of gun ownership and their number of firearm related deaths, as well as the relationship between those same rates across the 50 states of the United States is also provided.

The Columbine High School massacre lasted sixteen minutes and left a total of fi fteen people dead. For a stunned America, denied the chance to seek an explanation from the boys who had pulled the trigger, one question resounded in the... more

The Columbine High School massacre lasted sixteen minutes and left a total of fi fteen people dead. For a stunned America, denied the chance to seek an explanation from the boys who had pulled the trigger, one question resounded in the vacuum: why?

This article examines the collective definition of Chicago’s murder rate as a social problem, the causal stories that occurred leading up to and following the release of this report, and how liberal and conservative claims-makers employed... more

This article examines the collective definition of Chicago’s murder rate as a social problem, the causal stories that occurred leading up to and following the release of this report, and how liberal and conservative claims-makers employed these causal stories to further their respective political agendas.

You have to ask American Senator Ted Cruz, who's propaganda is he and the gun lobby defending? Do we ennoble savagery, and do we falsify civility? These are the questions for the times, and it goes to exceptionalism for personal and... more

You have to ask American Senator Ted Cruz, who's propaganda is he and the gun lobby defending? Do we ennoble savagery, and do we falsify civility? These are the questions for the times, and it goes to exceptionalism for personal and national conceit. Exceptionalism is the condition of being different, it is the source of the propaganda. from the norm. For nations, […]

Is there any single American object more demanding of our critical attention than the gun? Whether we ever hold or fire one, the gun fundamentally affects the ways in which we understand our rights and liberties, privacy and community,... more

Is there any single American object more demanding of our critical attention than the gun? Whether we ever hold or fire one, the gun fundamentally affects the ways in which we understand our rights and liberties, privacy and community, and the very sovereignty of the physical body. Over the course of the semester we will seek to examine this most fundamental and overdetermined cultural object by treating it as just that, an object. The proliferating forms of the gun that enter American life as toys, ghosts, laws, and stories will offer us a way to understand precisely how the gun came to be attached to our national identity. The aim of this class, while not polemical, will not be even-handed in its treatment of the gun. Nor should it be. We begin with the understanding that the cultural history of the gun is inseparable from development of weapons designed kill people with increasing efficiency and lethality. The American obsession with firearms too often seeks to eclipse this fact, but our exploration will always return to the cost in lives of the proliferation of guns in the country. Indeed, as we are a first-year seminar, we will take stock of what it means to be a student in the age of school shootings and open-carry laws. The historical and cultural sensitivity of this course will give us the opportunity to both explore the outlandishness of allowing guns to pervade every space in our contemporary life, while making it clear that the many manifestations of the gun in our lives, very often packaged in non-lethal forms, have extraordinary, and sometimes hidden histories. This course will teach you to read academic and popular texts with a rigorous critical eye. As we discuss the evolution of the Colt as the so-called " Indian Killer " of the frontier, the haunting of the Winchester family house, the legal life of the gun in the 2 nd amendment and other precedents, the gun in works of literature, how the water pistol became the Nerf assault weapon, the AR15 and the marketing of military weapons as home defense, " cop-killer bullets " , gun safety and the transformation of the NRA into a lobbying corporation, and the gun as ornamental/ugly freedom, you will be called upon to pursue independent research and to become experts in certain facets of this object's history.

This paper explores and analyzes the banning policy of assault weapons (AWs) in 1994. Gun control has always been an important and debatable issue between the gun control advocates and gun right supporters in the US. In that regard, the... more

This paper explores and analyzes the banning policy of assault weapons (AWs) in 1994. Gun control has always been an important and debatable issue between the gun control
advocates and gun right supporters in the US. In that regard, the main part is given to the gun control policy accomplished by the Clinton Administration in 1994. Further, several major
theories and approaches in political science are used and applied to shed light on the issue and better understand the gun control policy. Some suggestions for new policy attempts of
gun control were also made at the end of the study.

Since the Gun-Free School Zones Act became law in 1990 parents of K-12 students have become more than 9 times as likely to suffer the heartbreaking reality that their children might not be coming home because they were killed in a school... more

Since the Gun-Free School Zones Act became law in 1990 parents of K-12 students have become more than 9 times as likely to suffer the heartbreaking reality that their children might not be coming home because they were killed in a school shooting. An examination of 73 active shooter events at K-12 schools (at least 2 or more killed and/or injured) from 1956-2019, documented at www.schoolshootingdatabase.com, has found that these tragedies have nearly tripled in number since the inception of gun-free zones.

