Paglini, L. (2015). How far will the strictest state push the limits: The constitutionality of the California’s proposed gun law under the second amendment. The American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law, 23(3), 459-485.
Paglini (2015) uses Elliot Roger who received mental health treatment until the age of 18 as an example of someone with a mental disorder and anger issues who acquired "three semi-automatic handguns and over 400 rounds of ammunition-all of which he legally purchased and registered” (p.2). There were many signs such of violent tendencies that the police and other authorities caught onto to prevent this disaster such as attempting to push people off an edge at a college party but they did not have the right communication with one another to actively act upon it. The California Bill 1014 was created to protect civilians from individuals that own firearms and can possibly be a threat to others or themselves. This source is relevant to my research paper because it provides insightful information about the California Bill that allows the government to take action from those who possess firearms such as the example of Elliot Roger who was a mentally disabled man that was able to kill seven people at a public university. Although the article held valuable information, the author could have used statistics to back up other claims. (Peer reviewed journal in gender, social policy and law)
Cordner, S. (1996). Australia agrees to tighten gun-control legislation. The Lancet, 347(9012), 1402.
Cordner informs the reader that Australia has had one mass shooting. Twelve days after the shooting, an agreement had been made within its government to enforce stricter laws concerning the importations, the amount an individual can own, and guns restricted to the public. Even the Association of Professional shooters supported the bans and the new laws concerning guns. The purpose of this paper demonstrates Australia’s government coming together to fix the issues so that it will not be repeated again and that it has lowered the firearms deaths by 10%. This study is relevant to my research paper because it provides a possible solution to many other countries like the U.S. still facing the same problem. It supports my thesis, which is strict gun control reducing the number of homicides in the United States. The author makes good arguments and uses a few statistics to back up his claims but overall it was very forward. (Peered reviewed journal in policy and people)
Schildkraut, J., & Hernandez, T. (2014). Laws that bit the bullet: A review of legislative response to school shootings. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 39(2), 358-374. doi:10.1007/s12103-013-9214-6
Schildkraut and Hernandez informs the reader of the multiple mass shootings that have occurred in the United States in the recent years, their main focus is on school shootings and how legislature and the public respond to them. Many of the laws and bills that are mentioned in the journal were introduced after these occurrences, many never made it. The few that did pass are the ones that currently shape the laws concerning firearms. This study is relevant to my research paper because it provides a brief history of the second amendment and how several events have influenced gun laws. It gives background of most of the laws regarding firearms in the United States. This will help support my thesis concerning stricter gun control reducing the number of homicides in the United States. The authors make good arguments and use relevant examples with very good details to support their ideas. (Peered reviewed journal in criminal justice)
Metzl, J. M., & MacLeish, K. T. (2015). Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms. American Journal of Public Health, 105(2), 240-249. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302242
Metzl and MacLeish (2003) both argue the rising connections between mental illness and mass shootings in America. They state the, “Four assumptions frequently arise in the aftermath of mass shootings in the United States” (p.2). While there is also an increase of variables that might take into account why and who commit these shootings, such as “Race/ethnicity, social class, and politics” but their main topic is associated with mental illness and gun violence. This study is relevant to my research paper because it provides “key literatures from fields including psychiatry, psychology, public health, and sociology that address connections between mental illness and gun violence” (p.2). This will support my thesis concerning stricter gun control reducing homicide in the United States. The author makes good argumentation by using multiple sources to present their studies and support their ideas. (Peered reviewed journal in public health)
Kleck, G., Gertz, M., & Bratton, J. (2009). Why do people support gun control?: Alternative explanations of support for handgun bans. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(5), 496-504.
Kleck, Gertz and Bratton (2009) argue that gun control is mainly a product from cultural conflict, between those who oppose or agree with gun control. They discuss the obvious reasons why people may support gun control, which is to “reduce violence”. Few hypotheses are mentioned connecting the cultural conflict with those who may or may not favor gun control. For example, “Those who favor forceful self-defense, and believe that they must rely on themselves for self-protection are less likely to support banning handguns [cultural conflicts]” (p.499). The readers get to understand both sides of the argument, being able to get a better sense of why they believe in gun control or not. Just like from the example, those who are anti-gun control see it as a way to defend themselves in any given situation. While the study is somewhat relevant to my research, the author presents his idea in a way that makes it hard to comprehend. (Peered reviewed journal in criminal justice)
Koeppel, M., & Nobles, M. (2017). Understanding female gun ownership. Feminist Criminology, 12(1), 43-71.
