The use of guns in crime is a major problem in the United States. Cook (1982) counted 682,000 violent crimes in 1977 in which a gun had been used, including 11,300 homicides, 367,000 assaults, 15,000 rapes, and 289,000 burglaries. Guns have several features that make them more dangerous than other weapons. They can be used by weak and unskilled assailants, they kill impersonally at a distance and quickly, and sometimes merely the display of a gun can immobilize the victim.
Guns are also responsible for a large number of deaths each year. From 1979 to 1987, an average of 32,639 deaths resulted from firearms each year (encompassing suicides, homicides, and accidental deaths). The average overall death rate from firearms ranged from 4.6 per 100,000 per year in Massachusetts to 26.4 in Alaska (Centers for Disease Control, n.d.).
Focusing on the use of guns in crime and death leads to strong support for gun control. However, guns are also owned by many Americans who have not committed and will not commit a crime. Guns are used for sport and competition and to give the owner a sense of security against enemies. Many gun owners belong to the National Rifle Association (NRA), which has become a powerful lobby against any restrictions on the purchase and ownership of guns. However, organizations in favor of gun control, such as Handgun Control, have become more effective as lobbyists even though the membership of Handgun Control was only about two hundred thousand in 1995.
In fact, polls conducted for the NRA and the Center for the Study and Prevention of Handgun Violence have produced similar results, although their sponsors differed in their views on the issue (Wright 1981). The majority in both polls (whether they owned a gun or not) favored registration of handguns, but there was little support for an outright ban on handguns, except for cheap small handguns, the so-called Saturday night specials. The majority in both polls felt that the right to own guns was a constitutional right, but that registration of guns would not violate that right. The majority also favored strict mandatory sentences for crimes committed with a gun, and many states have now introduced such laws. Other proposed gun control measures have included prohibiting certain individuals from owning guns (such as criminals and those psychiatrically disturbed) and prohibiting the ownership of particular types of guns (such as cheap handguns and semiautomatic and automatic assault weapons). Others have suggested using product liability laws to force manufacturers to limit the kinds of weapons they sell.
Police are among those supporting stricter gun control laws. In a study conducted by Lester (1984), both state and municipal police favored stricter handgun laws, bans on the manufacture of Saturday night specials and on forbidding citizens from carrying guns in cars, mandatory sentences for crimes committed with a gun, stricter requirements for commercial gun dealers, and longer waiting periods between obtaining a permit and taking ownership of a gun in order to permit a more thorough search of the buyer’s background. Though many police officers are members of the NRA, the opposition of the association even to restrictions on armor-piercing (”cop-killer”) ammunition has increased police support for stricter gun control laws.
Schuman and Presser (1981) discovered that opponents of stricter gun control laws are more active in their opposition than proponents. For example, they donate more money and write more letters. Hence, stricter gun control laws are difficult to pass.
The Use of Guns in Crime
Wright and Rosi (1986) surveyed felons in prison and found that half had used guns in their crimes. Of the gun-using criminals, 28% had used a gun once, 28% had used guns sporadically, and 44% had used them regularly. Of these regular users, handguns were more than three times as common as shoulder weapons for the weapon of choice. The gun-using felons had committed every type of crime more frequently, and though representing only about 22% of the total sample they accounted for nearly one-half of the violent crimes.
The most common sources of handguns for these felons were friends (40%), the street (14%), and gun shops (11%). The most common sources for shoulder weapons were friends (33%), family (22%), gun shops (17%), and hardware/department stores (11%). Thirty-two percent of the handguns and 23% of the shoulder weapons were stolen.
Guns in the United States and the Netherlands
It is revealing to compare data on guns in the United States with data from a country where gun ownership is rare. Colijn, Lester, and Slothouwer (1985) estimated that there were approximately three hundred guns per thousand people in the United States as compared to nine per thousand in the Netherlands. The rate of robbery with violence in 1980 in the Netherlands was 37 per 100,000 adults as compared to 303 in the United States, and the percentage of guns used in crimes is also lower in the Netherlands. For example, 13% of the crimes of robbery with violence in the Netherlands involved guns as compared to 45% in the United States.
Do Stricter Handgun Control Laws Prevent Crime?
The issue of gun control in America arouses powerful emotions on both sides of the issue. The National Rifle Association lobbies against any strengthening of gun control laws, appearing to believe that allowing any change in the laws governing the purchasing or ownership of guns would lead inexorably to the banning of all gun ownership. Proponents of stricter gun control, led by Sarah Brady, are often represented in public by her disabled husband, James Brady, who was seriously wounded in the assassination attempt on President Reagan.
The strong opinions involved in this issue render evaluations of the research on the effectiveness of gun control on firearm deaths suspect. Kleck (1991) did not think that research had demonstrated that stricter gun control prevents firearm deaths. Lester (1984, 1993) reviewed the same research and concluded that strict gun control had prevented suicide and that even stricter gun control would prevent murder. It is difficult, therefore, to draw unambiguous conclusions from past research.
Although two of the three studies from the 1960s and 1970s argued that stricter gun control laws did reduce the homicide rate, they can be criticized on methodological grounds. Lester and Murrell (1982) found that states with the stricter handgun control laws in the 1960s did not have lower homicide rates in 1960 or 1970 or less of an increase in the homicide rate from 1960 to 1970. (They did, however, have a smaller proportion of homicides committed with guns.)
On the other hand, Lester and Murrell (1982) also found that states with the stricter handgun control laws did have lower suicide rates, both by gun and overall. They concluded that stricter handgun control laws may prevent suicide, possibly by restricting the means available for committing suicide. Restrictions on the buying and selling of handguns were the critical variables here, while restrictions on the carrying of guns were not. Lester (1993) concluded that more recent research conducted in the 1980s and 1990s supported the conclusion that restricting gun availability would reduce the use of firearms for suicide and possibly for murder. Lester has urged that researchers move on to the study of why (and under what circumstances) some individuals would switch to a different weapon for suicide, murder, or criminal acts while others would not.
The apparently weak (or possibly nonexistent) effect of strict gun control laws on the prevention of crime is understandable given the relatively weak controls even in those states with the strictest gun control laws. Gun control laws in the United States are much weaker than corresponding laws in Europe, for example. Thus, it is not surprising that these laws have not been conclusively shown to have any impact on the use of guns in crimes. Furthermore, even when stricter gun controls are passed, compliance with and enforcement of those laws is often lax.
