Firearms Policy

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Why Firearms Policy?

Firearms policy, or the politics of gun control, is one of the most interesting and multidimensional policy issues of our time. It is also one of the most polarizing. Studying firearms policy is so much more than looking at the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of a set of policies. That is because guns touch on so many fault lines in society: political power, gender, race, class, identity, religion, etc. Hopefully, my work will give help to clarify and bring to light some of the less-discussed sides of this issue.

Firearms Policy Bibliography

Looking to research firearms policy? Want a place to start? Why not take a look at some of these titles:

***Please note this bibliography is still under construction. If you have any suggestions to add, please send them to me using the contact form***

Guns in Canada

Antoon A. Leenaars, Ferenc Mokosony, David Lester & Susanne Wenckstern (2010). The Impact of Gun Control (Bill C-51) on Suicide in Canada. Death Studies, 27(2). pp. 103-124.

Caillin Langmann (2012), Canadian Firearms Legislation and Effects on Homicide 1974 to 2008. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 27(12).

Dennis Maki & Gary Mauser (2003). An evaluation of the 1977 Canadian firearm legislation: robbery involving a firearm. Applied Economics. 35 (4).

Gary Mauser & Richard A. Holmes (1992). An evaluation of the 1977 Canadian Firearms Legislation. Evaluation Review, 16(6).

Gary Mauser (2011). Ten Myths about Firearms and Violence in Canada. Journal on Firearms & Public Policy, 23. pp. 76-95.

Philip C. Stenning (2003). Long Gun Registration: A Poorly Aimed Longshot. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 45. pp. 479-487.

R. Blake Brown (2018). Firearm "Rights" in Canada: Law and History in Debates over Gun Control. Canadian Jorunal of Law and Society 32(1). pp. 97-116.

Robert J. Mundt (1990). Gun Control and Rates of Firearms Violence in Canada and the United States. Canadian Journal of Criminology (32). pp. 137-154.

Samuel A. Bottomley (2004). Parliament, Politics and Policy: Gun Control in Canada 1867-2003. Dissertation. Carleton University Department of Political Science.

Sarah McPhedran and Gary Mauser (2013). Lethal Firearm-Related Violence Against Canadian Women: Did Tightening Gun Laws Have an Impact on Women's Health and Safety? Violence and Victims, 28(5). pp. 875-883.

Exploring the Gun Culture(s)

Abigail A. Kohn (2004). Shooters: Myths and Realities of America's Gun Culture. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP.

Carson Mencken, F. & Froese, P. (2019). Gun Culture in Action. Social Problems, 66(1), 3-27.

Charles F. Springwood (ed.) (2007). Open Fire: Understanding Global Gun Cultures. New York, NY: Berg Publishing.

Clinton Cramer (2018). Lock, Stock and Barrel: The Origins of American Gun Culture. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

David Yamane (2016). The sociology of U.S. gun culture. Social Compass, 11. pp. 1-10.

David Yamane (2018). What’s Next? Understanding and Misunderstanding America’s Gun Culture. In C. Hovey &

David Yamane, D, Ivory, S.L. & Yamane, P. (2018). The rise of self-defense in gun advertising. In Carlson, J. et al. (eds.) Gun Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Politics, Policy, and Practice. New York: Routledge.

Dylan S. McLean (2015). Guns in the Anglo-American Democracies: Explaining an American Exception. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 53(3). pp. 233-252.

Lisa Fisher (eds.) Understanding America’s Gun Culture. Lexington Books, Lanham, MD.

Jennifer Carlson (2015). Citizen-Protectors: The Everyday Politics of Guns in an Age of Decline. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP.

Jimmy D. Taylor (2014). American Gun Culture: Collectors, Shows and the Story of the Gun. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly Publishing.

W.R. Tonso (ed) (1989). The Gun Culture and its Enemies. Bellevue, WA: Merril Press.

History & Guns

Patrick J. Charles (2018). Armed in America: A History of Gun Rights from Colonial Militias to Concealed Carry. Amherst NY: Prometheus Books.

R. Blake Brown (2012). Arming & Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Stephen P. Halbrook (2013). That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.

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

Race & Guns

Jennifer Carlson (2019). Racializing the Weberian Presumption: Gun Militarism, Gun Populism, and the Racial Politics of Legitimate Violence in Policing. American Journal of Sociology, 125(3). pp. 1-50.

Nicholas Johnson. Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

Gender & Guns

Jennifer Carlson (2013). The Equalizer? Crime, Vulnerability, and Gender in Pro-Gun Discourse. Feminist Criminology, 9(1). pp. 59-83.

Kristin Goss (2017). The Socialization of Conflict and Its Limits: Gender and Gun Politics in America. Social Science Quarterly, 98(2). pp. 455-569.

Noah S. Schwartz (2019). Called to arms: the NRA, the gun culture & women. Critical Policy Studies.

Stange & Oyster (2000). Gun Women: Firearms and Feminism in Contemporary America. New York, NY: NYU Press.

Religion & Guns

TBD

The Gun-Rights Movement (and it's discontents)

Scott Melzer (2009) Gun Crusaders: The NRA’s Culture War. New York: NYU Press.

Gun Control in America & Abroad

Glen H. Utter (ed.) Guns and Contemporary Society: Volume I (pp. xi-xxxiii). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

James D. Wright (1995) Ten Essential Observations on Guns in America. Social Research and Public Policy, 32, 63-68.

Jeanine Baker & Samara McPhedran (2007). Gun Laws and Sudden Death: Did the Australian Firearms Legislation of 1996 Make a Difference?. British Journal of Criminology, 47.pp. 466-67.

John R. Lott Jr. (2010). More Guns Less Crime: Understanding Gun Crime and Gun Control Laws. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Julian Santaella-Tenorio, Magdalena Cerda, Andres Villaveces, and Sandro Galea (2016). What Do We Know About the Association Between Firearm Legislation and Firearm-Related Injuries? Epidemiologic Reviews, 38. pp. 140-157.

Ik-Whan G. Kwon, Bradley Scott, Scott R. Safranski and Muen Bae (1997). The Effectiveness of Gun Control Laws: Multivariate Statistical Analysis. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 56(1). pp. 41-50.

Kahan & Braman (2003). More Statistics, Less Persuasion: A Cultural Theory of Gun-Risk Persuasion. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 151(4). pp. 1291-1327.

Gary Kleck (2017) Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control. London, Routledge.

Peter Reuter and Jenny Mouzos (2003). Australia: A Massive Buyback of Low-Risk Guns. In Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig (eds.) Evaluating Gun Policy: Effects on Crime and Violence. Washington DC: Brookings Institute. p. 121-156.

Robert J. Spitzer (2012). The Politics of Gun Control 5th ed.. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

Raymond R. Kessler (1983). Gun Control and Political Power. Law & Policy Quarterly, 5(3). pp. 381-400.

Stuart Gilmour, Kittina Wattanakamolkul and Maaya Kita Sugai (2018). The Effect of the Australian National Firearms Agreement on Suicide and Homicide Mortality, 1978-2015. Australian Journal of Public Health, 108(11). pp. 1511-1516.

Mark V. Tushnet (2007). Out of Range: Why the Constitution Can’t End the Battle Over Guns. New York: Oxford UP.

Wang-Sheng Lee and Sandy Suardi (2010). The Australian Firearms Buyback and its Effect on Gun Deaths. Contemporary Economic Policy, 28(1). pp. 65-79.

William Weir (1997). A Well Regulated Militia: the Battle Over Gun Control. North Haven, CT: Archon Books.