A Systemic Approach to Stopping the Next Mass Shooting and Its Costs

The Gun Violence Archive ((2022) GVA) has data sources verified as of July 6, 2022 showing a total of 322 mass shootings.  That was only 187 days into the year, an average of almost 2 mass shootings a day.  What does it take to stop these mass shootings?  Here, I will present what can be done to stop the next mass shooting, including looking at the AR-15 the weapon of choice for many mass shooters (Dickinson, 2019; Pelley, 2021).  In addition, the costs of such programs will be reviewed.

There are more than 330 million people in the United States, with an estimated 100 million gun owners (Igielnik & Brown, 2017; U.S. Census Bureau, 2018).  Between 2010 and 2018 the range of those murdered in gun homicide ranged from around 8,000 to 11,000 yearly (FBI, 2015; FBI 2019).  If we keep a one-to-one ratio of murder victim to murderer (which is impossible considering a mass shooting-murderer), that is still less than 0.01% of gun owners who are murderers.  The AR-15 [style weapon] is a rifle which has become popular and increased in quantity up to 20 million in the US.  Murders by all rifles account for around 200 to 400 per year between 2010 and 2018 (FBI, 2015; FBI 2019; Loh, 2022; Schuppe, 2018).  Granting the same one-to-one ratio of all rifles as AR-15s, those guilty of committing murder are less than 0.002% of that AR-15-owning population.  The AR-15 is just one of many rifles in that category, further decreasing the count whereby it was used to murder.

To stop the next mass shooting is at face to stop the 0.01% and the 0.002% of a population.  However, that number becomes even smaller for two reasons; 1) anyone could purchase a gun so instead of the gun-owning population we need to look at the entire population, which changes the percentage from 0.01% to 0.003% and 0.002% to 0.0001%: 11,000 out of 330,000,000 and 400 out of 330,000,000; 2) mass murderers by definition (even vaguely held) are not one-to-one but involve multiple victims and depending upon the year can range from 4 to 10 victims per mass shooting: averaging 7 mass murder-shootings for an average of 54.3 victims of mass murder-shootings, for an average of 7.76 per mass shooting-murder per year (Bucholz & Richter, 2022).  To stop the successful mass murderer on average is to try and stop seven people out of 330,000,000, by controlling that 330,000,000.

Aside from the US having more guns than people, the ability to create guns from parts that can be purchased at hardware stores, and that 3D printing exists, there are other practical (let alone moral) issues to consider.

1) defensive gun use has been estimated (dependent upon definition) from 1.67 million incidents a year (English, 2021) down to 59,000 incidents a year as the Violence Policy center ((2017) VPC: a gun control advocacy group) advanced to counter the high numbers such as found by English; Kleck (2018) reviewed the lower numbers and stated the VPC omitted various types of violent crime in their analyses, which necessitates raising the number of defensive gun use incidents. Either way, and at the lowest number by the VPC defensive use is more than five times higher than gun homicide. 2) in a comparison between shootings either stopped by police or by private citizens, shootings that were stopped by citizens averaged 2.33 murdered while waiting for police to arrive and act, the average was 14.29 murdered (Barker, 2012). 3) not all ‘gun free zones’ are the same (Police1 Staff, 2017).  Dependent upon how terms are defined and used, we get a range showing “… not a single case includes evidence that the killer chose to target a place because it banned guns” (Follman, 2013), to Lott (2018) who found that 94% of mass public shootings occurred in gun-free zones.  The importance of context and terms can be seen in the comparison between Follman and Lott: Follman claimed ‘not targeted because it banned guns’ leaving excluded waiting for a target to enter a gun-free zone, and Lott looked at ‘public’ mass shootings.

With the aforementioned, we can see the base of what it would take to systematically prevent the next mass shooting.  And, we can see that control is an illusion as it takes the ability to defend oneself and others away from those who may be able to act quickly enough to stop a shooting from becoming a mass shooting.  The ability to respond by meeting force with force would be legislated away, making people unarmed targets waiting to be saved by those who have no obligation [the police] to save them [the citizenry]. 

