The research question I have decided to cover is: “Gun Control in the United States: Should we have it and to what degree?”. Typically when you hear politicians and media talk about gun control it is polar opposite ideals. They are either let all guns be available to anyone anytime or do not allow a single gun to be purchased. i would like to take a sensible tiered approach to gun control. Growing up, I did not handle a weapon until I had joined the military. there we learned all about the correct and safe usable of the weapon and how to be effective with it. I firmly believe this approach should be taken to the civilian sector as, well. if you want to purchase a weapon, you must first be trained with it and vouched responsible. Most of my sources deal with both sides of the argument and mass shootings seeing these are the 'hot topics' of discussion within the guin control realm.
Hand, Carol, and Rostron, Allen. Gun Control and the Second Amendment. Essential Library, an Imprint of Abdo Publishing, 2017.
This book ‘Gun Control and the Second Amendment’ was written by Carol Hand whom has a PhD in zoology and lawyer Allen Rostron. While they may not sound like reputable sources on the topic, Hand has written over 30 books on various topics including fracking, wage gap and hate crimes. Rostron was a Senior Staff Attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence giving admirable credit to Hand. Together they wrote a book that encompasses all aspect of gun control arguments from both sides, detail into the Sandy Hook disaster and were able to keep the narrative unbiased the entire time. They went into detail about the second amendment and the history of guns in America, gun violence around the world and in America, and the future of gun control. The authors also took a hard look at the National Rifle association and their influence in Washington D.C. Like my other source, this book covered the legality and effectiveness of trigger locks. All things that have been attempted in the past to remedy incidents with guns.
Girgis, Ragy MD, “Is There a Link between Mental Health and Mass Shootings?” Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, www.columbiapsychiatry.org/news/mass-shootings-and-mental-illness. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023
This source is a scholarly article written by Ragy Girgis, MD, who is a professor of clinical psychology at Colombia University. The article takes an in depth look at trends from mass shooters in the Unites States. One of the major arguments for more strict gun control in the United States is due to mass shootings. This article explains people with mental illness are actually less likely to commit these acts. He goes on to explain that most of the people who commit mass murders are struggling with some other aspect in their lives, not psychosis or mental illness. He explains that nearly half of all mass shooters have no outright signals that they intend to commit the act. There is no diagnosed mental illness, no substance use, or no history of criminality. There is also mention that while guns are effective at inflicting harm rapidly, people that actually want to cause mass casualties do not use guns as their preferred method. Dr. Girgis also talks about the Colombia Mass Murder Database, where there are over 1800 entries of mass murder incidents. The database is continuously updated and allows for trends to be made and history to be studied. Dr. Girgis has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on the field of mental illness as well as books and coauthored. He is very well versed in mental illness and able to diagnose and relate the issue at hand.
Lafollette, Hugh, Why We Need Gun Control', In Defense of Gun Control, Faculty Books, May 2018. Oxford Academic, https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190873363.003.0008, Accessed 27 Sept. 2023.
The book 'Why We Need Gun Control' was written by Hugh Lafollette in 2018. He grew up in a home, where possessing and using firearms was a normal occurrence. He even noted receiving a shotgun as a gift for his thirteenth birthday. Through out his book he does the research for view from both sides of the argument pro/anti-gun ownership. Also, he looks at gun control vs free reign over purchase and ownership. He talks about living in an area of Scotland, that just before they moved in, an individual committed mass murder at the school with a gun. This caused him to take a serious inward look at himself and do the work to decide where he stood on the argument. Throughout the book the author goes into great detail about the history of firearms and their many uses. The author goes into detail on all aspects of the firearms debate. He discusses how the arguments are structured, from armchair arguments to court cases, to public policy and databases, and scientific evidence. He then analyzes all the arguments for validity and factuality. At the end he comes to his conclusion that there should be some form of gun control and bans on certain weapons.
“Public Mass Shootings: Database Amasses Details of a Half Century of U.S. Mass Shootings with Firearms, Generating Psychosocial Histories.” National Institute of Justice, nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/public-mass-shootings-database-amasses-details-half-century-us-mass-shootings. Accessed 27 Sept. 2023.
This site is managed by the National Institute of Justice and focuses on gun violence in America. The site defines a mass shooter as someone that kills 4 or more people in one event. It goes on to explain trends as to how and why mass shooting took place in the past. I included mass shooter information because that quickly becomes a topic when discussing gun control. Anti-gun advocates typically assume that making guns inaccessible will stop mass shooting and gun violence in America. However small, this site shows that 13% of mass shooters did not legally purchase their weapons legally. The site also goes on to categorize shooter by demographics and upbringing as well as go into typical mental states shooters had when committing the act. The Nation institute of Justice is a branch of the USDOJ that is focused on the research, development, and evaluation of the agency. They use science to improve knowledge and understanding of crime. Additionally, NIJ assists justice communities providing objective and independent information to fight crime.
Tilley, Rolf. “Locked and Eroded: The Right to Keep and Bear Arms in the Era of Trigger Lock Laws.” Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science & Technology, vol. 61, no. 2, Winter 2021, pp. 267–287. EBSCOhost,search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=a9h&AN=149977321&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 27 Sept. 2023.
This article was written by Rolf Tilley, JD, about the history of guns in America and about the legality of trigger locks. Tilley begins his article with a history of guns, not only in America but all the way back to England and the reason civilians were legally allowed to possess firearms. The fear that a Catholic would rise to the throne permitted Protestants in England to arms themselves in fear of self-defense. He dives into the second amendment of the United States Constitution and its relevance to arguments about gun control in our world, nearly 250 years later. In this portion he notes a few trials based on weapons bans and the ownership of guns in the home to protect oneself. Finally, he explains trigger locks and the lawfulness of requiring the use of one in a private residence. Trigger locks are basically a secondary device used to prevent the accidental or unintended discharge of a firearm. There are a few different kinds, a cable lock or trigger guard, to name two. Again, Tilley cites court cases that have involved the argument of trigger locks and their legality vs. the second amendment and it’s spirit of intent.