Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Public opinion on gun control 2013
National crime victimization survey flaws
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Public opinion on gun control 2013
The Inaccuracy of National Crime Victimization Survey Research
However consistent the evidence may be concerning the effectiveness of armed victim resistance, there are some who minimize its significance by insisting that it is rare.[15] This assertion is invariably based entirely on a single source of information, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).
Data from the NCVS imply that each year there are only about 68,000 defensive uses of guns in connection with assaults and robberies,[16] or about 80,000 to 82,000 if one adds in uses linked with household burglaries.[17] These figures are less than one ninth of the estimates implied by the results of at least thirteen other surveys, summarized in Table 1, most of which have been previously reported.[18] The NCVS estimates imply that about 0.09 of 1% of U.S. households experience a defensive gun use (DGU) in any one year, compared to the Mauser survey's estimate of 3.79% of households over a five year period, or about 0.76% in any one year, assuming an even distribution over the five year period, and no repeat uses.[19]
The strongest evidence that a measurement is inaccurate is that it is inconsistent with many other independent measurements or observations of the same phenomenon; indeed, some would argue that this is ultimately the only way of knowing that a measurement is wrong. Therefore, one might suppose that the gross inconsistency of the NCVS-based estimates with all other known estimates, each derived from sources with no known flaws even remotely substantial enough to account for nine-to-one, or more, discrepancies, would be sufficient to persuade any serious scholar that the NCVS estimates are unreliable.
Apparently it is not, since the Bureau of J...
... middle of paper ...
...ndgun owners or just those who owned handguns for protection purposes.[36] This procedure was apparently based on the dubious assumption that people who used a gun defensively no longer owned the gun by the time of the survey, or that the gun belonged to someone else, or that the R owned the gun for a reason other than protection or kept it outside the home.
Most importantly, the surveys did not ask enough questions to establish exactly what was done with the guns in reported defensive use incidents. At best, some of the surveys only established whether the gun was fired. The lack of such detail raises the possibility that the guns were not actually "used" in any meaningful way. Instead, Rs might be remembering occasions on which they merely carried a gun for protection "just in case" or investigated a suspicious noise in their backyard, only to find nothing.
Exploring Why a Large Number of Crimes Aren't Reported. For the large number of crimes that are committed, the biggest. percentage of them is not reported to the police or authorities. This could be due to several reasons.
Evidence: In a study it reported that in 1995 Connecticut law required gun buyers to get permits which included getting a background check, that was then associated
Guns are not the trouble, people are. The United States is #1 in world gun ownership, and yet is only 28th in the world in gun murders per 100,000 people. The number of unintentional fatalities due to firearms declined by 58 percent between 1991 and 2011 Based on these facts, one can see the guns not the causes of gun violence. moreover, civilians who get permits take gun safety courses and have criminal background...
Looking at the argument for stricter gun control, Gostin (2008) argues that despite America being the nation that possesses the greatest number of privately owned firearms in the world, it in fact results in the public being less safe. This point is substantiated by the fact that having a privately owned firearm in a household makes a family member five times more likely to be fatally shot than in a non-armed household. Perez-Pena (2015) notes that each year around 30,000 preventable deaths are caused by firearms, which accounts for 18% of injury related deaths in America. It also
Mercy Saltzman reports that “having a gun in the home also increases the risk that incidents of domestic violence will result in homicide.” He goes on to point out “family and intimate assaults involving firearms are twelve times more likely to result in death than non-firearm related assaults” (Saltzman 3043-47). In lieu of these statements, one can see the present danger of keeping a firearm in a household. Another reason to mandate the registration of handguns is because guns and criminals are not a healthy combination. When angry criminals are let out of jail, they often seek revenge.
Ring, Ray. “Guns R Us.” High Country News (Paonia, Co) Vol. 39, No. 14 Aug. 6 2007:10-17. Sirs Issues Researcher. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.
In the United States of America, there is much debate about the effectiveness and practicality of concealed firearms. Many citizens today are trying to support their claim with old, outdated evidence and targeted research to attempt to prove a point, but can not escape the truth. Although Concealed firearms may sound appealing to reduce crime rates and stop violence, new evidence suggests otherwise. Recently there has been trends of certain lunatics who own guns that decide to shoot innocent people, justifying the need for more strict gun control laws. The purpose of this paper is to educate and inform about the immensely important topic of concealed firearms, with focus on what effect it has on society and crime rates. We will go over modern
Over the years some of the reasons to own guns have changed. As Americans moved west fulfilling Manifest Destiny, making new towns along the way which were far away from any established law. These people made laws through the barrel of a gun. Of course crime still happened, but not nearly as often, when the townspeople simply hunted down and shot the criminal. Eventually, police forces arose in the Midwest, and fewer people carried guns with them on the street but they were still there, visible or not.