Koeppel and Nobles (2017) discuss about women and gun ownership in the years of 1973 through 2010. They used a “Nationally representative General Social Survey data” (p.1). They use this survey data throughout their journal to compare the rates of male and female gun ownership in the United States. This article sheds light on women owning guns. Additionally, it clarifies the whole spectrum of why women choose to own guns, what the ownership rates are, and how marketing targets women. This study is relevant to my research because it provides a research based rational to support my thesis which is stricter gun control reducing homicide in the United States. While the study brings in a new side to gun ownership concerning women and their views on it although I may only use a few sections in my paper. The authors make strong arguments about the topics and use valuable data to back up their claims. (Peered reviewed journal in criminal justice)
Earnest, J. (2016). Fact sheet: New executive actions to reduce gun violence and make our communities safer. Retrieved from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/04/fact-sheet-new-executive-actions-reduce-gun-violence-and-make-our
The press secretary in 2016 address a quick summary of what gun violence has done to this nation. The author mentions that there needs to be stricter gun control, in order to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands and cause tragedies. The author mentions that congress has failed to try and failed to pass legislation to pass decrease gun violence. For example, they have not tried to pass any legislation to increase background checks when buying firearms. This website explains the key ideas that President Obama wanted to improve when it came to gun violence. The major ideas mentioned were, increasing background checks, increasing mental health treatment, reporting any health issues through background checks, and increasing 50% of NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) to process the background checks quicker, because if it is not processed in three days, the person is then allowed to buy a firearm. This study is relevant to my research because it provides the past executive’s viewpoint on the concerning issues of gun violence. The author keeps the ideas organized and straightforward making the website article an easy read. (Peered reviewed government website)
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2013). A study of active shooter incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2013. Retrieved by https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-study-2000-2013-1.pdf/view
The FBI gave statistics on the increase of mass killings and other specific types that the public of law enforcement may face. They include criteria that classifies specific shootings which are used in their statistical study. Their timeline is within 2000-2013, which includes 160 incidents and 64 were counted as mass shootings. The patterns they found with mass shootings are associated with the shooters being male, work alone on these “missions”, there was no link regarding work or family, there is no pattern when it comes to age, 45% happened in an environment related to commerce, and 24% were in schools which happens to have the most casualties. The FBI sought to determine if the number of shooters have changed, and have concluded that it has increased. It is article that can aid law enforcement with preparing, responding, and recovering from an active shooting. This study is relevant to my research as it gives data from the biggest branch in law enforcement which will greatly benefit my paper with all the data it has. The FBI presented multiple variables within their article but failed to address what to do with gun control, they just go into depth about it. (Peered reviewed government website)
American Psychological Association. (2013). Gun violence: Prediction, prevention, and policy. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/ reports/gun-violence-prevention.aspx
The American Psychological Association gave statistics over the individuals that are more probable to commit gun violence. They stress that there is no perfect way to always identify who commits this type of violence. The prevention strategies will be a key when reducing these incidents. As well as funding for the research and the strategies are vital. Research must be opened with less restrictions. The purpose of this article addresses three key problems. First, being that if we were to focus on gun violence, we must take into account that gun violence is related to the broader understanding of violence in general. Second, is to develop an effective prevention strategy in an individual, community and national level. Lastly, we have to see what policies gun control is heading towards, suggests on how to continue research for unanswered questions to be able to remove barriers that prevent research on gun control, and as well to gain more funding. This study is relevant to my research because it explains how to prevent gun violence. This article had research based information that were used to back up their claims. (Peered reviewed American Psychical Association website)
Kristof, N. (2017, October 2). Preventing mass shootings like the Vegas Strip attack. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/opinion/mass-shooting-vegas.html
Kristof believes that the United States has faced too many mass shootings, but nothing has been done to change this. Compared to other countries like Australia where they suffered from a mass shooting. They quickly implemented tougher gun laws that lowered the homicide and suicide rates by half. From 1970 guns have taken more lives than the sum of all the American lives lost in all the wars we have fought in. He mentions that we must implement several laws to change this. While gun lobbyist say it is not time to talk about the issue he argues how we learn from our mistakes, “So let’s mourn. But even more important, let’s act” (para.22). The purpose is to have people act and implement laws to prevent mass shootings. Nine safety measures that the public health experts believe can reduce over time death by 1/3. Universal background checks, ban bump stocks (same ones used in the Los Vegas shooting that turned the semiautomatic rifle to an automatic), age limit of 21, ban the possession of guns subjected to a domestic violence prevention order, limit gun purchases, adopt microstamping, smart guns, require safe storage, and invest in research. This study is relevant to my research because it deals with a current mass shooting that has occurred and has reopened the ideas of wanting to address the problem. This newspaper article was organized in a wat that was easy to understand the ideas of wanting to implement new ideas to help address gun violence. (Peered reviewed credible newspaper)