Gun Control and Gun Crime Essay ⋆ Sociology Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Gun crimes – or firearms offenses – are never far away from the headlines in the USA – and other countries with high levels of gun ownership. Incidents such as the Virginia Tech Shootings in 2007, and the Columbine High School shootings in 1999 are examples of what some have called ”the firearm epidemic” (Cukier and Sidel 2006: 3).

Overall, research has been divided into two schools – those who believe that guns deter crime and those who argue that more guns increase the risk of being a victim of a firearm offense. Criminologists subscribing to the latter view argue that there is a positive and numerical correlation between the number of firearm offenses and the availability of guns. Thus, the number of deaths caused by gunshots is consistently higher in countries with high rates of gun ownership. For example, in the USA there were 8,259 homicides in 2006 (roughly 10 to every 1,000 people) in a country where 85 percent of people own a gun. By comparison there were only 62 homicides in England and Wales (1 to every 1,000 people) in a country where only 3 percent own a gun and where all handguns are banned. This relationship has been corroborated by more detailed studies. A study (which examined the link between gun ownership rates in Canada, the USA, England and Wales, and Australia) concluded that 92 percent of the variance in death rates could be explained by differences in access to firearms (Killias 1993). However, one must be cautious not to make simple comparisons as the methods of data reporting and collection differ between countries. Gun control is a controversial issue and different groups have vested interests in making the figures appear, respectively, higher or lower. For example, figures from the National Rifle Association differ from those reported by the Gun-Control Network.

Another school of thought rejects this and argues that it is the other way round. In More Guns. Less Crime, John Lott (2000) has proposed that, if an increasing number of private citizens carry firearms this will deter crime as criminals are not keen on the possibility of being shot by their victims. This research has, however, been criticized on methodological grounds (Black and Nagin 1998: 218).

Gun crime also has social and economic costs. It has been estimated that the economic cost of every non-fatal gun crime is $30,500 for every injured person (Cook and Ludwig 2000).

Bibliography:

Black, D. & Nagin, D. (1998) Do right-to-carry laws deter violent crime.? Journal of Legal Studies 27 (1): 209-19.
Cook, P. & Ludwig, J. (2000) Gun Violence: The Real Costs. Oxford University Press, London.
Cukier, W. & Sidel, V. W. (2006) The Global Gun Epidemic: From Saturday Night Specials to AK-47s. Praeger International, Westport, CT.
Killias, M. (1993) International correlations between gun ownership and rates of homicide and suicide. Canadian Medical Association Journal 148 (May): 1721-5.
Lott, J. R., Jr. (2000) More Guns. Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.