People who do not research the owning of handguns and form their opinion off of what they see on the news are left in the dark. One of the most misunderstood concepts is that more guns cause more violence. This is false more guns do not mean more homicides. In 1973, the handgun stock was 36.9 million and the homicide rate was 9.4 per 100,000. In 1992, the handgun stock was 77.6 million but the homicide rate dropped 8.5 percent. In 1994, the U.S. bureau of justice static's made a survey that stated 100,000 lives are saved by handguns. According to criminologist Gary Kleck, guns are fired in only about 24 percent of cases in which they are used for self-defense.
They believe that if background checks were required for private sales, which they describe as “firearms sold at gun shows, through classified newspaper ads, the Internet, and between individuals virtually anywhere” then the “Gun Show Loophole” would be eliminated (Coalition to Stop Gun Violence). As evidenced by the call for an increase in gun control after mass shootings, people believe that with stricter gun control, we would have less incidences of gun violence. Gun control advocates argue that if we have stricter gun control, then we will have a safer country, with fewer shootings. According to a study done by the University of Wisconsin and Bowling Green State University between 2005-2007, the number of police officers who “were convicted of firearms violations” was convicted “at a.0002% annual rate” (Fund).
Gun admirers have statistics that will prove their side on guns saving lives. According to one study by Lott “… for each additional year that laws allowing people to carry concealed handguns were on the books, robberies decli...
Supporters of gun control state that to decrease crimes committed with fire arms (which amass a high majority of crimes) guns should be banned from private ownership. This removes guns from the public, therefore taking away the instrument of easily accomplishing crimes. Arthur Kellermann and Donald T. Raey, two gun control advocates, did their own research into the issue and published a discovery of their own; the 43-1 Statistic. In this statistic, Kellerman and Raey state that a gun will be used in a justified shooting one time, while forty three other people are killed by a gun unjustly, either by suicide, accident, or criminal (Heumer 9). According to these two researchers, gun ownership is not worth it. Private ownership of guns saved one life wh...
From a 2013 survey conducted by Pew Research Center, self-defense - rather than hunting or other sports involving the use of a gun - is the reason forty-eight percent of gun owners own a weapon. Hunting and sports that involve shooting supported the reason why only thirty-two percent of people own guns today. Compared to 1999, forty-nine percent of gun owners claimed they owned a weapon for hunting; a statistic that continues to drastically drop today. Statistically, when asked whether gun control would be a good idea, Americans are nearly split between two equal groups. While fifty-four percent of test subjects believe gun control acts will reduce the number of deaths in mass shooting, fifty-eight percent of participants fear that Congress’s direct involvement with amending the Constitution will make it more difficult to protect their homes and families (Clark
“Their best defense against injury is to put no defense and give them what they want” (Kates). Critics may argue that concealed handguns are not an effective form of self defense. To the contrary, robbery and assault victims who used a gun were less likely to be attacked or suffer injury, “Neither a martial art skills nor chemical sprays provide a real option for victims faced by attackers who are stronger or armed” (Kates). People feel safer when they carry a concealed weapon because they feel that criminals will avoid attacking them. Citizens want to conceal carry a handgun because every day there are dangerous individuals who prey on the weak. In addition to that, concealed handguns are an effective non-lethal form of self defense a majority of the time. Gary Kleck from the Federal Bureau of Investigation “estimated that, 2 million to 2.5 million victims annually use handguns to repel criminal attackers” (Kates). The surprise of being armed is the advantage for the victim, which the victim has the disadvantage of knowing the time and place of being attacked. Concealed carry actually provides protection to citizens that do not carry because the criminals are not sure who is able to defend themsel...
Estimates put the number between 200,000 and 2.5 million times per year that a firearm is used defensively. Compared to around 200,000 violent crimes including suicides that involve firearms. IMHO puts the number between 500,000 and 750,000 times per year, or roughly 2–4 times more lives saved than taken. Approximately 2 million times a year, having a gun prevents, or stops a violent crime. Which is far greater in number than are killed by guns. Most people (excluding suicides) are killed in inner cities with strict gun restrictions. In those cities, many more people are killed with guns that are saved by guns because the people are not allowed to defend themselves. If we take a look at the world as a whole, the violent crime rate in the US is extremely low compared to the rest of the world. According to statistics suicides are responsible for 64% of gun deaths, which is common in older white males. Many of those people have painful medical conditions that are undertreated so they commit suicide to stop the pain which has no reason to be used as statistics for gun violence as someone will kill themselves no matter what law is in