Gun Control Research Paper
Most studies reviewed looked specifically towards whether availability of guns leads to violent crimes. Only one case study briefly touched upon other reasons for America's high crime rate.2 Since there has never been a clear correlation between gun availability leading to a higher or lower crime rate, the present research methods need to be changed. We must focus our research upon different causes of violent crime and find a solution to lower the crime rate in the US, besides arming every citizen or removing all firearms from our society. Lobbyist groups on both side of the spectrum will disagree with this assertion, but several independent researchers, such as LaFollette, Stolzenberg and D'Alessio and researches from both sides of the spectrum have established these findings.
As stated above, the three main types of research are: statistical survey, data base statistical and extreme case studies. This means that several other types of research methods have not been used; Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is one such method not used within this field. The main reason for this is that when the using QCA method, the researcher uses a relatively small N or number of cases. When dealing with this topic one must look at a large field of cases in order to even get a glimpse of the overall picture. Experimental research is almost never used within this field. It is hard to do an experiment while looking at violent crime rates and it is much easier to look at numbers that have already been established within data bases across the country. Also, experimental research dealing with gun control policy would have to be hypothetical and not solid. Some researchers have tried to take the counterfactual research approach but they have always met an enormous amount of criticism due to the hypothetical data. Counterfactual research is hard to establish because it is very hard to determine what would happen if only one variable is changed and everything else is considered. For example, if one would take all the guns out of society what would happen to the crime rate? This can not be determined, since it cannot be known if criminals would turn to other weapons or if their willingness to commit a crime would change.
When looking at dimensions of research, the majority of research conducted focuses upon diachronic research conducted over several years or several decades. Though some researchers will focus their study upon only one year or several months, this is not done on a majority of the occasions. When looking at only a small time frame, various occurrences can take place that could influence the results of a study. For example, during the attacks of 9/11, not a single violent crime was conducted on that day in New York City. If not for that event there one could most certainly assume that at least one violent attack would have been committed in the city that day.
Even though statistical survey method has been used by others, I am first going to focus on two of these researches done by Gary Kleck and another by Joseph Sheley and James Wright. Kleck conducted a phone survey of over 5,000 homes. The interviewee was asked whether or not they have had ever used a firearm in the past year for self protection. This research lead Kleck to state that there might be as high as 2.5 million cases each year where a firearm was used in a defensive act.4 This research has been questioned by many scholars, especially LaFollette. LaFollette declares this information to be flawed and the number proposed to be inflated. Kleck never took into account false negative and false positives within his research. Also, Kleck's information is in direct contrast with another survey done by the US Department of Justice, which interviewed a larger number of people about more than one topic.5 By asking only one question to the interviewee, Kleck put himself in a position to obtain false information by people who do not want to participate in the survey and do not answer honestly.
Sheley and Wright's survey results were produced by different means. They interviewed 835 incarcerated juveniles in six different facilities. They also interviewed 758 inner city high school students. All the interviewees were males and the interviews were conducted in person in the following states: California, New Jersey, Illinois and Louisiana. They were asked a series of questions to determine how hard it would be for them to obtain a firearm illegally.6 This survey was conducted more thoroughly then Kleck's, but still contains several flaws. The positives of this survey are that the interviews were conducted in person so the interviewer and interviewee were face to face, leading to less false positive and negative answers. Also, more than one question was asked forcing the interviewee to reflect on all the questions and contradictions which could be seen in there answers. The main flaw of this survey was that Sheley and Wright tried to pass this information off with all juveniles being able to obtain weapons, which is not the case. Surveying incarcerated juveniles who have already been shown to be negligent within society and who have a higher probability of being able to obtain illegal items flaws the data. Secondly, looking at just inner city schools and not schools in the suburbs and rural communities also flaws the research. It is common knowledge that inner city schools children are surrounded by more crime and criminals in their communities than suburban and rural children. This makes it easier for them to obtain an illegal device.
