Gun control is a growing controversial issue in the United States. This controversy is fueled by mass shootings and mixed opinions across the country about stricter gun regulations. Some members of the criminology field believe that stricter gun regulations would not solve our crime problems, and the purchase of a firearm makes a household feel safer. However, political science experts believe that there is gap between the United States’ firearm regulations , as well as other countries gun regulations, and the norms and standards people have for firearms around the world. Gun control regulations in US have become more strict in recent years, an example of this being the use of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Instant Criminal Background Check System on customers before they complete the purchase of a firearm.
Supporters of the Second Amendment and gun rights activists would most likely support the article written by 2 experts in the criminology field. The article, titled Guns and Fear: A One Way Street written by Will Hauser and Gary Kleck, discusses the correlation of gun ownership and fear of criminal acts. The author’s hypothesis is that there is a correlation between gun ownership and a reduction in fear of unlawful activity. The article discusses and analyzes data from the survey of Community, Crime, and Health, which polled citizens of the United States across the country. This survey was a phone based survey that called citizens across the country at random. Topics on the survey included questions on household firearms, gun ownership, and level of fear when a person owns a firearm. The authors began predicting changes in gun ownership using the respondent's’ self-reported level of fear in the survey. Then the considered gun acquirers in separate questions from those who relinquished their household gun. They then used changes in gun ownership to predict changes in fear. After conducting their study, results showed that victimization motivates gun acquisition, presumably for self-defense, fear of crimes did in fact cause individuals and families to obtain household guns, and fearful gun owners were less likely to discard their household firearms than non fearful gun owners.
In this study on correlation between fear of crimes and ownership of firearms, I identified a few rhetorical conventions. These conventions included similarity, contrast, repetition, and emphasis. Similarities include using the same form of surveying for all questions and polling people of the same country. Differences include some contrasting results in the data, where some of the people polled did not particularly agree with majority’s opinion. This article uses repetition to get it’s point across. These criminology experts repeatedly discuss their opinion on how gun ownership in a household correlates with a reduction of fear from criminal activity. Using emphasis, the 2 criminologists reiterate the importance of how adding fear of crimes to their survey caused an increase of people stating they would own a household firearm.
Americans have good reason to be fearful of criminal activity and to want to protect themselves. According to a recent CNN news article, between 1966 and 2012, there have been 90 mass shootings (mass shootings are defined for the study as having four or more victims and do not include gang killings or slayings that involve the death of multiple family members) in the United States. While the United States is stereotypically known around the world as a safe place for citizens and immigrants seeking refuge and a place to flourish, this data denies these assumptions. The 90 U.S. mass shootings are nearly one third of the 292 such attacks globally for that period. While the U.S. has 5% of the world's population, it had 31% of all public mass shootings. These mass shootings average 6.87 victims per incident, which is slightly lower than the global average of 8.8 victims per incident.
Supporters of government regulation and people opposed to gun rights would more than likely support the second article written by a political science expert. The article, titled Global Gun Control: Examining the Consequences of Competing International Norms written by Suzette R. Grilliot. Grillot is an expert in the political science field. The author’s main claim is that global gun control is needed, however existing norms in society such as sovereignty, self defense, and self determination put up a major challenge to the creation of stronger gun control. The article states that the global spread and misuse of firearms is one of the most controversial and growing security issues in the past few decades. However, controlling the spread of gun is extremely difficult. Nonetheless, given the serious nature of the gun control issue, numerous states, organizations, and activists have tried to come up with solutions different gun control problems. One of the earliest suggestions that these organizations and advocates offered was to try to develop international norms and standards of behavior that creates a blueprint of acceptable firearm activities. Despite the numerous attempts that states and governments have taken over the past ten years to solve these problems, comparable norms are mostly weak or nonexistent. This article examines why global small arms control norms are largely weak or nonexistent and explains why the prospects for stronger norms are few. The dominant reason for weak firearm norms is a competitive setting for norms that is facilitated and expedited by competing coalitions and organizations that promote opposing norm’s ideas and a greater consent that works against strong firearm control norms.
In this article about gun control norms, I found some of the same rhetorical conventions as I found in the previous article. These rhetorical conventions included contrast, repetition, and emphasis. As for contrast, the article shows differences in opinions of norms around the world. The article contrasts the pro gun control norms versus norms that are against gun control. The article uses repetition to show the importance of the norms in the world, and how we as people react to them. The article uses emphasis to show the seriousness of the effects of norms in society such as sovereignty, self defense, and self determination on public safety around the world.
The way that the two disciplines intertwine and oppose each other is that they both show the causes and effects of gun control, however the criminologists seem to be fine with the way gun control is managed right now, while the political science expert suggests the best way to regulate gun control at this time is to change society’s norms. Organizations against harsh gun regulations, such as the National Rifle Association would most likely use the case study completed the criminologists to back up their beliefs on gun regulation. On the other hand, organizations that are pro gun control, such as The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, would likely have the same point of view that is stated in the political science expert’s article. While these 2 disciplines display their viewpoints in different ways and have different opinions, they both agree that gun violence is causing a problem, whether it be through fear or through change in norms.
This controversial issue is important to both political science and criminology fields. As the misuse of firearms continues, the 2 field’s views will most likely grow farther apart. These differences in opinions stretch much farther outside of just these 2 disciplines. Gun control arguments, debates, and conversations take place between average people everyday. These differences in opinion will most likely only be solved by compromise in the national government’s policies. Both the criminology and political science fields will have a say in this debate, as they both have strong evidence to prove their points.
Sources
http://cad.sagepub.com/content/59/2/271.full.pdf+html
http://search.proquest.com/docview/913286141/fulltextPDF?accountid=12725
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/27/health/u-s-most-mass-shootings/
http://csgv.org/about-us/
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/reports/2013-operations-report
http://gun-control.procon.org/
http://gun.laws.com/gun-control/
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