By 1990 there were approximately 200 million guns in private hands in the United States, and around half of American households contained a gun. Over 30,000 people a year are killed with guns in suicides, homicides, and accidents, and Americans use guns for defensive purposes as many as a million times a year. There is little doubt that gun violence and control are issues of vital importance, and they continue to inspire national debate. It is doubtful, however, that most gun debates are worth listening to. Not surprisingly, they generally leave their participants exactly where they began, with their biases intact, and onlookers perplexed. Written deliberately to counter an atmosphere of hysteria and extremism, Point Blank, now in paperback, offers logical argument supported by empirical information. It confronts fundamental questions head-on. On its initial publication in 1993, Point Black won the Michael J. Hindelang Award of the American Society of Criminology for the book that "made the most outstanding contribution to criminology," Point Blank reports both original research and assesses existing evidence drawn from a wide variety of academic disciplines, including criminology, sociology, law, and medicine.

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Until now researchers have assessed the burden imposed by gunshot injuries and deaths in terms of medical costs and lost productivity. Here, economists Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig widen the lens, developing a framework to calculate the full costs borne by Americans in a society where both gun violence and its ever-present threat mandate responses that touch every aspect of our lives.Cook and Ludwig reveal that investments in prevention, avoidance, and harm reduction, both public and private, constitute a far greater share of the gun-violence burden than previously recognized. They also employ extensive survey data to measure the subjective costs of living in a society where there is risk of being shot or losing a loved one or neighbor to gunfire.
At the same time, they demonstrate that the problem of gun violence is not intractable. Their review of the available evidence suggests that there are both additional gun regulations and targeted law enforcement measures that will help.
This urgently needed book documents for the first time how gun violence diminishes the quality of life for everyone in America. In doing so, it will move the debate over gun violence past symbolic politics to a direct engagement with the costs and benefits of policies that hold promise for reducing gun violence and may even pay for themselves.

Few social issues have produced more exaggerated claims and contention among Americans than the struggle to control gun violence. Fueling the emotional fire in debates between firearms groups such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun-control advocates is the dispute over the importance of guns in American culture. Is the fondness for firearms truly part of a venerable American tradition, one to be observed with very few limits?
In this fascinating inquiry, Alexander DeConde delves into the myths and politics regarding gun-keeping, as well as the controversies over gun use, crime, and policing from the early days of the republic to the present.

Gun Violence In American Society: Crime, Justice, and Public Policy provides an in-depth, multidisciplinary investigation into one of society’s major social, public health and political concerns—death, injury, and destruction from the use of firearms. Contributors employ a variety of theoretical, methodological, and data analysis frameworks to address different gun violence issues. They explore how gun violence is created and perpetuated in society, as well as the various forms and social contexts in which it appears. The impacts of gun violence on different social groups, communities, and social institutions are also delineated. Moreover, possible solutions to gun violence are presented.

This comprehensive resource covers the legal, social, psychological, political, and public health aspects of guns in American life.