Data base statistical research is by far the most commonly used research method. It has been used by Stolzenberg, D'Alessico, Kellerman, Reay, Carter, and numerous national data bases set up by the Justice Department, FBI, Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, police departments across the state, county and local law enforcement agencies. Let's look in depth at two of these studies: Kellerman and Reay Stolzenberg and D'Alessico.
The research of Kellerman and Reay has been advocated by almost every pro-gun control advocate across the US. Their theory of 43-1 claims that for every time a gun owner uses a gun for self protection in their home, 43 people are going to be killed in a house possessing a firearm.7 This information was obtained by looking at information from all the deaths caused by a firearm in King County, Washington over a six year period. The information was obtained from police records and the medical examiners records. The process of obtaining the data is not totally flawed. I would like to see varied counties used in more states, but this is a good preliminary work. However, the way the data is interpreted is flawed. By stating the only time a gun is used in self defense is when another person is killed is irresponsible. There are numerous times when a person uses a firearm for self protection and never has to fire a single shot. Just the mere showing of a firearm can be enough to deter a criminal. By not including this as a part of their data I feel that Kellerman and Reay are fixing the results of their data. Next Kellerman and Reay do not make it clear that 37 of the 43 deaths are suicides. Due to the fact that there are several different ways for a person to kill themselves besides the use of a firearm, suicide should not be added into the research.
Stolzenberg and D'Alessio conducted research looking at illegal and legal firearms availability in correlation to a positive or negative crime rate. The data was collected from the National Incident - Based Reporting System in South Carolina over a four year period. South Carolina was chosen because it has 100 percent of their counties reporting across the state. Legal and illegal guns are determined by whether or not the gun used in a crime was used by its legal owner or by someone who possessed it illegally. Illegal guns also include guns that are modified, thus making them illegal. The information determined that legal guns do not have a positive or negative impact on the crime rate, while illegal guns do increase the crime rate. Once again I would like to see this research done on a national level. Their research also does not include firearms that were already sold in previous years. Also they do not look at illegal guns smuggled into the country and sold on the black market. So the amount of illegal firearms could be much higher.
The last research method that I will be looking at is one of extreme case studies. The research of Hagen and Foster looks at the two countries of The United States and Canada. Both countries have had very different cultures overall and vastly different histories, especially when it comes to firearm history. The study focuses on the different violent crimes involving firearms in the two countries. The sources all come from national data bases within the two countries. The results show that Canada has a lower crime rate when it comes to violent crime. The two attribute this fact to the availability of firearms in the US. The numbers may be right, but they should not be compared in the first place, due to the two countries vastly different cultures and different histories. Also, if you remove all violent crimes committed by firearms and just look at violent crimes committed without firearms the US still has a higher violent crime rate. Yet Canada still has a much higher burglary rate then the US.8 This has been credited to the possession of firearms in US house holds, as it has been found that a majority of incarcerated felons admitted they decided not to rob a home when they believed the occupant was armed. Furthermore, it has been found that criminals fear a citizen with a firearm more then they do a law enforcement officer with a firearm.0 The social difference between the two countries plays more of a role then they are being given credit for.
