THe big three
1.) TOPIC: Gun violence in America
2.) QUESTION: How can we reduce the number of handgun deaths through legislation and community education?
3.) THESIS: TBD (I am thinking about focusing on a specific handgun, maybe the .38 Special for example due to its high power, low cost, and easy concealment)
2.) QUESTION: How can we reduce the number of handgun deaths through legislation and community education?
3.) THESIS: TBD (I am thinking about focusing on a specific handgun, maybe the .38 Special for example due to its high power, low cost, and easy concealment)
annotated bibliography
"Guns in America | Facts and Statistics about Firearms in the USA." Guns in America | Facts and Statistics about Firearms in the USA. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2015. This website provided me with valuable statistics about gun violence and self defense. At the bottom, there are many footnotes that link me to other valuable websites. This website is great for baseline statistics.
"Interview with Mr. Finnegan (Melt the Handguns)." Personal interview. 26 Feb. 2015. Very interesting interview. This interview was useful because this is the first one I have had with an actual gun owner. Mr. Finnegan's responses to my questions will definitely make an appearance in my project. What really made me think were his very adamant view on handguns. His opinions really made me think about handguns and what we should do with them.
Fabrizio, Daniel. "Interview with Mr. Fabrizio." Personal interview. 13 Feb. 2015. This was my first interview, so it was kind of a trial run. What I found very useful was the fact that many of his family members are competitive shooters. He emphasized education a lot in the use of firearms.
Fieleke, Mike. "Interview with Mr. Fieleke." Personal interview. 25 Feb. 2015.Mr. Fieleke had a lot of very good ideas that were mainly democratic opinions (which was good because I got the gun perspective from a democratic point of view.) He sees it more of a person who hunts, and shoots competitively should own a gun, not an everyday guy who is worried about home invaders.
Kristof, Nicholas. "Smart Guns Save Lives. So Where Are They?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Jan. 2015. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
This article focuses on a high school student who developed a 'smart' gun which works with fingerprint recognition. Only someone who's fingerprints are programmed into the gun can shoot it. That means if guns are stolen, in the hands of a child, or just literally the wrong hands, it will not fire. This is an interesting approach to my question I will consider looking into.
Silverstein, Jason. "Teen Dies Playing Russian Roulette in Calif. Apartment: Cops." NY Daily News. N.p., 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. This was a quick article describing a gun death of a teen who played Russian roulette with his friends. What struck me was the fact that it was a stolen .38 special revolver. This again brings me to my original idea of focusing on .38's and how handguns are acquired.
"Saturday Night Specials"" NRA-ILA. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. This was a very useful source. I have never heard of the term "Saturday Night Special" before. The term refers to very cheap, low quality, and concealed guns. These guns are commonly used in suicides and criminal activities. I am definitely going to go very deep into these firearms and learn more about them.
Kiewra, Karin. "Guns and Suicide: A Fatal Link." Harvard T.H Chan. Harvard School of Public Health, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. This was a very brief article that introduced me to the correlation between gun ownership rates and suicide. The study showed that households with more guns had a much higher risk of suicide. This source does not provide much data, but it did link me meansmatter.org which should be helpful in the future. Overall, this was a good article to introduce me to the topic, not very useful in cold hard facts
Tobias, Marc W. "The Lockdown: Gun Locks - Unsafe at Any Caliber."Engadget. N.p., June-July 2007. Web. 18 Mar. 2015. This article brought up a question I never really considered and another problem into play. Are the trigger locks in the market actually effective? And are they being used on the right firearms? The article demonstrated throught multiple tests that trigger locks on the market can be easily bypasses with a screwdriver, or just some pliers. This article has useful data and links to get me deeper into the trigger lock issue.
"| Gun Laws." NRA-ILA. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. This link is extremely useful and I'll be sure to use it extensively when I am doing analysis of gun laws and death rates per state. This link outlines in detail every gun law of each state. What I plan to do is use this to get the laws and see if it correlates with higher gun deaths.
"Tracking State Gun Laws: 2014 Developments." Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence RSS. Smart Gun Laws, 2 May 2014. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://smartgunlaws.org/tracking-state-gun-laws-2014-developments/>. This site is like the NRA one, but the format is easier to follow and it will be useful in comparing the states against their gun death rates. This website goes very deep into the laws which will allow me to get a lot of depth in my project. DEFINETLY check this site out.
"Gunlawscorecard.org." Gunlawscorecard.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://gunlawscorecard.org/>. This scorecard system is amazing. I will be able to analyze every single state and be able to compare the gun deaths and still see every single gun law enacted in that state. This site makes it easy to compare states together. When I am writing about agreeable solutions I will definitely come here.
"Safe Storage & Gun Locks Policy Summary." Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. <http://smartgunlaws.org/safe-storage-gun-locks-policy-summary/>.This site will be great for my section on trigger locks. It focuses a lot on statistics and federal law on gun storage. The citations also provided even more useful links. This cite also has a useful chart of the storage laws of most states.
"Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence." Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://smartgunlaws.org/category/state-private-sales-of-guns/>.Honestly this the most useful site I have found. This link has provided me with private gun sale laws per state. I can use these to help compare them against their respective gun crime rates, accidents and overall death. Come here to get a ton of info!
"Interview with Mr. Finnegan (Melt the Handguns)." Personal interview. 26 Feb. 2015. Very interesting interview. This interview was useful because this is the first one I have had with an actual gun owner. Mr. Finnegan's responses to my questions will definitely make an appearance in my project. What really made me think were his very adamant view on handguns. His opinions really made me think about handguns and what we should do with them.
Fabrizio, Daniel. "Interview with Mr. Fabrizio." Personal interview. 13 Feb. 2015. This was my first interview, so it was kind of a trial run. What I found very useful was the fact that many of his family members are competitive shooters. He emphasized education a lot in the use of firearms.
Fieleke, Mike. "Interview with Mr. Fieleke." Personal interview. 25 Feb. 2015.Mr. Fieleke had a lot of very good ideas that were mainly democratic opinions (which was good because I got the gun perspective from a democratic point of view.) He sees it more of a person who hunts, and shoots competitively should own a gun, not an everyday guy who is worried about home invaders.
Kristof, Nicholas. "Smart Guns Save Lives. So Where Are They?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Jan. 2015. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
This article focuses on a high school student who developed a 'smart' gun which works with fingerprint recognition. Only someone who's fingerprints are programmed into the gun can shoot it. That means if guns are stolen, in the hands of a child, or just literally the wrong hands, it will not fire. This is an interesting approach to my question I will consider looking into.
Silverstein, Jason. "Teen Dies Playing Russian Roulette in Calif. Apartment: Cops." NY Daily News. N.p., 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. This was a quick article describing a gun death of a teen who played Russian roulette with his friends. What struck me was the fact that it was a stolen .38 special revolver. This again brings me to my original idea of focusing on .38's and how handguns are acquired.
"Saturday Night Specials"" NRA-ILA. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. This was a very useful source. I have never heard of the term "Saturday Night Special" before. The term refers to very cheap, low quality, and concealed guns. These guns are commonly used in suicides and criminal activities. I am definitely going to go very deep into these firearms and learn more about them.
Kiewra, Karin. "Guns and Suicide: A Fatal Link." Harvard T.H Chan. Harvard School of Public Health, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. This was a very brief article that introduced me to the correlation between gun ownership rates and suicide. The study showed that households with more guns had a much higher risk of suicide. This source does not provide much data, but it did link me meansmatter.org which should be helpful in the future. Overall, this was a good article to introduce me to the topic, not very useful in cold hard facts
Tobias, Marc W. "The Lockdown: Gun Locks - Unsafe at Any Caliber."Engadget. N.p., June-July 2007. Web. 18 Mar. 2015. This article brought up a question I never really considered and another problem into play. Are the trigger locks in the market actually effective? And are they being used on the right firearms? The article demonstrated throught multiple tests that trigger locks on the market can be easily bypasses with a screwdriver, or just some pliers. This article has useful data and links to get me deeper into the trigger lock issue.
"| Gun Laws." NRA-ILA. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. This link is extremely useful and I'll be sure to use it extensively when I am doing analysis of gun laws and death rates per state. This link outlines in detail every gun law of each state. What I plan to do is use this to get the laws and see if it correlates with higher gun deaths.
"Tracking State Gun Laws: 2014 Developments." Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence RSS. Smart Gun Laws, 2 May 2014. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://smartgunlaws.org/tracking-state-gun-laws-2014-developments/>. This site is like the NRA one, but the format is easier to follow and it will be useful in comparing the states against their gun death rates. This website goes very deep into the laws which will allow me to get a lot of depth in my project. DEFINETLY check this site out.
"Gunlawscorecard.org." Gunlawscorecard.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://gunlawscorecard.org/>. This scorecard system is amazing. I will be able to analyze every single state and be able to compare the gun deaths and still see every single gun law enacted in that state. This site makes it easy to compare states together. When I am writing about agreeable solutions I will definitely come here.
"Safe Storage & Gun Locks Policy Summary." Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. <http://smartgunlaws.org/safe-storage-gun-locks-policy-summary/>.This site will be great for my section on trigger locks. It focuses a lot on statistics and federal law on gun storage. The citations also provided even more useful links. This cite also has a useful chart of the storage laws of most states.
"Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence." Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://smartgunlaws.org/category/state-private-sales-of-guns/>.Honestly this the most useful site I have found. This link has provided me with private gun sale laws per state. I can use these to help compare them against their respective gun crime rates, accidents and overall death. Come here to get a ton of info!
The Rough outline
Rough Outline
- Defining terms
- I want to make sure people know what I am talking about when I say revolver, semi-auto, etc.
- Revolver
- Define a revolver
- Semi-Automatic
- Define what this means, and what guns use this style of fire
- Fully automatic
- Define what this means, and what guns use this style of fire.
- Bolt action
- Define what this means, and what guns use this style of fire.
- Rifle
- Define low capacity versus high capacity, and what makes a gun a rifle
- Define assault rifles
- Shotgun
- Define low capacity versus high capacity, and what a shotgun is.
