The Truth About Gun Control

The fiercely debated issue of Gun Control strongly divides Democrats and Republicans in the United States of America. The Second Amendment becomes a hot topic of conversation whenever a shooting makes the national news and tempers flare across the political spectrum. This presentation presents the available evidence regarding gun prevalence, gun homicides, gun control laws and much more in an attempt to get to the bottom of this complicated issue. What is the Truth About Gun Control?

Suicide

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_09.pdf#page=10

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate#List_by_the_World_Health_Organization_.282012.29

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/12/strict-gun-control-laws-in-south-korea

http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus10_us.html

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-327590

Gun Sources

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf

Australian Gun Control

http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/mr/mr01/mr01.pdf#page=35

http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/mr/21-40/mr23/appendix_a.html

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL

http://www.loc.gov/law/help/firearms-control/australia.php#Firearms

Number of Guns

http://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1679&context=urban_facpub

http://www.ucrdatatool.gov

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-1

2002 State Gun Ownership and Crime

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2002/02sec2.pdf#page=207

https://www.census.gov/popest/data/historical/2000s/vintage_2002/state.html

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2002/table5_state02.xls

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/116/3/e370.full.pdf+html

Washington, DC Crime

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/dccrime.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/us/13deecee.html?_r=2&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FPeople%2FW%2FWilliams%2C%20Anthony%20A.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_Control_Regulations_Act_of_1975

CDC Gun Control Report

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/rr/rr5214.pdf

Crime by Race

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014

http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-04.pdf#page=15

Because of the obscure way in which the FBI reports the race and ethnicity of offenders, we had to make several approximations. First off, Hispanic data is separated from race data and is broken down to "Hispanic" or "not Hispanic" for the entire dataset. While it is safe to assume that most Hispanics were classified as white because of the colour of their skin, we didn't want to make any assumptions. To figure out the percentage of Hispanic offenders and separate it from the white, black, asian etc. race categories, we used Census data on how Hispanics identify themselves racially. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of them identify as white, and very few consider themselves black. Given the very low percentage of black Hispanics, we counted "Some Other Race" as white. Another problem with the FBI dataset was the vast number of "Unknown" reported offenders. Because we couldn't make any reasonable assumptions about the race of the unknown offenders, we used the arrest tables as a proxy for the distribution of crime by race.

International Crime Comparison

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

Gang Crime

https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/2011-national-gang-threat-assessment

https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/survey-analysis/demographics

http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2221

2014 City Crime Data

City data from the U.S. Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov

City Crime data from the FBI: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-6