The Effects Of Gun Control On Gun Violence

921 Words2 Pages

Sherman, Lawrence W., and Dennis P. Rogan. 1995. “The Effects of Gun Seizures on Gun Violence: ‘Hot Spots’ Patrol in Kansas City.” Justice Quarterly 12(4):673–93.
The Kansas City Gun experiment was launched in October 1972 through October 1993 by the Kansas City Police Department through a grant awarded program. The “Weed and Seed” was a program developed under the Bureau of Justice Assistance in 1991. The study was designed to deter carrying a gun in hot spot areas known for high crime rates.
Due to the need for gun control became a nationwide issue, the Kansas City Gun Experiment goal was to seize illegal guns in order to control gun crime. The program hypothesized that the gun seizures have a directly related to crime reduction. As a result, police along with researches conducted an experiment that was designed to reduce gun violence, drive-by shootings, and homicides in a targeted area in the city of Kansas.
Two theories were proposed, deterrence and incapacitation theory in order to explain the hypothesis that if guns were seized, gun crime would decrease. The deterrence theory suggested that if guns were taken away by the police, people who carry illegal guns will less likely not too. The incapacitation theory proposed if illegal gun carriers were to have their guns seized, they will be incapable to commit crimes with guns until they acquired a new one. However, the main goal of the program was to decrease gun crimes due the area being the 2nd highest of drive-by shootings of any patrol beat. As a result, funds allotted for additional police patrol and overtime though the “Weed and Seed” grant.
The program used a quasi-experimental research design with a non-equivalent group design as the methodology...

... middle of paper ...

...orhoods.
The study concluded that the implementation of additional patrol placed in hotspot areas can have an impact on decreasing gun crime by increasing gun seizures. This can be substantial, however more cost effective than normal citywide police activity. Nonetheless, the data failed to prove that all police tactics proved to be effective in the increase of guns seized.
Furthermore, the data indicated that regular beat officers who has freedom from answering service calls, has the benefit to earn overtime. Officer safety was not a concern in the study. No officers were injured and no reports of officers in gun attacks. However, officer safety could be subjected to risk opposed by youths who are subjected to more traffic stops. The study was able to prove that visibility of police can be a deterrent to gun crimes but was limited to other crimes.

More about The Effects Of Gun Control On Gun Violence

Open Document