The Gun Survey

The Gun Survey, led by Dr. Rick Frei, is an ongoing student-driven interdisciplinary research initiative aimed at developing a better understanding of gun violence and facilitating community discussion through education.  The project began in 2009 as part of an Applied Psychology course project at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP).  Students conducted focus groups throughout the city of Philadelphia to gain a better understanding of gun behavior and people's attitudes towards the guns.  From these focus groups, we concluded that both life experiences and situational factors influence people's attitudes towards guns.  We developed hypotheses regarding the relationship between gun attitudes and life experiences (ie., exposure to violence growing up, drug use).  The students developed a survey to test their hypotheses, which they adminsitered to nearly 1500 Community College students. 

Bloom, Adi 2009 www. tes.co.uk/article. the victims of bullying who wrecked terrible revenge.

this article was actually narrates an investigation carried out by proff. Laurie Bennette, professor of Education at the Denver University; on why some victims of bullying turn to violent anti-social behaviors while others achieve success. 

News.bbc.co.uk (2005)  Minnesota Killer Admireed Hitler.

Minnesota teenager who was allegedly teased and considered weird and anti-social by other pupils, shot and killed nine people including his grandfather, then killed a further seven people at his high school before turning the gun on himself.

http://bullyingstatistics.blogspot.com/

100,000 students carry a gun to school bullying statistics say.  

Bullying statistics say revenge is the strongest motivation for school shootings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OwK34ZD1TY

http://www.newfoundations.com/Clabaugh/CuttingEdge/Columbine.html

Here is more of what the Post found was going on at Columbine:

Bullying was rampant and unchecked. For instance, a father told Post reporters about two athletes mercilessly bullying his son, a Jew, in gym class. They sang songs about Hitler, pinned the youngster to the ground, did "body twisters" on him until he was black-and- blue, and even threatened to set him on fire. The father reported the bullying to the gym teacher, but it continued. When the father took his complaint to the guidance counselor, he said, he was told, "This stuff can happen." The outraged father had to complain to the school board to get relief for his son.

 

How important were these injustices to Harris and Klebold? Did they care about them, or even know about them? They both knew and they cared. In fact, the Post reports that dozens of interviews and court records alike show that the pair's homicidal anger ". . . began with the injustices of the jocks."

 

http://lawandsocietyweek.pbworks.com/f/gun_violence.jpg

 

ERIC NAGOURNEY

People with guns in their homes are almost twice as likely to be killed by guns as people who do not keep them at home, researchers reported yesterday in The Annals of Emergency Medicine. And, the researchers found, people with guns are 16 times as likely to commit suicide using guns.

Stolzenberg, L ; D'Alessio, S (2000)  Gun Availability and Violent Crime: New Evidence from the National Incident-Based Reporting System.

Using four years of county-level data drawn from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) for South Carolina and a pooled cross-sectional time-series research design, we investigate whether gun availability is related to violent crime, gun crime, juvenile gun crime, and violent crimes committed with a knife. We contribute to the literature by distinguishing between illegal and legal gun availability and by using a comprehensive measure of gun crime. Results show a strong positive relationship between illegal gun availability and violent crime, gun crime, and juvenile gun crime. Little or no effect for the legitimate gun availability measure is observed in any of the estimated models. Findings also reveal that illegal guns have little influence on violent crimes committed with a knife. Offenders seem not to be substituting knives or other cutting instruments when illegal firearms become less available. A supplemental analysis also indicates no evidence of simultaneity between gun availability and violent crime. The strong and consistent effect of illegal rather than legal gun availability on violent crime has important policy implications, because it suggests that greater attention should be directed at devising ways for legitimate gun owners to better secure their weapons

Ludwig, Jens (2005) BETTER GUN ENFORCEMENT, LESS CRIME.

Research Summary: Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), which for the past several years has been the major federal initiative to combat gun violence, includes several elements (such as gun locks and other efforts to reduce gun availability) that research suggests are likely to have at best modest effects on gun crime. In general, enforcement activities targeted at the “demand side” of the underground gun market currently enjoy stronger empirical support. However much of PSN's budget has been devoted to increasing the severity of punishment, such as by federaliz-ing gun cases, which seems to be less effective than targeted street-level enforcement designed to increase the probability of punishment for gun carrying or use in crime. Policy Implications: PSN and other enforcement activities could be made more effective by redirecting resources toward activities such as targeted patrols against illegal gun carrying. Given the substantial social costs of gun violence, an efficiency argument can also be made for increasing funding beyond previous levels.

http://www.bradycampaign.org/legislation/gvstats/

Easy Access to Deadly Weapons

• Currently, an estimated 34.5% of households have a gun, while 24% have a handgun.
• As of 2004, there were approximately 283 million privately owned firearms in the U.S -- 40 percent of them handguns.
• In 1998 alone, licensed firearms dealers sold an estimated 4.4 million guns, 1.7 million of which were handguns. Additionally, it is estimated that 1 to 3 million guns change hands in the secondary market each year, and many of these sales are not regulated.

Young Lives Cut Short

• In 2005, nearly 8 children and teenagers, ages 19 and under, were killed with guns everyday.
• In 2005, firearm homicide was the second leading cause of injury death for men and women 10-24 years of age - second only to motor vehicle crashes.
• In 2005, firearm homicide was the leading cause of death for black males ages 15-34.
• From 1999 through 2005, an average of over 1,000 children and teenagers took their own lives with guns each year.
• Each year during 1993 through 1997, an average of 1,621 murderers who had not reached their 18th birthdays took someone's life with a gun.