Gun Acquisition Research Articles

Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention in Pediatric Health-care Settings.

Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention in Pediatric Health-care Settings.

AVALIAÇÃO PSICOLÓGICA PARA CONCEDER REGISTRO/PORTE DE ARMA DE FOGO NO BRASIL: considerações

Law nº. 10.826, also known as the “Disarmament Statute”, establishes the psychological assessment as an essential part of the process of the requirement to possessing/carrying guns in Brazil. Normative Instruction n°. 78, of Brazilian Federal Police, makes clear the need to prove psychological aptitude in procedures to the acquisition, register, register renewal, transfer and possession of guns to citizens, as well as to accreditation of gunsmiths and weapon and shooting instructors. Then, psychologists licensed by the Federal Police must perform this assessment according to the current rules and guidelines. This text aims to make considerations about the importance of the psychological assessment to obtain a gun carrying or possession, paying attention to the ethical and technical cautions involved in that. The objective is also to show the rules and guidelines in effect in Brazil, provided by proper institutions, related to this issue.

The association between the rise of gun violence in popular US primetime television dramas and homicides attributable to firearms, 2000-2018.

Injuries and fatalities due to firearms are a major burden on public health in the US. The rise in gun violence in popular movies has been suggested as a potential cultural influence on this behavior. Nevertheless, homicide rates have not increased over recent decades in the US, suggesting that media portrayals have had little influence on gun violence. Here we challenge this interpretation by examining trends in the proportion of violence that are attributable to firearms, a measure that should be more sensitive to media violence. In addition, we examine trends in the portrayal of guns in popular television (TV) dramas, which are viewed more frequently than movies. We ask (a) whether gun violence has increased in these TV shows not only on an absolute basis but also as a proportion of violent scenes and (b) whether trends in gun portrayal on these shows are associated with corresponding trends in the proportion of real-world violence attributable to firearms in the US from 2000 to 2018. To answer these questions, we coded annual instances of violence, gun violence, and proportion of violence involving guns for each 5-minute segment of 33 popular TV dramas in the police, medical, and legal genres from 2000 to 2018. Trends in annual rates of violence, gun violence and proportion of violence involving guns were determined over the study period and were compared to annual rates of homicide attributable to firearms in three age groups: 15-24, 25-34 and 35 and older. Although violence on TV dramas peaked in 2011, gun use steadily increased over the study period both in absolute terms and in relation to other violent methods. The latter metric paralleled trends in homicides attributable to firearms for all three age groups, with the strongest relationship for youth ages 15-24 (R2 = .40, P = .003). The positive relation between relative amount of TV violence involving guns and actual homicides due to firearms, especially among youth, is consistent with the hypothesis that entertainment media are contributing to the normative acceptance of guns for violent purposes. Future research is needed to study the influence of media violence on gun acquisition at the individual level.

Who Might Buy a Gun? Results from the Guns in American Life Survey

We explore patterns and correlates of gun ownership in the United States, with a particular focus on differentiating those who will never own a gun (“nevers”) and those who are open to ownership in the future (“maybes”) from current‐owners. We use the Guns in American Life Survey (GALS), collected in September of 2018 (n = 3,103), to explore the role of several classes of factors in shaping experiences and attitudes, including socialization, fear and victimization, ideology (confidence in the police, punitiveness, justifiable violence, and gun “science” research), and preparedness. Descriptive findings suggest that maybe‐owners are similar to never‐owners in some ways in background factors (e.g., tending to be women, lower‐income, and not living in a rural area) and more like owners in other ways (e.g., conservative, Republican, and with children in the home). Regression results reveal some anticipated patterns and other unexpected ones. For example, past victimization differentiates the maybes from the nevers but not from the owners. Worry about mass and school shootings leads one away from gun ownership, while worry about terrorist attacks leads toward it. Curiously, greater confidence in the police is highest for the maybes. They are solidly in the middle on other ideological issues, including beliefs in justifiable violence and gun “science” research. We find different ideological issues come together as a continuum of gun ownership status. Finally, those most likely to buy a gun have owned one previously and cycle in and out of gun ownership. They have also used agency by taking other steps to protect themselves. Our findings identify a new subset of occasional owners and illuminate the process of moving toward gun acquisition.