Extended:

How dangerous is it today? – how likely is a person to be murdered today versus earlier?  The homicide rate got as high as 10 per 100,000 at points during the ‘30s and ‘70s (Klebba, 1975).  A few times throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, the homicide rate neared the peaks of the ‘30s and ‘70s; a peak of 10.2 per 100,000 in 1980 (Fox & Zawitz, 2010).  During all the time before the 2000s, the number of guns was lower.  Throughout the 2000s, the overall homicide rate was around five per 100,000 (Macrotrends, 2022).  The lowered homicide rate still happened with the lapsing assault weapons ban enacted by Clinton (making 19 types of guns legal once again) and an additional 100,000,000 more guns, of which included 16,000,000 more AR-15 style weapons since the early 2000’s; the homicide rate dropped to among the lowest it had been in a century (Fox & Zawitz, 2010; Klebba, 1975; Macrotrends, 2022; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1996; PBS, 2004; Small Arms Survey, 2018).  Homicide is among the lowest it has been, even with the increase in the total number of guns including AR-15 style.

None of this matters to authoritarians who use fear and irrationality to justify taking away rights.  That what they advance can lead to more victimization is at best disregarded.  They are manipulative with the data they use, and are ready to prevaricate terms.  Mother Jones to their credit still claims a mass shooting involves four or more killed, while the GVA has mass shootings including those without a single fatality but multiple shots (Gollman, Aronsen, & Pan, 2012; Gun Violence Archive, 2022).  Fear-mongering politicians and media wanting to sell images and agenda latch onto the sensational, disregarding reality, such as advancing the GVA’s over-inflated numbers (Ahmed, 2022; Prignano & Huddle, 2022; Walsh, 2022).  In order to keep the fear-mongering stoked for attention, the GVA figures will be advanced while the author(s) of the article gives a definition that contradicts the figures used (Ledur, Rabinowitz, & Galocha, 2022). 

All of this fear-mongering, irrationality being pushed into systemic practice, and authoritarianism comes with great costs: the loss of rights, and as has been seen, the weakening of defensive capabilities making more people more vulnerable.  The systematic answer leaves individuals more vulnerable.  Leaving people to exercise their rights of property and self-defense is the practical and moral way to stop mass shootings.

 

References

Ahmed, S. (2022). Halfway through year, America has already seen at least 309 mass shootings. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2022/05/15/1099008586/mass-shootings-us-2022-tally-number

Barker, D. (2012). Auditing Shooting Rampage Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.lawenforcementservices.biz/Law_Enforcement_Services,_LLC/FIREARMS_TRAINING_files/Shooting%20Statistics.pdf

Buchholz, K., & Richter, F. (2022). Infographic: How many lone shooter incidents happen in the U.S.? Statista Infographics. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/chart/19376/number-of-mass-shootings/

Dickinson, T. (2019). All-American killer: How the AR-15 became mass shooters' weapon of choice. Rolling Stone. Retrieved from https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/all-american-killer-how-the-ar-15-became-mass-shooters-weapon-of-choice-107819/

English, W. (2021). 2021 National Firearms Survey. SSRN. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3887145

FBI. (2015). Crime in the U.S. 2014. FBI. Retrieved from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables

FBI. (2019). Crime in the U.S. 2018. FBI. Retrieved from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018

Follman, M. (2013). The NRA myth of gun-free zones. Mother Jones. Retrieved from https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/gun-free-zones-mass-shootings/

Follman, M., Aronsen, G., & Pan, D. (2012). A guide to mass shootings in America. Mother Jones. Retrieved from https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map/

Fox, J. A., & Zawitz, M. W. (2010). Homicide trends in the United States - Bureau of Justice Statistics. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved from https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/htius.pdf

Gun Violence Archive. (2022). Gun violence archive. Retrieved from https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

Igielnik, R., & Brown, A. (2017). Americans' views on guns and gun ownership: 8 key findings. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/22/key-takeaways-on-americans-views-of-guns-and-gun-ownership/

Klebba, A. (1975). Homicide trends in the United States, 1900-74. Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1435670/

Kleck, G. (2018). Response Errors in Surveys of Defensive Gun Use: A National Internet Survey Experiment. Crime & Delinquency, 64(9), 1119-1142.

