Firearms and Violence: What Do We Know?

341 Pages·2004·1.737 MB·English

by  Committee on Law and Justice, National Research Council, Charles F. Wellford, John V. Pepper, Carol V. Petrie

FIREARMS
AND
VIOLENCE
A C R I T I CA L R E V I E W
Committee to Improve Research Information and Data on Firearms
Charles F. Wellford, John V. Pepper, and Carol V. Petrie, editors
Committee on Law and Justice
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth STREET, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the
Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn
from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of
Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee
responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard
for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by the National Academy of Sciences and Grant No.
2000-IJ-CX-0034 from the National Institute of Justice, Grant No. 200-2000-
00629 from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Joyce Foundation
(grant not numbered), Grant No. 200-8064 from the Annie E. Casey Foundation,
and Grant No. 2001-16212 from the Packard Foundation. Any opinions, findings,
conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the
author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies
that provided support for the project.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
National Research Council (U.S.). Committee to Improve Research Information
and Data on Firearms.
Firearms and violence : a critical review / Committee to Improve Research Infor-
mation and Data on Firearms ; Charles F. Wellford, John V. Pepper, and Carol V.
Petrie, editors ; Committee on Law and Justice, Division of Behavioral and Social
Sciences and Education.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-309-09124-1 (hardcover) — ISBN 0-309-54640-0 (pdf)
1. Firearms and crime—United States. 2. Firearms and crime—Research—United
States. 3. Firearms ownership—United States. 4. Violence—United States. 5. Vio-
lence—United States—Prevention. I. Wellford, Charles F. II. Pepper, John, 1964-
III. Petrie, Carol. IV. National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Law and
Justice. V. Title.
HV6789.N37 2004
364.2—dc22
2004024047
Additional copies of this report are available from National Academies Press, 500
Fifth Street, N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; [phone] or (202)
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Printed in the United States of America.
Copyright 2005 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Suggested citation: National Research Council. (2005). Firearms and Violence: A
Critical Review. Committee to Improve Research Information and Data on
Firearms. Charles F. Wellford, John V. Pepper, and Carol V. Petrie, editors.
Committee on Law and Justice, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and
Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the
National Research Council.
www.national-academies.org
COMMITTEE TO IMPROVE RESEARCH INFORMATION
AND DATA ON FIREARMS
CHARLES F. WELLFORD (Chair), Department of Criminology and
Criminal Justice, University of Maryland, College Park
ROBERT F. BORUCH, Graduate School of Education, University of
Pennsylvania
LINDA B. COTTLER, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University
School of Medicine
ROBERT D. CRUTCHFIELD, Department of Sociology, University of
Washington
JOEL L. HOROWITZ, Department of Economics, Northwestern
University
ROBERT L. JOHNSON, Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, New
Jersey Medical School
STEVEN D. LEVITT, Department of Economics, University of Chicago
TERRIE E. MOFFITT, Department of Psychology, University of
Wisconsin
SUSAN A. MURPHY, Department of Statistics, University of Michigan
KAREN E. NORBERG, Department of Psychiatry, Boston University,
and Center for Health Policy at Washington University, St. Louis
PETER REUTER, School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland
RICHARD ROSENFELD, Department of Criminology and Criminal
Justice, University of Missouri-St. Louis
JOEL WALDFOGEL, Public Policy and Management Department, The
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
JAMES Q. WILSON, Department of Management and Public Policy
(emeritus), University of California, Los Angeles
CHISTOPHER WINSHIP, Department of Sociology, Harvard University
JOHN V. PEPPER, Study Director
ANTHONY BRAGA, Consultant
BRENDA McLAUGHLIN, Research Associate
MICHELE McGUIRE, Project Assistant
RALPH PATTERSON, Senior Project Assistant
iv
COMMITTEE ON LAW AND JUSTICE
2003-2004
CHARLES F. WELLFORD (Chair), Department of Criminology and
Criminal Justice, University of Maryland, College Park
MARK H. MOORE (Vice Chair), Hauser Center for Non-Profit
Institutions and John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University
DAVID H. BAYLEY, School of Criminal Justice, University of Albany,
SUNY
ALFRED BLUMSTEIN, H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and
Management, Carnegie Mellon University
RICHARD BONNIE, Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy,
University of Virginia Law School
JEANETTE COVINGTON, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University
MARTHA CRENSHAW, Department of Political Science, Wesleyan
University
STEVEN DURLAUF, Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin,
Madison
JEFFREY FAGAN, School of Law and School of Public Health,
Columbia University
JOHN FEREJOHN, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
DARNELL HAWKINS, Department of Sociology, University of Illinois,
Chicago
PHILLIP HEYMANN, Harvard Law School, Harvard University
ROBERT L. JOHNSON, Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, New
Jersey Medical School
CANDACE KRUTTSCHNITT, Department of Sociology, University of
Minnesota
JOHN H. LAUB, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice,
University of Maryland, College Park
MARK LIPSEY, Center for Crime and Justice Policy Studies, Vanderbilt
University
DANIEL D. NAGIN, H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and
Management, Carnegie Mellon University
RICHARD ROSENFELD, Department of Criminology and Criminal
Justice, University of Missouri-St. Louis
CHRISTY VISHER, Justice Policy Center, Urban Institute, Washington, DC
CATHY SPATZ WIDOM, Department of Psychiatry, New Jersey
Medical School
CAROL V. PETRIE, Director
RALPH PATTERSON, Senior Project Assistant
v