Gun acquisition in Mexico 2012–18: findings from Mexico𔃻s National Crime Victimization Survey

Abstract Data from Mexico’s National Crime Victimization Surveys (Encuesta Nacional de Victimización y Percepción sobre Seguridad Pública, ENVIPE) indicate that 1.89 million Mexican households acquired a gun from 2012 to 2018. The objective of this article is to analyse factors associated with gun acquisition in Mexico. We analysed data from the 2013 through 2019 ENVIPE surveys and ran a binary logistic regression. Our results show that gun acquisition in Mexico is associated with the demographics of the head of the household, characteristics of the household, perception of insecurity, illegal activities around a household, victimization and mistrust in security agencies. This study adds to efforts of understanding gun acquisition worldwide while also contributing to the complex research of guns and violence in Latin America, specifically in Mexico.

An explorative analysis of the perception of guns and gun laws in Azerbaijan using a mixed-methods approach

ABSTRACT Despite being a post-conflict society, Azerbaijan now enjoys relatively low levels of gun crime and firearm ownership. Adopting a data triangulation approach, this study explored the attitude of the self-select sample (n = 589) in Azerbaijan on guns and gun laws regulating the acquisition of guns, in addition to qualitative interviews. The majority of the participants were content with the current restrictive gun control policies and legislation. Firearms were viewed mostly as an instrument for hunting and self-defence. Qualitative interviews among experts and respondents with experience of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (n = 19) largely supplemented the findings obtained through the online survey and provided in-depth insights into the meanings attached to firearms. This explorative study contributes to our understanding of the gunscape in the post-communist and post-conflict society that does not suffer from a gun epidemic. From a comparative perspective, the perceptions of Azerbaijani respondents indicate the absence of “conflict mentality” observed in some other conflict-stricken regions, as well as an extremely limited degree of cultural acceptance of guns as honourable and symbolic items to possess.

Review of gunshot fatalities in the Northern part of Ghana; a 6 year forensic autopsy based study

Studies on firearm fatalities in some parts of Ghana have been reported. However, the incidence and pattern of firearm fatalities in the Northern sector of Ghana have fled the spotlight. This study aimed at reporting the incidence and pattern of gunshot fatalities autopsied within 2008 and 2013 year. There were 82(91.1%) male and 8(8.9%) female victims of gunshot deaths during the study period with an average of 15 cases annually. Where 60(66.7%) of the victims aged within 21–40; years resembling the pattern observed in several parts of the world. A significant number 28(31.1%) of the victims died of multiple shots or dispersed pellets affecting several parts of the body, followed by a single shot to the chest 18(20.0%), abdomen 17(18.9%), head 14(15.6%). Collectively, entry sites like the neck and upper limb among others accounted for 13(14.4%). Robbery accounted for 44(48.9%) followed by homicides 14(15.6%) cases. Recovered pellets, nature and legal status of firearm involved were also examined, and like in several developing countries, country-made guns played a substantial role in the firearm fatalities with calls to strengthen laws governing gun acquisition and use in the country.

The Last Link: from Gun Acquisition to Criminal Use.

Guns that are used in crime and recovered by the police typically have changed hands often since first retail sale and are quite old. While there is an extensive literature on "time to crime" for guns, defined as the elapsed time from first retail sale to known use in a crime, there is little information available on the duration of the "last link"-the elapsed time from the transaction that actually provided the offender with the gun in question. In this article, we use data from the new Chicago Inmate Survey (CIS) to estimate the duration of the last link. The median is just 2months. Many of the gun-involved respondents to the CIS (42%) did not have any gun 6months prior to their arrest for the current crime. The CIS respondents were almost all barred from purchasing a gun from a gun store because of their prior criminal record-as a result, their guns were obtained by illegal transactions with friends, relatives, and the underground market. We conclude that more effective enforcement of the laws governing gun transactions may have a quick and pervasive effect on gun use in crime.

