NCJ Number
73686
Journal
Police Magazine Volume: 3 Issue: 6 Dated: (November 1980) Pages: 6-18
Date Published
1980
Length
13 pages
Annotation
Stating that 64 percent of all murders, 41 percent of all robberies, and 23 percent of all aggravated assaults were committed with firearms in 1978, this article describes the current status of gun control legislation in the United States.
Abstract
Statistics are cited to show that violent crimes are more prevalent where guns are more common, that guns pose a serious threat to ordinary households, and that gun ownership has shown a sharp increase following such incidents as race riots. The article discusses two recent laws curbing the use of handguns: the 1974 Bartley-Fox law of Massachusetts which requires a 1-year jail term for anyone convicted of carrying a firearm in public without a license and the 1975 California gun law which prohibits probation for violent felonies where a firearm was used to threaten the victim. Results of a major study that assessed the results of the Massachusetts law showed a 15.7-percent reduction in gun assaults, a temporary reduction in robberies, a 40-percent decline in homicides, and 355 fewer gun assaults and 870 fewer robberies in Boston alone. The article also reviews the opposition of the National Rifle Association to Federal gun control, police department efforts to control handguns, and some findings of research on firearm abuse. These findings suggest that effective handgun legislation might actually increase the total number of assaults and robberies although fewer of these would be deadly and that robbers, deprived of handguns, might merely shift to easier targets; e.g., from stores and banks to juveniles and the elderly. Photographs are provided.