Ledur, J., Rabinowitz, K., & Galocha, A. (2022). There have been over 300 mass shootings so far in 2022. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/mass-shootings-in-2022/

Loh, M. (2022). America has 20 million AR-15 style rifles in circulation, and more guns than people in the country. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/us-20-million-ar-15-style-rifles-in-circulation-2022-5

Lott, J. R. (2018). Updated: Mass public shootings keep occurring in gun-free zones: 94% of attacks since 1950. Crime Prevention Research Center. Retrieved from https://crimeresearch.org/2018/06/more-misleading-information-from-bloombergs-everytown-for-gun-safety-on-guns-analysis-of-recent-mass-shootings/

Macrotrends. (2022). U.S. murder/homicide rate 1990-2022. MacroTrends. Retrieved from https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/murder-homicide-rate

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (1996). Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention - The Nature of the Problem and Current Trends. Retrieved from https://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/gun_violence/sect01.html

PBS. (2004). Federal Assault Weapons Ban Expires. Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/federal-assault-weapons-ban-expires

Pelley, S. (2021). What makes the AR-15 style rifle the weapon of choice for mass shooters? CBS News. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ar-15-used-mass-shootings-weapon-of-choice-60-minutes-2021-06-13/

Police1 Staff. (2017). 5 things to know about gun-free zones. Police1. Retrieved from https://www.police1.com/active-shooter/articles/5-things-to-know-about-gun-free-zones-IJkb8W6Vzyd5r9ac/

Prignano, C., & Huddle, R. (2022). There have been at least 314 mass shootings so far in 2022. there have only been 186 days. - The Boston Globe. BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/07/05/nation/there-have-been-least-314-mass-shootings-so-far-2022-there-have-only-been-186-days/

Schuppe, J. (2018). How the AR-15 became America's most popular rifle. NBCNews.com. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/america-s-rifle-why-so-many-people-love-ar-15-n831171

Small Arms Survey. (2020). Global violent deaths (GVD). Small Arms Survey. Retrieved from https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/database/global-violent-deaths-gvd

Statista Research Department. (2022). Number of mass shootings in the United States between 1982 and July 2022, by legality of shooter's weapons . Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/476461/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-legality-of-shooters-weapons/

Violence Policy Center. (2017). Firearm justifiable homicides and non-fatal self defense gun use. Retrieved from https://www.vpc.org/studies/justifiable17.pdf

U.S. Census Bureau. (2018). U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: United States. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/LFE046217

Walsh, J. (2022). U.S. mass shootings hover near record-breaking levels. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/07/04/us-mass-shootings-hover-near-record-breaking-levels/?sh=65e167845f62

Gun Control and the Counterintuitive Way to Stop the Next Mass Shooting

With AR-15s (itself or style weapons) used in multiple mass shootings at schools, such as Sandy Hook, Parkland, and Uvelde, there is a renewed call for banning assault weapons.  That weapons such as those exist only to kill as many people as possible in a short period of time is the main reason for calling for the ban.  After all, they were banned beforehand and should not have been unbanned.  The number of guns overall is also advanced as a reason for the increase in shootings.  The impact and prevalence of guns and of AR-15 style weapons on homicide are things that can be reviewed.

Is it true that more guns mean more gun homicide?  The homicide rate In the US has fluctuated greatly over the past century with valleys nearing four per 100 thousand, and peaks of more than 10 per 100 thousand (The National Academy of Sciences, n.d.; U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1975).  Throughout the 2000s, the overall homicide rate has been around five per 100 thousand (Macrotrends, 2022).  The US gun homicide rate is 3.8 per 100 thousand (Small Arms Survey, 2020).  The US has an estimated 393 million guns, with a gun-ownership rate of 120 guns per 100 people (Karm, 2018).  From 1996 to 2018 the supply of guns increased by more than 100 million (192,000,000 to 393,000,000), as well as in 2004 Clinton’s assault weapons ban lapsed making 19 types of guns that were illegal, legal once again; however, even with the increase in gun supply and legalizing of these assault weapons again, the gun homicide rate dropped from 6.6 to 3.2 during that time (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1996; PBS, 2004; Small Arms Survey, 2018).  For decades homicide with knives and other weapons, as well as with most guns has fluctuated little with the exception of handguns which had greater fluctuations (Fox & Zawitz, 2010).  Recently the homicide rate was near the lowest valleys of recent history (though there has been an incline trend starting in 2020). 