Mass shootings and their asymmetric effect on societal armament

Mixed evidence has been found for a positive relationship between mass shootings and civilian armament. This study suggests that the causal effect of mass shootings on subsequent societal gun acquisition is non-linear and asymmetric. Different shootings spur pathways that in turn, have variant impacts on civilian armament. Through utilization of directed acyclic graph (DAG) software, several causal models featuring pathways and mechanisms are presented. All three pathways feature a latent variable of fear, and are endogenous to a historical period marked by a discourse of fear that became embedded in U.S. political discourse after the 9/11 attacks. Along with an overview of potential confounding factors, analysis of data on background checks from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (1999–2016) lends support to the argument.

The Second Amendment Rights of Young Adults

This Article examines the Second Amendment rights of young adults, ages 18 to 20. Part I examines what the Supreme Court has said, explicitly and implicitly, about the Second Amendment rights of such persons. Parts II and III survey colonial and founding-era sources. Part II begins with a glossary of various terms that were used in militia statutes. These show some of the arms and accoutrements that Americans were required to possess. The various items illustrate that the right to arms does not include only firearms and ammunition. The right also includes, for example, edged weapons and gun-cleaning equipment. Part II also describes the arms culture of early America, where it was a point of national pride that people were trained to arms “from their infancy.” Part III then surveys all the militia statutes from the earliest colonial days through 1800. The survey pays particular attention to two issues. First is the age for militia service or for other forms of mandatory arms possession. The statutes demonstrate that arms possession was mandatory not only for militiamen, but for many other categories of people. In some colonies, for example, every head of a house, regardless of gender, had to possess arms. So did men who were too old for militia service. The most common ages for mandatory militia service were from 16 to 60. But by the end of the eighteenth century, the militia mandate had been narrowed in most states to 18 until 45 or 50. The second issue in Part III is the types of arms that militiamen—and the many other people required to possess arms—were supposed to possess. Part III tracks the evolution of these laws, as they become more specific about requiring various accoutrements, such as gun cleaning equipment, holsters, and ammunition storage devices, and the laws’ attempt to ensure that the public possesses modern arms. Part IV describes federal laws regarding the ages for arms possession. These include the 1792 statute making 18-year-olds into members of the federal militia (a rule that remains federal law at present), the 1968 Gun Control Act setting age limits on purchases in gun stores, and the 1994 federal law restricting handgun possession by persons under 18. Part V covers the five leading post-Heller federal circuit court cases on age limits for exercising Second Amendment rights. Two of these cases relied heavily on cases and statutes from the nineteenth century; so in the course of discussing the cases, we survey the nineteenth century developments. By the end of the century, there were a substantial minority of states that placed some restrictions on handgun acquisition by persons under 21. Finally, Part VI describes some of the present-day state laws that limit firearms acquisition or possession by young adults (18 to 20). Part VI also considers the various past and present age limits in American law for various activities, such as voting, vices (e.g., alcohol, gambling), marriage, and the right to keep and bear arms. In conclusion, the article finds that there is some historical precedent for extra regulation for handgun acquisition by young adults, and very little for extra restrictions on long gun acquisition. Pursuant to Heller, extra regulations for young adults may be permissible, but prohibitions or quasi-prohibitions are not. The Second Amendment rights of young adults certainly include the core right affirmed in Heller: acquiring and keeping a handgun in the home for lawful self-defense.

Prohibited Possessors and the Law: How Inmates in Los Angeles Jails Understand Firearm and Ammunition Regulations

Using data from 140 interviews with individuals detained in the Los Angeles County Jail system, this article examines what gun offenders know about gun and ammunition regulation in California. Though most respondents had a consistent, albeit general, understanding of the regulations limiting gun acquisition and possession, analysis suggests that their understanding of ammunition restrictions was more limited. Our sample’s awareness of firearms law is especially important to consider given that they are the very population targeted by firearms regulations and prohibitions at the local, state, and federal level. By examining what detained offenders know about firearms laws, we can better theorize about individual gaps in legal knowledge and the realistic expectations for how understanding of the law can affect behavior.