Contents
Preface ix
Executive Summary 1
1 Introduction 11
2 Data for Measuring Firearms Violence and Ownership 19
3 Patterns of Firearm-Related Violence 53
4 Interventions Aimed at Illegal Firearm Acquisition 72
5 The Use of Guns to Defend Against Criminals 102
6 Right-to-Carry Laws 120
7 Firearms and Suicide 152
8 Firearm Injury Prevention Programs 201
9 Criminal Justice Interventions to Reduce Firearm-Related
Violence 221
References 242
vii
viii CONTENTS
Appendixes
A Dissent 269
James Q. Wilson
B Committee Response to Wilson’s Dissent 272
C Judicial Scrutiny of Challenged Gun Control Regulations: 276
The Implications of an Individual Right Interpretation of the
Second Amendment
Scott Gast
D Statistical Issues in the Evaluation of the Effects of 299
Right-to-Carry Laws
Joel L. Horowitz
E Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff 309
Index 317
Preface
F
ew topics engender more controversy than “gun control.” Large seg-
ments of the population express contradictory opinions and assert con-
tradictory facts when they discuss the role of firearms in violence and
especially how to reduce violent injuries and deaths that involve firearms.
The report of the Committee on Improving Research Information and Data
on Firearms was not intended to, nor does it reach any conclusions about
the issue of gun control. Rather, we have addressed what empirical research
tells about the role of firearms in violence. Our recommendations address
how to improve the empirical foundation for discussions about firearms
policy. Until that foundation is better established, little progress is likely in
the ongoing public debate over firearms.
One theme that runs throughout our report is the relative absence of
credible data central to addressing even the most basic questions about
firearms and violence. As we often state in the report, without much better
data, important questions will continue to be unanswerable. This is unac-
ceptable when we see the impact that firearm-related violent injury and
death have on American society and especially some of the most vulnerable
segments of that population. The fact that little can be said about the
prevention and control of these levels of death and injury—when for some
segments of the population they are the leading causes of death and in-
jury—is of concern to us as citizens and scientists.
Reaching consensus on a controversial topic for which research is lim-
ited and in conflict requires an exceptional committee and staff. The com-
mittee has spent the past two years learning about research and data on
firearms and seeking to learn from each other how our disciplines evaluate
ix