IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v539y1995i1p130-140.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Firearms and Self-Defense

Author

Listed:
  • DAVID McDOWALL

Abstract

While usually discussed as a cause of crime, guns also may protect against it. Firearm ownership is difficult to measure, but all sources agree that millions of Americans have guns for defense. Although existing research is not in complete agreement, defensive gun ownership appears to increase with fear of crime and with concerns about collective security. How often victims use guns against offenders is controversial; some data suggest that armed resistance is rare, while other data suggest that it is very common. The data showing that firearm defense is rare also indicate that it is often successful.

Suggested Citation

  • DAVID McDOWALL, 1995. "Firearms and Self-Defense," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 539(1), pages 130-140, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:539:y:1995:i:1:p:130-140
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716295539001010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716295539001010
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716295539001010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Webster, D.W. & Gainer, P.S. & Champion, H.R., 1993. "Weapon carrying among inner-city junior high school students: Defensive behavior vs aggressive delinquency," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 83(11), pages 1604-1608.
    2. McDowall, D. & Wiersema, B., 1994. "The incidence of defensive firearm use by US crime victims, 1987 through 1990," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 84(12), pages 1982-1984.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kai Thaler, 2010. "Weapons, Violence and Personal Security in Cape Town," HiCN Working Papers 85, Households in Conflict Network.
    2. Cao, Liqun & Zhang, Yan & He, Ni, 2008. "Carrying weapons to school for protection: An analysis of the 2001 school crime supplement data," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 154-164, May.
    3. Park, Nan S. & Lee, Beom S. & Sun, Fei & Vazsonyi, Alexander T. & Bolland, John M., 2010. "Pathways and predictors of antisocial behaviors in African American adolescents from poor neighborhoods," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 409-415, March.
    4. Kovandzic, Tomislav & Gertz, Gary Kleck Marc, 1998. "Defensive gun use: vengeful vigilante imagery versus reality: results from the national self-defense survey," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 251-258, May.
    5. Crifasi, Cassandra K. & Williams, Rebecca G. & Booty, Marisa D. & Owens-Young, Jessica L. & Webster, Daniel W. & Buggs, Shani A.L., 2022. "Community perspectives on gun violence and safety: The role of policing in Baltimore City," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    6. Kai Thaler, 2011. "Weapons, Violence and the Perpetrator-Victim Nexus in South Africa," Research Working Papers 51, MICROCON - A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict.
    7. Smith, M. Dwayne, 1996. "Sources of firearm acquisition among a sample of inner-city youths: Research results and policy implications," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 361-367.
    8. McCluskey, Cynthia Perez & McCluskey, John D. & Bynum, Timothy S., 2006. "Early onset offending and later violent and gun outcomes in a contemporary youth cohort," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 531-541.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:539:y:1995:i:1:p:130-140. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.