Taking the Law into Their Own Hands: Do Local Anti-Immigrant Ordinances Increase Gun Sales?

In recent years, more than 24 Pennsylvania communities have proposed restrictionist immigration ordinances. These policies include fines for employers and landlords of undocumented immigrants, and English-only declarations. Using fixed effects regression, I find that the proposal of these policies was associated with a 6 percent increase in handgun sales in the Pennsylvania counties in which these ordinances were formally considered. I use ethnographic and newspaper data from Pennsylvania to uncover the mechanisms that link these laws with increased gun purchases. I find that as public leaders made the case for these policies, they increasingly linked immigrants with crime and social disorder. These menacing portrayals of immigrants intensified social anxiety, which led to an increase in gun purchases. These results are replicated using concealed gun permits data from South Carolina. This article contributes to the symbolic politics literature by showing the social consequences of politicians’ use of threatening symbols to portray immigrants, as well as to the gun-ownership literature by providing evidence for the role of social and political factors in influencing gun acquisition. The proliferation of gun ownership could have worrisome public health consequences in communities experiencing rapid demographic changes.

Responding to violence with guns: Mass shootings and gun acquisition

Although some sources have observed an increase in the number of gun purchases following mass shootings, empirical research investigating this pattern is limited. Appraisal Theory suggests that mass shootings contribute to fear of victimization through media exposure. Desire for self-protection is the primary reason many individuals own and purchase guns. This paper examines this link by assessing the effects of six mass shootings that took place in the 2000–2010 time period. This study examines effects for gun acquisition nationally and regionally as well as timing-specific patterns in gun acquisition following these events. Gun acquisition counts are approximated from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Results indicate a positive but delayed association between mass shootings and the number of NICS background checks. Implications of this finding for violence and possibilities for future research are discussed.

Britain's Crimean War Trophy Guns: The Case of Ludlow and the Marches

AbstractMany of the numerous monumental cannon which adorn British cities are Crimean War trophies: something little discussed in the historiography of the war. Focusing on the trophy cannon at Ludlow, in the Welsh Marches, the article looks at both the national and the local scene. It describes first the Allied operation in Sevastopol to gather prize Russian cannon and their removal to England. The utility of shipping the guns home and the uses to which they might be put were both controversial, but whether intact or melted down the cannon formed a significant part of the multifarious memorials and mementos generated by the war and Allied victory. The focus then switches to the Marches and the acquisition of trophy guns by Ludlow and neighbouring towns; the political background to Ludlow's application for a cannon is also explored, and the subsequent fate of the region's prize guns. Finally the article examines the origins of the Ludlow cannon and the identity of its founder, a British expatriate ironmaster working in Russia at the turn of the eighteenth century.

Homies and Hermanos: God and Gangs in Central America by Robert Brenneman (review)

