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The purpose of gun control is to reduce the frequency or seriousness of violence by preventing dangerous persons from obtaining guns. The main rationale for believing that this will reduce violence is the idea that firearms are more lethal than other possible weapons, so denying guns to violent persons will reduce the likelihood that any injuries they inflict will be fatal. Gun use or possession may also facilitate attacks that otherwise would not have occurred by weaker or fewer aggressors against more powerful or numerous victims. On the other hand, an aggressor's possession of a gun can make it unnecessary for the possessor to attack the victim to gain control--a mere threat suffices, reducing the likelihood of an attack. Gun use can also facilitate robbers tackling better defended but more lucrative targets, allowing them to gain a given amount of money with fewer robberies.

Further, guns in the hands of crime victims and prospective victims can deter attempts at crime or reduce the harmful consequences of those attempted. Victims who use guns to defend themselves are less likely to be injured or lose property than are nonresisting victims. Widespread ownership and carrying of guns may also deter some criminals from attempting crimes, by making the crimes seem riskier. These violence-reducing effects complicate efforts to control firearms because they imply that gun possession among largely noncriminal victims has violencereducing effects, just as possession among criminals has violence-increasing effects. Consequently, the effects of gun controls are likely to differ depending on whether they restrict guns only among criminals and other high-risk groups, or limit gun possession among noncriminals as well. Efforts aimed at exclusively high-risk groups such as convicted criminals are more likely to have purely violence-reducing effects, whereas prohibitionist efforts that would disarm both victims and offenders would have mixed effects on violence.

Bibliography:

1) Bruce-Briggs, Barry. 1976. "The Great American Gun War." The Public Interest 45:37-62.

2) Kleck, Gary. 1997. Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

3) Kleck, Gary and E. Britt Patterson. 1993. "The Impact of Gun Control and Gun Ownership Levels on Violence Rates." Journal of Quantitative Criminology 9:249-88.

4) Newton, George D. and Franklin Zimring. 1969. Firearms and Violence in American Life: A Staff Report to theNational Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

5) Vizzard, William J. 2000. Shots in the Dark: The Policy, Politics, and Symbolism of Gun Control. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

6) Wright, James D. and Peter H. Rossi. 1986. Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

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