NCJ Number
247650
Date Published
2014
Length
418 pages
Annotation
This book reviews and analyzes contemporary global developments in the politics of gun crime as well as the associated social and theoretical issues.
Abstract
The introductory chapter sets the stage for subsequent chapters with a discussion of "Guns as a Global Issue," including the history, philosophy and ethic of an armed citizenship. The next two chapters focus on gun issues in the United Kingdom, a society with one of the lowest international rates of gun violence and a relatively low rate of firearms ownership; however, this has not occurred without significant effort by British politicians and police leadership over time in the adoption of a range of measures that countered the supply of legal and illegal firearms threatening the United Kingdom for two decades from the early 1990s. The next three chapters deal broadly with American gun-crime issues, with attention to the statistics and key trends in gun violence and gun ownership; the cultural and political debates underlying the politics of guns in America; and the impact of school shootings and mass killings on the gun-control debate. The remaining two chapters identify and discuss issues that have made gun violence and small-arms politics a global phenomenon. One of the chapters considers trends and patterns of gun trafficking around the world and the extent to which illicit firearms supplies and the process of "weaponization" are a direct cause or facilitator of conflict, crime, and violence. Another chapter examines how a number of societies (Canada, Australia, and Brazil) have responded to their gun crises, typically following a mass shooting. This chapter also discusses the United Nations' effort to curtail illegal firearms trafficking and the localized efforts of non-government organizations. Tables, figures, chapter notes, bibliography, and index