Is gun homicide prevalent across the United States?  Though 2020 had the highest total number of gun deaths, the rate of gun deaths was still lower than previous times the number peaked in previous decades (Gramlich, 2022).  There is nuance even within those numbers.  Just as there are countries that have higher rates of gun homicide, there are regions within a country that have more gun homicide.  Gun ownership is more a rural characteristic with 58% household ownership rates against 29% urban (Mitchell, 2018); gun homicide is a heavily localized and urban problem.  Even though rural areas having higher gun ownership and less stringent gun control than urban areas, they do not have higher gun homicide rates.  Gun homicide is localized in urban areas enough that 2% of US counties account for more than half of all murders in the US, while 73% did not have a murder for decades (Crime Prevention Research Center, 2017).  Furthermore, Robert Muggah with the World Health Organization found that 99% of the violence in the US is committed in 5% of street addresses.  Chicago is often [justifiably] cited as a place with a high gun homicide rate, but it is 10^th on the list of cities with the most gun homicide; St. Louis has almost three times the gun homicide of Chicago (World Population Review, 2022).  Even within Chicago, gun homicides are not evenly spread out but localized to specific neighborhoods (Rowlands & Love, 2022). 

Do more AR-15 style weapons mean more gun homicide?  After the last assault weapons ban lapsed in 2004, there were around 8.5 million AR-15 style weapons in the US; afterwards the AR-15 and similar weapons became one of the most popular style of guns and increased to around 20 million in the US (Loh, 2022; Schuppe, 2018).  The assault weapons ban was a 10-year ban enacted by Bill Clinton in 1994; the gun homicide rate had a decline after the ban went into effect, but an incline before it lapsed and after it lapsed a brief incline followed by a longer-lasting decline (Statista Research Department, 2021).  AR-15 style weapons are rifles and murder by ALL rifles account for under 400 murders out of the 9,000-11,000 murders committed yearly, while knives and bats were used to kill up to 1,600 yearly (FBI, 2020).  The total use of ‘assault rifles’ accounted for 3% of firearm murders (Gramlich, 2022).  Despite millions more of AR-15 style weapons owned, the murders committed by those using the weapon has not increased, but fluctuated some with general homicide.

Do ‘Good guys’ with guns really help?  Defensive gun use involves the use of a firearm for defense.  Different places/people have different operational definitions as what constitutes a valid example of defensive gun usage.  English (2021) approximated that there are 1.67 million defensive gun use incidents per year.  However, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) which is a gun control advocacy group challenged the 1.67 million defensive gun uses and found only 175,700 defensive gun use incidents over a 3-year period (Violence Policy Center, 2017).  Kleck (2018) reviewed the data showing VPC omitted some violent crimes from their figures which helped explain their lower totals.  Furthermore, Barker (2012) looked at a total of 100 shootings and then trimmed it down to criteria that matched the concept of a mass (or rampage) shooting and comparing when the police arrived to stop the shooter or the shooter was engaged by a civilian: there was a difference in how many were killed with an average of 14.29 dead before the perpetrator was stopped by police, while only 2.33 dead before a civilian stopped the perpetrator.

We just need the right controls.  As mentioned earlier, gun homicide is a heavily localized problem with 2% of US counties accounting for more than half of all gun homicide; even within those counties, there are more dangerous areas than the rest.  Chicago and many of the cities with strong gun control laws are also the ones with the highest gun homicide rates in the US.  Some lament that the guns are brought in from outside the city, but even if that was true it does not explain why there is not similar if not higher gun homicide in the surrounding areas. 

We just need to take away guns.  Even if it was possible to take away all the guns that people did not voluntarily destroy or accept a State ‘buy-back’ (misnomer, but typical politics), people would create their own again.  Back to the early 1900s and throughout the 20^th century, throughout the planet, people were able to make or order homemade/improvised guns (Hays & Jenzen-Jones, 2018).  ‘Zip guns’ are homemade guns that can be made with parts from a hardware store and can be made cheaply (Salloum, 2017).  3D-printing of firearms has evolved from plastic one-shot pistols to weapons that are similar to professional manufacturers (van der Heide, 2022).  Even if all guns were for the moment destroyed, ‘bought back,’ or otherwise disappeared, new ones could be made.  Determined people find ways of getting guns.  Even in where it should be the most secure location, people can get guns.  Guns have been smuggled into or used in prisons (Dienst, 2020; The Guardian, 2021; Shanahan & Ivory, 2020). 