Reviewed by: Homies and Hermanos: God and Gangs in Central America by Robert Brenneman Kristy Nabhan-Warren (bio) Homies and Hermanos: God and Gangs in Central America. By Robert Brenneman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 294 pp. $ 24.95. Robert Brenneman's Homies and Hermanos is a thoroughly researched, engaging sociological study of transnational gang and evangelical Christian subcultures in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The author's aim is to make sense of these cultures and to understand more deeply the push and pull factors of gangs and evangelical Christianity for those adolescent and young adult Central Americans who join. Homies and Hermanos is at once a sophisticated qualitative sociology and at the same time an accessibly written book. Academics and non-academics alike who are interested in understanding the allure of gangs and evangelical Christianity in Central America more specifically, and on a global scale more broadly, will not be disappointed. Brenneman delivers a captivating portrayal of his Central American interlocutors and their complex social milieu. In the opening pages of the book, the reader is swept into the life of "JJ," a former ranflero, leader of the White Fence mara, gang, whose story begins with details of a life of life of poverty and abuse. It is a gripping entrée to the book's larger sociological investigation. We learn of JJ's entry into gang life at the young age of nine, his increasing involvement in his teens and rise to power as a ranflero, and his eventual decision to leave the gang for evangelical Christianity. JJ's narrative is one of many compelling narratives of hardship, and redemption in the book, and Brenneman contextualizes these narratives with a larger social history of transnationalism and a sociology of emotions. As he notes, there are many studies of gang entrance and membership, but far fewer studies of gang exit (15). Moreover, rather than focus on the individual gang members' psychological health as a push factor into gang membership, which he finds limiting because it tends to blame victims caught up in complex social constraints, Brenneman offers a much more nuanced and helpful exploration of the broader social reasons why young men and women decide to join gangs—and then later decide to leave them. Based on his interviews with sixty-three ex-gang members, as well as twelve sympathizers, the author discovered that poverty, problems at home, and stresses at school were the three primary reasons why Central American youth join gangs (74). To these male and female ex-gang members, gangs offered a hope of stability, family atmosphere, acceptance and protection that their biological and extended kinship systems failed to provide. The overarching sociology of emotions Brenneman uses as a frame for his study leads him to focus on shame as a key push factor to joining these violent transnational gangs. What linked all of his interlocutors' narratives was their shame—for being abused, for having an alcoholic parent, an absent mother and/ or father, for being poor, and for failures in school. Low self-esteem, he discovered in the course of his research, is connected to the overarching social constraints in which these youth find themselves. It is here in the book that Brenneman draws on the social theorist Randall Collins' interaction ritual chain theory approach to explain the complexity of emotions that ultimately leads young adults to join a gang and to undergo rituals of violence and sacrifice. Joining a gang, Brenneman argues, is less a rational decision than it is an accumulated emotional response to the various social push and pull [End Page 291] factors that accumulate (84-5). These young adults experience a rebirth when they undergo the ritual of brinco (jumping in), which is considered to be their bautizmo (baptism) and official membership into a gang (94). Newly baptized, their shame is mitigated by the violence done to them and that they in turn commit. Young men, who comprise the vast majority of Central American gang membership, experience a new kind of manhood and power via violent acts, and it is through these actions as homies that they gain respeto among their peers. The acquisition of tattoos, sex, drugs and guns...

Guns and Fear

Surveys show that more than one half of gun owners report owning their firearm for self-protection. Although research has examined the effect of fear of crime on gun ownership, the issue of reciprocity and temporal order has been largely ignored. Furthermore, the effect of firearm acquisition and relinquishment on fear has not been evaluated empirically. We hypothesize that the relationship between fear and gun ownership is reciprocal. As James Wright and Peter Rossi noted, it may be that “the initially most fearful may arm themselves and then feel psychologically safer because of it.” Using two-wave panel data, we found, as expected, that higher fear among nonowners encourages them to become gun owners, but lower fear among gun owners does not encourage gun relinquishment. We also found that gun acquisition does not reduce fear, but relinquishment increases fear, suggesting the relationship between guns and fear may be asymmetrical.

William Kelleher Storey . Guns, Race, and Power in Colonial South Africa.(African Studies.)New York : Cambridge University Press . 2008 . Pp. xvi, 378. $85.00.

Guns have played a major role in the history of South Africa, and their presence continues to blight national life. Surprisingly, historians have largely ignored such weapons and their influence on state formation, power, and citizenship. William Kelleher Storey has written the first account of the spread of guns in South Africa from the seventeenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. The book is woven around two narratives, the first a formal history that makes extensive and often inventive use of archival materials and existing historiographies, and the second about technologies, citizenship, race, and power, in which Storey seeks to relate the adoption of guns by Africans, the English, and the Boers to patterns of ecological, political, and social change. It is an ambitious project, and Storey has done a huge amount of work in bringing a disparate array of materials into alignment. Africans, Boers, and Britons all used guns for hunting and warfare as well as for the enforcement of power. The possession of matchlock and flintlock muskets allowed the early settlers in the Cape to defeat the Khoi. Skill with guns in hunting quickly became a mark of status. Storey shows how the rise of settler power was in part predicated upon the acquisition of guns by whites and the disarmament of Africans. Consequently, guns played an important part in the creation of colonial states in the Cape, Natal, and the Boer Republics. In passing, Storey makes reference to British gun policy under the Raj.