- Caliber
- I know most people know the basics of what caliber is, but I want to be sure people know what I am talking about, and when I talk about a certain caliber weapon, they can picture the round and understand the difference in power between say a .22LR and a .45 auto (I will put pictures of my ammunition to show this)
- State gun laws
- Guns in America in general
- Amount we have (pistol, shotgun, and rifle #’s respectively)
- Compare our # of guns to the rest of the world.
- Here I want to make a brief description of every state's gun laws and also state the gun death rate in these states.
- Rough amount of guns, basics of the states policy, storage policy, suicide rates.
- Deaths (FOCUSES ON HANDGUNS ONLY)
- Suicide
- Explain how most suicides occur (Matt Miller’s description)
- # of handgun related suicides (graphs I made)
- Accidents
- Stories of accidental deaths (see annotated bib for articles)
- Layout the number of accidental deaths and injuries caused by handguns every year.
- Explain how they usually occur (Matt Miller notes, smartgunlaws.org) aka children, unlocked firearms in the household, etc.
- Homicide
- I do not want to focus on homicide because I think that the issue has SO many other factors besides having guns
- Possible solutions to reduce numbers of suicides
- Readdress the issue and how most suicides occur.
- Explain ways to prevent these deaths. (I do not know for sure at this point because I still need to do more research into this topic, but as stands for now, I think the following ways are reasonable. SUBJECT TO CHANGE).
- Better storage
- Better gun salesmen (Dealers can identify people that you shouldn’t sell to)
- Educate! Tell the customer the facts, give out mandatory pamphlets, putting up signs in your gun shop about suicide) (GUN SHOP PROJECT) Talk about how safety courses don’t address suicide fact, etc.
- Possible solutions to prevent accidental deaths
- Readress to remind readers how most accidents occur
- Solutions
- Smart guns, (Annotated Bib and smart guns) Go in depth with the companies producing these guns, and the controversy behind them
- Quick access gun safes. (The quick release one I saw at Mass Firearms School, biometric locks, etc.)
- Stricter gun lock laws, here I want to explain cable locks and how easy they are to use and how effective they are.
- Stricter gun storage laws. Explain how storage of firearms can greatly reduce the risk of these deaths.
- EDUCATE!!! Explain how gun classes don't tell you about safe storage and the facts behind these deaths. Pamphlets, signs, etc. Creation of a safe gun culture.
- Conclusion
- Sum up American gun deaths (from accidents and suicide alone)
- Sum up my suggestions for death prevention
- The Take Away. What can I do to help?
- Talk about all of the safety coalitions I have joined and how anyone can get involved and help prevent these deaths.
- Now that you know the facts, act on it and help reduce deaths.
(I know that format looks screwy here, with only the numbers (no letters, i's, etc.) but it is organized and color coded on my Google doc)
The working rough and ugly draft
Rough Draft
Firearms are organized into three main groups; handguns, shotguns, and rifles. Every firearm shoots a different amount of rounds in a certain action. These actions include, semi-automatic, and fully automatic. Semi automatic guns fire a round every time you press the trigger, fully automatic guns constantly fire while the trigger is pressed.
Handguns are broken into semi-automatic guns and revolvers. Revolvers are usually cheaper, high powered guns usually containing six rounds in a rotating cylinder. Semi-automatic handguns hold magazines containing anywhere from around 7 to 18 rounds. For the sake of narrowing my research, I focused on handguns and primarily revolvers.
Introduction
No matter who you are or what you do, if you are an American citizen you have an opinion on gun control. Some want to get rid of all the guns, and some want to get even more. But one thing we can all agree on is reducing firearm related deaths. This is the focus of my research paper. Currently there are over 270 million firearms in the United States. Of those 270 million, there are 72 million handguns, 76 million rifles, and 64 million shotguns.
There are about 32,000 firearm related deaths every year. This number includes homicides, accidents, and suicides. Through deeper research I found that the majority of gun deaths were realted to handguns, especially with suicides. After compiling this data, it made it very clear to me that my research would focus on handguns. I know that solving this issue would be impossible, but I wanted to find solutions that I could help enact into law to reduce handgun deaths. How can we reduce handgun related deaths through legislation and community education?
Suicides
Suicides consist of about 61% of these deaths, and of these suicides over fifty percent are committed with handguns. Harvard researchers “A Fatal Link” found that having a firearm in your household increased your chances of suicide by five times.
- More info TBD from interview with Matt Miller
- Possible ways of preventing these suicides, more support and information given to gun buyers about suicide and handguns
- Maybe mandatory notification to buyer of increased suicide risk.
What I really want to focus on is accidental deaths because they are completely preventable and are mainly caused by careless storage and easy access to children.
- Stats about children and guns in the household from smartguns.org
- amount of deaths related to easily accessible guns
Accidental Deaths
Between the years of 1999 and 2010, 8,300 people died due to an unintentional shooting, and every year 16,000 people are hospitalized for unintentional gunshot wounds. There are currently 11 states with laws regarding gun storage with Massachusetts as the only state with all firearms must be locked policy.