Just call the police.  The police have no obligation to protect you.  The precedent and reaffirmations by the court are grim examples showing law enforcement is not obligated to protect citizens.  In regard to a child that was eventually beaten leaving him with severe brain damage and mentally incapacitated, by a repeat-abuser known by law enforcement, the court ruled “Held: Respondents' failure to provide petitioner with adequate protection against his father's violence did not violate his rights under the substantive component of the Due Process Clause. Pp. 194-203.” (Cornell Law School, 2022b).  Similarly, the court ruled that even after the mother of three abducted children pleaded with the police days before, they could not be held responsible for a father who had violated his restraining order and later murdered the children (Cornell Law School, 2022a).  In a similar vein as what is the recent concern after Uvalde, regarding the police’s inaction with the Parkland shooting, the Eleventh Circuit Court held that though law enforcement knew of a potential threat, allowed it to proceed, and did not engage after the shooter began killing students, that they were not responsible and could not be held liable (Batterton, 2021).  The police waited more than one hour and even restrained parents from trying to save their children, while more students – the children of the parents restrained by the police – were being killed in Uvalde (Rahman, 2022; Vertuno & Spagat, 2022).

Vested interests, such as some politicians who may be seeking political power, and some media who may be seeking ad revenue latch upon the popular trend and repeat one another or repeat the same example; for such politicians and media, it is not a question of truth but of selling and fear is a potent selling point.  Tragic as some events may be, anecdotes are not data.  Contrarian anecdotes can include a man who used his AR-15 to defend himself and neighborhood against those committing a drive-by shooting (Turner & Taylor, 2017); a man with an AR-15 defended himself against a home invasion by multiple assailants (Remer & Mummolo, 2017); Stephen Willeford used his AR-15 to stop a mass shooting (Montgomery, Mele, & Fernandez, 2017).  Even these anecdotes are not data in themselves.  Data is seen in the figures.

Laws are for those who see the law as legitimate or care enough to obey them; for those who are intent on murdering, what good will a sign that says ‘gun free zone’ or that people in a distant building made a decision they want everyone within a given area to follow?  A man who did not care about laws or rights proceeded to break them: he drove his truck into a building, entered an area where guns were not allowed and proceeded to murder 23 people, all of which were illegal actions; the law abiding citizens like Susan Hupp were in the building with the shooter, but she was unable to retrieve her gun and her parents were among the victims killed (Hupp, 2013).

Any attempt to ‘stop the next mass shooting’ can only be done against those who were not going to commit a shooting in the first place.  A murderer who is intent on killing will find a method; the biggest massacre of students in school within the U.S. was by a bomb (Schaub, 2021).  Even if every gun that currently exists magically disappeared and it was deemed illegal to make new guns, people could make new guns with items from the store and can make near manufacturer-quality weapons with 3D printers.  That will leave those who decide to break the law, not only for creating a gun but with the intent on using it to murder as the ones who are armed with guns.  The only others who would be armed are those who have no intent on harming others yet illegally create guns to exercise their rights of property and self-defense. 

If every gun was gone and people needed to rely on the police for protection, every ‘law-abiding citizen’ would be unarmed and left vulnerable to those who not only broke the law with respect to gun ownership and gun-free zones (would they exist where guns supposedly did not?), they would be left with the expectation of being saved by those who have repeatedly been ruled to have no obligation to protect anyone.  Even if some members of police are willing, they are minutes away when seconds count.  During those minutes a shooting can become a mass shooting with law-abiding and unarmed citizens left to be executed, or an armed citizen can engage the shooter having a chance to stop the mass shooting. 

In her testimony to congress, Susan Hupp stated (2013):

I told the newspapers the next day that I was mad as hell at my legislators because they had legislated me out of the right to protect myself and my family. The only thing the gun laws did that day was prevent good people from protecting themselves.

The counter-intuitive path for gun control advocates to stop mass shootings is to stop trying to control guns.  The U.S. Census Bureau (2018) calculated that there were close to 330 million people in the US.  From that, 30% own a gun, with 11% not owning a gun but living with someone who does (Igielnik & Brown, 2017).  At minimum with those figures, that would make around 99 million gun owners.  Returning to the FBI data there are around 11,000 gun homicides.  From all the gun owners and inflating those guilty of gun homicide as a gun owner to a one-to-one ratio (which is impossible with mass murder), that leaves less than 0.01% of gun owners as guilty of gun homicide.  Returning to the lowest estimates of gun control advocacy group VPC there is still a defensive gun use more than five times gun homicide; higher estimates make it hundreds of times greater.  Lastly, in general when an armed citizen engages a would-be mass shooter, the average dead does not make it to ‘mass’ shooting levels; waiting for the police on average leaves seven times more victims dead.  There are far more people who wish to harm none than those who wish to initiate force with guns.  This is not a call for arming people, but to remove the restrictions of those who will not initiate violence but are ready to act in defense of themselves and others. 