Patterns of Gun Acquisition, Carrying, and Use Among Juvenile and Adult Arrestees: Evidence from a High‐Crime City

Researchers continue to examine the macrolevel trends of gun crime but little consensus exists regarding the microlevel determinants of gun behaviors. Moreover, little is known if patterns of gun behavior vary between adults and juveniles. This research examines patterns of gun possession, carrying, and use across adult and juvenile arrestees. This research moves beyond descriptive studies of aggregate gun patterns and explores the demographic and perceptual correlates that may inhibit or facilitate gun behaviors. Current results illustrate the prevalence of gun‐involved behaviors among adults and juveniles, though juveniles were more likely to carry and fire a gun. Results also suggest that gun behaviors among juveniles are largely driven by gang membership, while ready access to guns, fear of the street, and the risks of arrest influence adult behaviors. Present findings have implications for gun policy, particularly as it relates the role of deterrence‐based programming and demand‐side initiatives.

Effects of a Gun Dealer's Change in Sales Practices on the Supply of Guns to Criminals

Licensed gun dealers are a major conduit for gun trafficking. Prior to May 1999, a single gun store sold more than half of the guns recovered from criminals in Milwaukee, WI, shortly following retail sale. On May 10, 1999, the store stopped selling small, inexpensive handguns popular with criminals, often called "Saturday night specials." The purpose of this study was to estimate the effect of this gun store's changed sales practices on criminals' acquisition of new guns. We used an interrupted time-series design with comparisons to test for changes in the number of guns that police recovered from criminals within a year of retail sale following the gun dealer's new sales policy. The dealer's changed sales policy was associated with a 96% decrease in recently sold, small, inexpensive handguns use in crime in Milwaukee, a 73% decrease in crime guns recently sold by this dealer, and a 44% decrease in the flow of all new, trafficked guns to criminals in Milwaukee. The findings demonstrate the substantial impact that a single gun store's sales practices can have on the supply of new guns to criminals. Proposed anti-gun-trafficking efforts in other cities could benefit from targeting problem retail outlets.

The supply and demand for guns to juveniles: Oakland's gun tracing project.

In response to Oakland, California's high level of gun violence affecting young people, the East Oakland Partnership to Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence, a citywide collaboration, was formed in 1997. In 1999, the Partnership established the Oakland Gun Tracing Project to develop evidence-based policy recommendations aimed at reducing the supply of and demand for gun acquisition among urban youth. The advocacy project involved gathering, analyzing, and using police record and gun sale/registration data to inform policy and practice. Such data were collected for all gun crimes committed in Oakland, California between 1998 and 1999 in which a juvenile was either the suspect or the victim. The 213 cases involved 263 juveniles of which 170 were suspects/perpetrators and 93 were victims. Suspects as well as victims were predominantly male and African American. The 213 cases involved 132 recovered guns. Only 55% of the cases were traced to a federally licensed dealer. Three-quarters of the guns were purchased near Oakland, California. Successful traces, defined as the ability to identify federally licensed dealers and initial purchasers, were completed on only 52 of the 132 guns, demonstrating systemic tracing difficulties. Data gathered for the project was used to advocate for numerous policy changes. Recommended policy strategies include initiating a comprehensive gun tracing program so police can track all secondary sales, new laws requiring federal handgun registration which would track ownership changes, required reporting of stolen firearms, and providing effective intervention services to all juveniles the first time they enter the criminal justice system.