NCJ Number
100239
Date Published
1983
Length
77 pages
Annotation
Three essays question the effectiveness of gun control legislation in reducing firearms-related deaths and injuries and identify difficulties in enforcing such laws.
Abstract
The first essay compares the ineffectiveness of handgun control legislation to the failure of prohibition against alcohol consumption. Statistics are cited to show that those who commit homicide with handguns tend to be persons with criminal histories and patterns of violence. The essay argues that such persons will ensure that they have access to a handgun just as surely as unreformed alcoholics consumed liquor during the prohibition era. The second essay argues against the indiscriminate criminalization of gun possession in the home and for laws that aim to prevent gun ownership by persons deemed unfit to possess them. The essay reasons that a law which presumes the unfitness of most citizens to own a firearm is paternalistic and inconsistent with the presumption of innocence as well as the concept of freedom to act responsibly. The third essay compares the effectiveness and enforceability of gun control laws with drug laws and considers possible Federal gun control laws as well as other means of reducing injuries and deaths caused by guns. References accompany the essays. For individual essays, see NCJ 100240-42.