Policing the Second Amendment

Policing the Second Amendment PDF Author: Jennifer Carlson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691212813
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
An urgent look at the relationship between guns, the police, and race The United States is steeped in guns, gun violence—and gun debates. As arguments rage on, one issue has largely been overlooked—Americans who support gun control turn to the police as enforcers of their preferred policies, but the police themselves disproportionately support gun rights over gun control. Yet who do the police believe should get gun access? When do they pursue aggressive enforcement of gun laws? And what part does race play in all of this? Policing the Second Amendment unravels the complex relationship between the police, gun violence, and race. Rethinking the terms of the gun debate, Jennifer Carlson shows how the politics of guns cannot be understood—or changed—without considering how the racial politics of crime affect police attitudes about guns. Drawing on local and national newspapers, interviews with close to eighty police chiefs, and a rare look at gun licensing processes, Carlson explores the ways police talk about guns, and how firearms are regulated in different parts of the country. Examining how organizations such as the National Rifle Association have influenced police perspectives, she describes a troubling paradox of guns today—while color-blind laws grant civilians unprecedented rights to own, carry, and use guns, people of color face an all-too-visible system of gun criminalization. This racialized framework—undergirding who is “a good guy with a gun” versus “a bad guy with a gun”—informs and justifies how police understand and pursue public safety. Policing the Second Amendment demonstrates that the terrain of gun politics must be reevaluated if there is to be any hope of mitigating further tragedies.

Policing the Second Amendment

Policing the Second Amendment PDF Author: Jennifer Carlson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691212813
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
An urgent look at the relationship between guns, the police, and race The United States is steeped in guns, gun violence—and gun debates. As arguments rage on, one issue has largely been overlooked—Americans who support gun control turn to the police as enforcers of their preferred policies, but the police themselves disproportionately support gun rights over gun control. Yet who do the police believe should get gun access? When do they pursue aggressive enforcement of gun laws? And what part does race play in all of this? Policing the Second Amendment unravels the complex relationship between the police, gun violence, and race. Rethinking the terms of the gun debate, Jennifer Carlson shows how the politics of guns cannot be understood—or changed—without considering how the racial politics of crime affect police attitudes about guns. Drawing on local and national newspapers, interviews with close to eighty police chiefs, and a rare look at gun licensing processes, Carlson explores the ways police talk about guns, and how firearms are regulated in different parts of the country. Examining how organizations such as the National Rifle Association have influenced police perspectives, she describes a troubling paradox of guns today—while color-blind laws grant civilians unprecedented rights to own, carry, and use guns, people of color face an all-too-visible system of gun criminalization. This racialized framework—undergirding who is “a good guy with a gun” versus “a bad guy with a gun”—informs and justifies how police understand and pursue public safety. Policing the Second Amendment demonstrates that the terrain of gun politics must be reevaluated if there is to be any hope of mitigating further tragedies.

Policing Gun Violence

Policing Gun Violence PDF Author: Anthony A. Braga
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199929289
Category : Gun control
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Policing Gun Violence makes the case that increasing the effectiveness of the police in gun-violence prevention is both possible and essential. It is essential because in many cities, gun violence is the most pressing crime problem, making cities less liveable and dragging down economic development. There is no good alternative to police authority for gaining control of criminal gangs and interrupting cycles of retaliation. Increasing police effectiveness is possible due to considerable advances in the understanding of what works (and what doesn't) in the strategic use of police resources. In particular, innovations such as focused deterrence, hot spots policing, procedural justice, and enhanced shooting investigations have been widely studied and offer real promise if implemented correctly. The challenges in this domain begin with the fact that low-income communities of color, which bear the brunt of gun violence, tend to be distrustful of the police. Residents of these communities often feel that they are overpoliced, due to heavy-handed tactics and all-too-common officer-involved shootings. But they also feel under-policed, as evidenced by slow response times, failure to intervene in tense situations, and low arrest rates for serious crime. A comprehensive strategy for policing gun violence requires a community focus and a commitment to reining in police misbehaviour. This book makes the case that, done correctly, policing gun violence is an urgent investment and a matter of social justice"--

