Stricter Gun Control Research Articles

The effect of gun control laws on suicide rates

This paper has analyzed a number of gun control laws in different states and found that as a group the laws were significantly correlated with the suicide rates in those states. In other words, strict gun control may have a preventive effect on suicidal behavior, a conclusion supportive of Boyd's view.

ADVERSARY POLLING AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL MEANING: Implications in Gun Control Elections in Massachusetts and California

Opinion survey data have been used to assert that the public's desire for serious gun control has been blocked by the “gun lobby.” This construction is opposed by a survey‐based counter construction developed by the gun lobby. The superiority of the gun lobby's construction is supported by this article's survey data and by analysis of actual elections in 1976 in Massachusetts and in 1982 in California. What blocks the public from getting strict gun control is that the public does not want it.

The preventive effect of strict gun control laws on suicide and homicide.

ABSTRACT: States with stricter handgun control laws in 1968 were shown to have lower suicide rates by firearms both in 1960 and in 1970. These states also had higher rates of suicide by “other means.” In contrast, no such effect of strict handgun control laws was found for mortality from homicide by firearms. More detailed analyses indicated that restrictions on selling and buying handguns were more important than restrictions on carrying handguns.

The Polls: Politics and Law and Order

The Republican leadership position on law and order is confirmed by GOP opinion at the grass-roots level. The polls show Republicans more repressive and authoritarian than Democrats, though the entire American public is in a progressively more punitive mood these days. GOP voters are significantly more in favor of strict penalties for criminal convictions, and more inclined to call the courts too lenient. In 1972, Gallup found 62 per cent of Republicans and 51 per cent of Democrats favoring the death penalty. Eighty-six per cent of the GOP but 77 per cent of Democrats would vote for a candidate who favored tougher sentences for lawbreakers. It cannot be said that the Republicans are alone in reacting repressively to the crime rate, but Democrats are significantly less uptight. Republicans not only tend to downgrade the Supreme Court more than their political opponents do, but they are less inclined to agree with questions of due process of law, so many of which emerged from Supreme Court decisions. Republicans are also inclined to support the police more enthusiastically than do their opponents. Democrats are more severe only in favoring strict gun control. Only 58 per cent of GOP voters but 68 per cent of Democrats want stricter control of firearms (Gallup, 1972). Greatest partisan differences occur on the questions of court ratings and severity of penalties. Smallest partisan disagreements show up on questions of due process and ratings of law enforcement performance. A most interesting deviation in attitudes toward law and order lies in the fact that Democrats are usually on the same side of a crime issue as more educated groups. This occurs in spite of the fact that the average educational level of Republicans is much higher. In September, 1973, the Harris Survey reported that 42 per cent of Republicans had attended college, compared with only 28 per cent of Democratic voters. On the following poll questions on crime and justice, Democrats and college people take the same side of an issue on seven out of ten questions. That is not to say that Democrats and the educated have identical opinions, but only that on most of these issues Democrats come closer to college opinion than do GOP voters. Democrats and the college group actually react quite differently depending on the issue. College people are invariably more favorably disposed to the Supreme Court and due process of law. They also surpass the Democrats in criticizing law enforcement most of the time. Conversely, Democrats almost always outstrip the educated in their opposition to uncontrolled possession of weapons. Punitive attitudes toward sentencing are split equally-half the time the Democrats advocate more leniency and half the time they are more punitive than the college people. The phenomenon of the less-educated Democrats frequently holding the views of the educated is, of course, related to the high correlations between the young