Wellford C.S., Pepper J.V. - Firearms and Violence[c] What Do We Know[q] (2005)(en)

FIREARMS

AND

VIOLENCE

A C R I T I C A 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 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.

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, 1964III. 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 [phone] (in the Washington metropolitan area); Internet, http://www.nap.edu.

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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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

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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

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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

Few topics engender more controversy than “gun control.” Large segments of the population express contradictory opinions and assert contradictory 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 unacceptable 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 limited and in conflict requires an exceptional committee and staff. The committee 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