Firearms and Violence

Firearms and Violence PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309091241
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Get Book Here

Book Description
For years proposals for gun control and the ownership of firearms have been among the most contentious issues in American politics. For public authorities to make reasonable decisions on these matters, they must take into account facts about the relationship between guns and violence as well as conflicting constitutional claims and divided public opinion. In performing these tasks, legislators need adequate data and research to judge both the effects of firearms on violence and the effects of different violence control policies. Readers of the research literature on firearms may sometimes find themselves unable to distinguish scholarship from advocacy. Given the importance of this issue, there is a pressing need for a clear and unbiased assessment of the existing portfolio of data and research. Firearms and Violence uses conventional standards of science to examine three major themes - firearms and violence, the quality of research, and the quality of data available. The book assesses the strengths and limitations of current databases, examining current research studies on firearm use and the efforts to reduce unjustified firearm use and suggests ways in which they can be improved.

Bleeding Out

Bleeding Out PDF Author: Thomas Abt
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 1541645715
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Get Book Here

Book Description
From a Harvard scholar and former Obama official, a powerful proposal for curtailing violent crime in America Urban violence is one of the most divisive and allegedly intractable issues of our time. But as Harvard scholar Thomas Abt shows in Bleeding Out, we actually possess all the tools necessary to stem violence in our cities. Coupling the latest social science with firsthand experience as a crime-fighter, Abt proposes a relentless focus on violence itself -- not drugs, gangs, or guns. Because violence is "sticky," clustering among small groups of people and places, it can be predicted and prevented using a series of smart-on-crime strategies that do not require new laws or big budgets. Bringing these strategies together, Abt offers a concrete, cost-effective plan to reduce homicides by over 50 percent in eight years, saving more than 12,000 lives nationally. Violence acts as a linchpin for urban poverty, so curbing such crime can unlock the untapped potential of our cities' most disadvantaged communities and help us to bridge the nation's larger economic and social divides. Urgent yet hopeful, Bleeding Out offers practical solutions to the national emergency of urban violence -- and challenges readers to demand action.

Promising Strategies to Reduce Gun Violence

Promising Strategies to Reduce Gun Violence PDF Author: David I. Sheppard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book Here

Book Description
Culmination of a survey and review conducted by a U.S. Department of Justice Work Group and COSMOS Corporation.

Do Police Need Guns?

Do Police Need Guns? PDF Author: Richard Evans
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811595267
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 150

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book challenges what are, for many people, deep-rooted expectations regarding the routine arming of police and compares jurisdictions in which police are routinely armed (Toronto, Canada and Brisbane, Australia) and those where police are not routinely armed (Manchester, England and Auckland, New Zealand). With a focus on Western jurisdictions and by examining a range of documentary, media and data sources, this book provides an evidence-based examination of the question: Do police really need guns? This book first provides detailed insight into the armed policing tradition and perceptions/expectations with respect to police and firearms. A range of theoretical concepts regarding policing, state power and the use of force is applied to an examination of what makes the police powerful. This is set against the minimum force tradition, which is typified by policing in England and Wales. Consideration is also given to the role played by key tropes and constructs of popular culture. Drawing on Surette’s model of symbolic reality, the book considers contrasting media traditions and the positioning of firearms within narrative arcs, especially the role of heroes. The book concludes by drawing together the key themes and findings, and considering the viability of retaining and/or moving towards non-routinely armed police.

Citizen-Protectors

Citizen-Protectors PDF Author: Jennifer Carlson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199347573
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Get Book Here

Book Description
From gang- and drug-related shootings to mass shootings in schools, shopping centers, and movie theatres, reports of gun crimes fill the headlines of newspapers and nightly news programs. At the same time, a different kind of headline has captured public attention: a steady surge in pro-gun sentiment among Americans. In Citizen-Protectors, Jennifer Carlson offers a compelling portrait of gun carriers, shedding light on Americans' complex relationship with guns. Delving headlong into the world of guns, Carlson participated in firearms training classes, attending pro-gun events, and carried a firearm herself. Through these experiences, she explores the role guns play in the lives of Americans who carry them and shows how, against a backdrop of economic insecurity and social instability, gun carrying becomes a means of being a good citizen. A much-needed counterpoint to the rhetorical battles over gun control, Citizen-Protectors is a captivating and revealing look at gun culture in America, and a must-read for anyone with a stake in this heated debate.

