CRIMINAL DEFENSIVE GUN OWNERSHIP AND ILLEGAL GUN MARKETS
We continue with our consideration of James Wright’s “Ten Essential Observations on Guns in America”, focusing on his fifth and sixth observations:
Observation 5: The bad guys do not get their guns through customary retail channels.
Observation 6: The bad guys inhabit a violent world; a gun often makes a life-or-death difference to them.
I will actually be treating these two observations in the reverse order from Wright.
First, many people involved in criminal activity own guns for the same reason lawful owners of legal guns do: self-defense. One individual incarcerated on gun charges in Los Angeles told a researcher: “It’s better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6” — a defensive gun culture refrain.
Second, Feeling the need to have a gun but not being able to buy one legally means criminals often turn to black markets, theft, private manufacturing, and legal markets.
CORE RESOURCES
*Elise White et al., “‘Two Battlefields’: Opps, Cops, and NYC Youth Gun Culture” (New York: Center for Justice Innovation, July 17, 2023).
*Melissa Barragan, “Policing and Punishing Illegal Gun Behavior: An Examination of Jail Detainee Experiences with Gun Law Enforcement in Los Angeles,” Social Problems (November 2022).
*Philip J. Cook, Susan T. Parker, and Harold A. Pollack, “Sources of Guns to Dangerous People: What We Learn by Asking Them,” Preventive Medicine (October 2015).
*Crifasi, Cassandra K., Shani A. L. Buggs, Marisa D. Booty, Daniel W. Webster, and Susan G. Sherman, “Baltimore’s Underground Gun Market: Availability of and Access to Guns.” Violence and Gender (2020).
*Anthony A. Braga et al., “Privately Manufactured Firearms, Newly Purchased Firearms, and the Rise of Urban Gun Violence,” Preventive Medicine (December 2022).
SUPPLEMENTAL RESOURCES
*Andrew Papachristos, “Tragic But Not Random: Using Network Analysis to Understand Gun Violence,” Illinois Academy of Criminology YouTube (12 March 2014).
*Lin Liu et al., “Violent Victimization During Reentry: Prevalence, Triggers, and Impact on Mental Health,” Justice Quarterly (June 2023).
*Michael Sierra-Arévalo, “Legal Cynicism and Protective Gun Ownership among Active Offenders in Chicago,” Cogent Social Sciences (December 2016).
*Philip J. Cook, “Gun Markets,” Annual Review of Criminology (2018).
*David Hemenway, Deborah Azrael, and Matthew Miller, “Whose Guns Are Stolen? The Epidemiology of Gun Theft Victims,” Injury Epidemiology (April 2017).
SUPPORT
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