Crime

The twentieth century was a time of many political assassinations and

violent shootings. A nation in shock mourned the deaths of President

John Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. At the end

of the twentieth century the nation endured rising rates of violent

crime, with young people frequently involved as victims and

perpetrators and often armed with guns. Between July 1992, and June 30,

1999, there were 358 school-associated violent deaths in the United

States, including 255 deaths of school- aged children, or about 51 such

violent deaths each year. (Schmitt Rot, 2003)

Time after time, public opinion polls have shown that crime and

violence are among the most important concerns troubling Americans, if

not the most important. But do these concerns translate to changes in

public support for federal gun control measures? I will focus on public

attitudes toward gun control over both the short and longer terms.

Some Americans are convinced that more federal regulation of firearms

is necessary to reduce the number of murders that are committed with

guns and to ensure a safer, more civilized society. Others who support

private ownership of guns insist that the right to bear arms is

guaranteed by long standing custom and by the Second Amendment to the

U.S. Constitution and

that no cyclical increase in crime, no mass killing, nor any political

murders should

lead the nation to violate the Constitution and the individual rights

it guarantees.

What?s more, they say, knives and other instruments are used to kill

people, and

there is no talk of regulating or banning them.

The National Rifle Association generally believes that if more

ordinary, law-abiding citizens carried weapons, criminals would not

have a safe place to commit mass murders and other violent crimes.

Both supporters and opponents of gun control agree that some means

should be

found to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Not surprisingly, the

two sides

approach the issue differently. The two different strategies for gun

control

involve ?Deterrence?; Discouraging by instilling fear and

?Interdiction?

(Legally forbidding the use of) Advocates of deterrence, most notably

the

Second Amendment Foundation and the NRA, recommend consistent

enforcement

of current laws and instituting tougher penalties to discourage

individuals from

using firearms in crimes. They maintain that interdiction will not have

any effect

on crime but will strip the constitutional rights and privileges of

law-abiding Americans

by taking away their right to own guns.

On the other hands, advocates of interdiction, led by such

organizations as Handgun Control, Inc, the Center to Prevent Handgun

Violence, and the Violence Policy Center, believe that controlling

citizens? Access to firearms will reduce crime. Therefore, they favor

restrictions on public gun ownership.

A ten year overview of the publics attitudes about the issues

government ought to be addressing is presented by the U.S. Department

of Justice in its annual publication called Sourcebook of Criminal

Justice Statistics 2002.In 1993 fewer that 0.5 percent of adults polled

mentioned gun control spontaneously. In each year thereafter between 1

and 2 percent of the respondents mentioned gun control as an important

issue. (Web)

Humphrey Taylor, Chairman of the Harris Poll, provides some insight

into the meaning of the gun control numbers in an online essay dated

May 17, 2000 .The essay accompanied the release of Harris Poll in which

the question was asked: Education (19 percent) and health care (16

percent) continue

to come top of the list of issues mentioned spontaneously when people

were asked

to say which two issues are most important to address. The most

interesting trend is

that gun control was mentioned by 9 percent, Between 1996 and the first

half of 1999,

only one or two percents mentioned it as an issue. It now ranks sixth,

behind education,

health care, crime, Social Security and taxes. (Web2)

Pollsters from several organizations have periodically surveyed