When Police Kill

When Police Kill PDF Author: Franklin E. Zimring
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067497803X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
“A remarkable book.”—Malcolm Gladwell, San Francisco Chronicle Deaths of civilians at the hands of on-duty police are in the national spotlight as never before. How many killings by police occur annually? What circumstances provoke police to shoot to kill? Who dies? The lack of answers to these basic questions points to a crisis in American government that urgently requires the attention of policy experts. When Police Kill is a groundbreaking analysis of the use of lethal force by police in the United States and how its death toll can be reduced. Franklin Zimring compiles data from federal records, crowdsourced research, and investigative journalism to provide a comprehensive, fact-based picture of how, when, where, and why police resort to deadly force. Of the 1,100 killings by police in the United States in 2015, he shows, 85 percent were fatal shootings and 95 percent of victims were male. The death rates for African Americans and Native Americans are twice their share of the population. Civilian deaths from shootings and other police actions are vastly higher in the United States than in other developed nations, but American police also confront an unusually high risk of fatal assault. Zimring offers policy prescriptions for how federal, state, and local governments can reduce killings by police without risking the lives of officers. Criminal prosecution of police officers involved in killings is rare and only necessary in extreme cases. But clear administrative rules could save hundreds of lives without endangering police officers. “Roughly 1,000 Americans die each year at the hands of the police...The civilian body count does not seem to be declining, even though violent crime generally and the on-duty deaths of police officers are down sharply...Zimring’s most explosive assertion—which leaps out...—is that police leaders don’t care...To paraphrase the French philosopher Joseph de Maistre, every country gets the police it deserves.” —Bill Keller, New York Times “If you think for one second that the issue of cop killings doesn’t go to the heart of the debate about gun violence, think again. Because what Zimring shows is that not only are most fatalities which occur at the hands of police the result of cops using guns, but the number of such deaths each year is undercounted by more than half!...[A] valuable and important book...It needs to be read.” —Mike Weisser, Huffington Post

Gun Violence

Gun Violence PDF Author: Philip J. Cook
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190285966
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
100 billion dollars. That is the annual cost of gun violence in America according to the authors of this landmark study, a book destined to change the way Americans view the problem of gun-related violence. Until now researchers have assessed the burden imposed by gunshot injuries and deaths in terms of medical costs and lost productivity. Here, economists Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig widen the lens, developing a framework to calculate the full costs borne by Americans in a society where both gun violence and its ever-present threat mandate responses that touch every aspect of our lives. All of us, no matter where we reside or how we live, share the costs of gun violence. Whether waiting in line to pass through airport security or paying taxes for the protection of public officials; whether buying a transparent book bag for our children to meet their school's post-Columbine regulations or subsidizing an urban trauma center, the steps we take are many and the expenditures enormous. Cook and Ludwig reveal that investments in prevention, avoidance, and harm reduction, both public and private, constitute a far greater share of the gun-violence burden than previously recognized. They also employ extensive survey data to measure the subjective costs of living in a society where there is risk of being shot or losing a loved one or neighbor to gunfire. At the same time, they demonstrate that the problem of gun violence is not intractable. Their review of the available evidence suggests that there are both additional gun regulations and targeted law enforcement measures that will help. This urgently needed book documents for the first time how gun violence diminishes the quality of life for everyone in America. In doing so, it will move the debate over gun violence past symbolic politics to a direct engagement with the costs and benefits of policies that hold promise for reducing gun violence and may even pay for themselves.

Gun Violence in America

Gun Violence in America PDF Author: Alexander DeConde
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 9781555535926
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420

Get Book Here

Book Description
An in-depth analysis of the folklore surrounding gun use and the state of the debate in today's political climate.