Also in her testimony to congress, Susan Hupp stated (2013):

I watched as he leveled his gun on the head of a person crouched beneath him. He pulled the trigger. Then he calmly walked to the next person, pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. It was then that I thought, "I’ve got him!" I reached for my purse on the floor next to me. I had a perfect place to prop my shooting hand, and I have hit much smaller targets at much greater distances. Could I have missed? It’s possible. But it sure would have changed the odds.

 

References

Barker, D. (2012). Auditing Shooting Rampage Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.lawenforcementservices.biz/Law_Enforcement_Services,_LLC/FIREARMS_TRAINING_files/Shooting%20Statistics.pdf

Batterton , B. (2021). Eleventh Circuit holds no fourteenth liability for school shooting. LLRMI. Retrieved from https://www.llrmi.com/articles/legal_updates/2022_hernandez_v_peterson/

Cornell Law School. (2022a). Castle Rock v. Gonzales. Legal Information Institute. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/04-278

Cornell Law School. (2022b). Joshua DeSHANEY, a minor, by his guardian ad litem, and Melody Deshaney, petitioners V. Winnebago county department of social services, et al.. Legal Information Institute. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/489/189

Crime Prevention Research Center. (2017). Murders in US very concentrated: 54% of US counties in 2014 had zero murders, 2% of counties have 51% of the murders. Retrieved from https://crimeresearch.org/2017/04/number-murders-county-54-us-counties-2014-zero-murders-69-1-murder/

Dienst, J. (2020). Loaded gun found in MCC inmate's cell after 8-day lockdown: Officials. NBC New York. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/lawyers-furious-as-mcc-lockdown-enters-day-8-probe-for-alleged-smuggled-gun-continues/2314203/

English, W. (2021). 2021 National Firearms Survey. SSRN. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3887145

FBI. (2020). Crime in the U.S. 2019. FBI. Retrieved from https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019

Fox, J. A., & Zawitz, M. W. (2010). Homicide trends in the United States - Bureau of Justice Statistics. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved from https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/htius.pdf

Gramlich, J. (2022). What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/

The Guardian. (2021). Italian prisoner shoots at rivals with gun 'smuggled in by drone'. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/20/italian-prisoner-shoots-at-rivals-with-gun-smuggled-in-by-drone

Hays , G., & Jenzen-Jones, N. R. (2018). Small arms survey report. Retrieved from https://smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-improvised-craft-weapons-report.pdf

Hupp, S.  (2013). Written Testimony of Suzanna Gratia Hupp, D. C., Senate Judiciary Committee - Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights "Proposals to Reduce Gun Violence: Protecting Our Communities While Respecting the Second Amendment" Cong. (testimony of Suzanna Hupp).

Igielnik, R., & Brown, A. (2017). Americans' views on guns and gun ownership: 8 key findings. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/22/key-takeaways-on-americans-views-of-guns-and-gun-ownership/

Karm, A. (2018). Estimating global civilian-held firearms numbers. Retrieved from https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-BP-Civilian-Firearms-Numbers.pdf

Karm, A. (2018). Estimating global civilian-held firearms numbers. Retrieved from https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-BP-Civilian-Firearms-Numbers.pdf

Kleck, G. (2018). Response Errors in Surveys of Defensive Gun Use: A National Internet Survey Experiment. Crime & Delinquency, 64(9), 1119-1142.

Macrotrends. (2022). U.S. murder/homicide rate 1990-2022. MacroTrends. Retrieved from https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/murder-homicide-rate

Mitchell, T. (2018). The demographics of gun ownership in the U.S. Retrieved from PEW https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/

Montgomery, D., Mele, C., & Fernandez, M. (2017). Gunman kills at least 26 in attack on rural Texas church. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/us/church-shooting-texas.html

The National Academy of Sciences. (n.d.). The history of homicide in the U.S. Retrieved from https://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/dbassesite/documents/webpage/dbasse_083892.pdf

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