Contrary to the Hegelian assumption that civilization progresses in a linear mode, the contradictions of capitalism between the promise of prosperity for all, on the one hand, and the reality of perpetual capital concentration, on the... more

Contrary to the Hegelian assumption that civilization progresses in a linear mode, the contradictions of capitalism between the promise of prosperity for all, on the one hand, and the reality of perpetual capital concentration, on the other, undermines bourgeois democracy and leads toward a more militaristic-police state. The nexus of structural and behavioral violence has not been lost even on apologists of the status quo who question the degree of the militarized police in America. No one should be surprised with the US adopting police-state solutions with behavioral violence at home, considering it mirrors its military-solution approaches to political problems abroad.
The way a society approaches solutions to foreign policy crises and crime at home reflects its values and commitment to actualizing the social contract not for the privileged elites but for the people. Deviating very far from the liberal bourgeois ideals of the Enlightenment on which the American Republic was founded, militarist policies in the foreign and discriminatory policies in the domestic arena intended at social exclusion and marginalization of the lower classes reflect a country whose elites are prepared to sacrifice the Enlightenment values of the Republic in order to maintain their privileges. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27901-noam-chomsky-talks-us-militarism-and-capitalism-at-home-and-abroad

Gun related violence is a complex issue and accounts for a large proportion of violent incidents. In the research reported in this paper, we set out to investigate the pro-gun and anti-gun sentiments expressed on a social media platform,... more

Gun related violence is a complex issue and accounts for a large proportion of violent incidents. In the research reported in this paper, we set out to investigate the pro-gun and anti-gun sentiments expressed on a social media platform, namely Twitter, in response to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, USA. Machine learning techniques are applied to classify a data corpus of over 700,000 tweets. The sentiments are captured using a public sentiment score that considers the volume of tweets as well as population. A web-based interactive tool is developed to visualise the sentiments and is available at http://www.gunsontwitter.com. The key findings from this research are: (i) There are elevated rates of both pro-gun and anti-gun sentiments on the day of the shooting. Surprisingly, the pro-gun sentiment remains high for a number of days following the event but the anti-gun sentiment quickly falls to pre-event levels. (ii) There is a different public response from each state, with the highest pro-gun sentiment not coming from those with highest gun ownership levels but rather from California, Texas and New York.

There is a dearth of research on the characteristics, value, and scope of street knowledge. The few studies that exist suggest that, once acquired, street knowledge is used to mitigate danger and risk across a wide range of socio-spatial... more

There is a dearth of research on the characteristics, value, and scope of street knowledge. The few studies that exist suggest that, once acquired, street knowledge is used to mitigate danger and risk across a wide range of socio-spatial settings. Based on five years of ethnographic research in a Toronto social housing project affected by gun violence, I challenge this assumption, demonstrating the locally oriented nature of street knowledge-grounded in, and shaped by, the particularities of a given locale. To account for this, I introduce the concept of "neighborhood wisdom"-a parochial form of street knowledge tailored to the idiosyncrasies of place and calibrated for neutralizing distinctly local threats. These findings have implications for our understanding of street knowledge, both as a construct and a practical tool used by people operating in perilous settings.

As the gun lobby moves from the expanding the right to concealed carry to the open carry of guns, let's examine the stories about guns that so many believe. This is one of the beliefs that form the foundation of the New America being... more

As the gun lobby moves from the expanding the right to concealed carry to the open carry of guns, let's examine the stories about guns that so many believe. This is one of the beliefs that form the foundation of the New America being built by Republicans on the ruins of the America-that-once-was, overturning a century of gun laws.

Can Christians truly be "peacemakers" if they are willing to use guns with lethal force? This paper, originally presented in Fuller Theological Seminary's Biblical and Practical Peacemaking class, examines the strange relationship... more

Can Christians truly be "peacemakers" if they are willing to use guns with lethal force? This paper, originally presented in Fuller Theological Seminary's Biblical and Practical Peacemaking class, examines the strange relationship American Christians have with guns, and what Jesus has to say about them.

On 25 August 2020, seventeen-year-old (white) Kyle Rittenhouse shot three antiracist protesters in the US state of Wisconsin, killing two and seriously injuring the third. On 19 November 2021, after this article had gone to press, Kyle... more

On 25 August 2020, seventeen-year-old (white) Kyle Rittenhouse shot three antiracist protesters in the US state of Wisconsin, killing two and seriously injuring the third. On 19 November 2021, after this article had gone to press, Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges. This paper starts by revisiting the shooting in Kenosha to provide a survey of the colonial/imperial histories that put legitimate fire in the hands of the white man. Others are left at its threshold.