Murder rates and gun ownership per 100,000 people

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GUN CONTROL AND MENTAL ILLNESSWhich is More to Blame?Tyler Mardis

11/30/2013CRIMJ 241

Murder rates and gun ownership per 100,000 people

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INTRODUCTION• Does gun control work?• What are some other alternatives to gun control?• Does mental illness play a factor in mass shootings and killings?• 40 separate mass shootings since Columbine in April, 1999

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MASS SHOOTINGS

ColumbineApril 20, 1999Columbine, ColoradoEric Harris and Dylan KleboldKilled 13; injured additional 24

Sandy HookDecember 14, 2012Newtown, Connecticut Adam LanzaKilled 20 children; 6 staff, and mother

Virginia TechApril 16, 2007Blacksburg, VirginiaSeung-Hui ChoKilled 32; injured additional 17

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LEAKAGE• Communication to a third party of intent to do harm on a target• Harris and Klebold demonstrated 8 warning behaviors• Harris and Klebold asked a friend to purchase firearms• Also posted things on their website such as “kill em all!” before shootings

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POLITICS AROUND MASS SHOOTINGS

1994 Assault Weapon Ban• Bill Clinton• Banned a certain number of semi-

automatic weapons and magazines

• Only banned weapons manufactured after the ban

• No statistical evidence that it reduced gun crime

Proposed 2013 Assault Weapon Ban

• Barack Obama• Would have reinstated 1994 AWB• Reintroduced by Senator Dianne

Feinstein D-CA• Voted down in April, 2013 in

Senate (60-40)

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TYPES OF MASS SHOOTINGS

Rampage shootings• Most common form today• Columbine• Virginia Tech

Other types• Mass murders• Terrorist attacks• Targeted shootings• Government shootings

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LINKS BETWEEN MENTAL ILLNESS AND MASS SHOOTINGS

• Tucson shootings (Jared Loughner)

• Columbine

• Virginia Tech

• Diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic in 2011

• Depression

• Diagnosed with severe anxiety; declared mentally ill in 2005

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MOTIVATIONS• Many stressors contribute to mass shootings

• Financial (71%)• Social (61%)• Psychological (32%)• Romantic (25%)• Other (18%)

• Many other shooters have psychological disorders• Most have a mental illness, according to researchers

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WOULD A FIREARM BAN WORK?• Kates and Mauser, two Harvard researchers, say the assumption that the

U.S. has highest gun rates are false. • Most countries that have high gun ownership rates have low murder and

suicide rates• Whereas most countries with strict gun control have higher murder and

suicide rates, such as Russia

• Harvard Study

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KATES AND MAUSER TABLECountry Murder Rate Gun OwnershipRussia 20.54 (2002) 4,000Luxembourg 9.01 (2002) c. 0Hungary 2.22 (2003) 2,000Finland 1.98 (2004) 39,000Sweden 1.87 (2001) 24,000Poland 1.79 (2003) 1,500France 1.65 (2003) 30,000

2013 Harvard Study

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Murder rates and gun ownership per 100,000 people

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VIDEO OF OBAMA ON DAY OF SANDY HOOK SHOOTING

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CONCLUSIONS• Mental illness plays a significant role in mass shootings and there needs

to be greater research into its role• Stricter gun control would do very little to curb crime rates• More murders are committed with knives and hammers than firearms

each year in the United States (FBI Uniform Crime Report)