The next report done by, Aden Krug compared 26 high income countries, by using information provided by each country's national data base. Krug concluded that the US's firearm deaths are eight times higher than any other economically comparable nation. Once again research like this is extremely hard to do and the results can not be weighed too heavily. Krug relied upon the data bases of all 26 countries and did not compensate for difference within the way the data was collected. Also, Krug never takes into account social differences. The US is an extremely diverse nation while most countries are extremely homogeneous and this therefore leads to fewer domestic conflicts among the citizens. Also some of these nations had higher gun availability but the violent crime rate was lower in comparison to the US. This could very well have to do with that fact that some countries like Switzerland have training programs set up in their school systems, to teach children proper firearm safety. 10
After analyzing the previous research, I am proposing that it is not adequate to just look at gun availability leading to a lower or higher violent gun crime rate. Emphasis needs to be placed on who is committing these crimes, and whether they are convicted felons or those who have not been found guilty of a felony? I believe it will be found that most crimes are committed by those who are convicted felons and not by the average citizen. If this is true, it would show that our prison system, in its present form is not properly reforming our criminals from, causing a danger to society. I come to this conclusion by finding that most felons return to prison after they are released.11
To collect the data for this research I propose that we look at New York State. It has one of the strictest gun control policies in the US and has both extremes of rural and urban areas. 12 The research will be limited to handgun crimes since it is easier to distinguish the ownership of a handgun rather than a rifle due to the records kept by the state's state police of pistol permit holders. The data will be collected on the county level over a five year period and only crimes in which a conviction took place will be considered. This is due to the fact that if a conviction did not take place one can not be sure a crime actually took place. Second, one does not want to look at all people accused of crimes, due to the fact that many times more then one person is accused of a crime. The data will be collected and divided by the total number of crimes and then multiplied by 100,000 to obtain the violent crime rate.
The dependent variable will be that of violent crime. Violent crime is being classified as the following: crimes committed with a handgun and within all degrees, armed robbery, assault, forcible rape, kidnapping/abduction, non-negligent manslaughter and murder. I feel that this array of crimes covers all the crucial violent crimes that need to be focused on. By only looking at violent crimes several things are accomplished. First, the research only focuses on the crimes that have the biggest impact upon citizen's lives. Second, if non-violent crimes were added to this list or separated into another category we would have contaminated data, since even the possession of a hand gun is illegal by a felon in New York. 13
The independent variables will be broken down into two groups. The first group will be all convicted felons and second all those who have never been convicted of a felony. This will also put emphasis on the prison's system handling of the worst criminals in society. Many would say that due to the fact that convicted felons have already been convicted once they will most likely commit a violent crime again. This may be true; however, a substantial amount of crimes should not be committed by felons since they will make up an extremely small percent of the overall population. I want to put emphasis on the overall percentage of violent crimes committed by felons. It has to be remembered that felons have been released back into society and deemed able to function in a society without being a threat to the society. If this is not the case then our prison system is failing and should not be releasing these prisoners until reformed.
Several things must be controlled and kept equal. All social conditions will be held equal and will be looked upon as impacting the research. Social conditions are things such as unemployment, divorce rate, income etc. The other item that I want to keep equal is that of the felony convictions. I am holding all felony convictions equal no matter the crime the person committed. This is being done due to the fact that most of the times, all felons are held within the same type of prison and will have to endure the same routine within prison and will also receive the same type of treatment. Even if the person did not go into prison with the same attitude as another convicted felon, the atmosphere of the prison they are in will influence their behavior.
In order to do this research, data must be taken over a long time span. Too many factors can influence a short study, especially a synchronic study, even one with all social conditions kept equal. The amount of felons being released in a year could fluctuate and could lead to bias information or several other unforeseen events could impact the study. With a diachronic research the results from previous years will be seen and analyzed. The data will show if there is a decline or rise in regards to the overall crime rate or rather convicted felons commit crime at a regular rate not in correlation to the over all crime rate.
This study will have an enormous impact in society. If it is found that convicted felons are committing a majority or even a substantial amount of the violent crimes with a handgun several things could be concluded. One, the prison system in NY, and most likely in other parts of the country, is not working. Second, if it is the felons that are committing the crime and not the average citizens, limiting firearms to the average citizens is not an effective legislation.
The previous studies conducted do not show what is causing the high violent crime rate in the US. This research will reflect answers about one part of society that could be failing the citizens and putting them in danger. Are the most cases of the crimes being committed by convicted felons or is there another group of people that needs to be studied? Maybe it is not a certain group but a specific social condition that needs to be studied. This research will not be able to answer all these questions, but it will be able to help narrow down and identify one of the major causes of violent crime.