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Casey Cowan Ms. Eaker Annotated Bibliography March 12, 2013 For my line of inquiry I have chosen to research the topic of gun control laws based on the recent surge in mass shootings. This leads me to my major research question: Should we be blaming guns for the violence, and are new gun laws the answer? My research is about what some of the proposed laws consist of and what affects they will have on stopping mass shootings, I will also dig into how guns have effected American society in the past. This topic is important to research because guns have been around since our country was named America. Within the last few centuries there has always been a staggering statistic showing how much gun related violence we have in our country. It has not been until recently with the multiple mass shooting tragedies that the country as a whole has taken notice and decided to do something about it. The problem is that everyone has a different opinion about what should be done and how. This is what I hope to learn more about and make clear for anyone else who is confused about what is the right thing to do. Fox, James. "Gun control or carry permits won't stop mass murder." CNN. N.p., 20 Jul 2012. Web. 12 Mar 2013. In the article the author argues that tighter gun restrictions will only decrease gun sales and may decrease violence but does not affect the purchase of gun in the black market and will not be effective against mass shootings. This is all due to the recent mass shooting in Aurora,

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Colorado at a movie theater that killed 12 people. This event raised many questions about gun control and its effectiveness. The article also discusses how mass shooters execute specific plans for murder and gun control laws are not going to change that. Pro-gun groups suggest that if ordinary citizens were allowed to carry concealed weapons in public places they would be able to do something about the mass shootings. Both sides argue if more or less gun control is the answer. James Alan Fox is a professor of criminology at Northeastern University in Boston. He is the Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice and former Dean at Northeastern University. He has published 15 books and dozens of journal and magazine articles and newspaper columns. Fox has a bachelor's degree in Sociology, a master's degree in criminology a master's degree in statistics, and a Ph.D. in sociology, all from the University of Pennsylvania. The real reason he is so qualified for this article is because Fox is known as "The Dean of Death," because of his research on mass murders. This article is extremely valuable to my argument because it points out a very important point that is overlooked a lot. The point is that the tighter you make restrictions for people to buy guns legally the more people will be looking for an easier way to obtain them. This will not deter criminals, as most of them will already be getting their weapons illegally. There is also another very important piece of information in this article and that is that the people that are carrying out these mass shootings have very detailed plans. This is important because getting the weapons is often the easy part, whether they take it from their parents or get it illegally gun laws are not going to effect that. This is important to my topic because I am looking into what should be done about gun control based around the increased amount of interest in the topic. This author really goes deep into explaining the effects of proposed laws and possibly their minimal

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effect on mass shootings. Polsby , Daniel. "The False Promise of Gun Control." The Atlantic. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar 2013. In this article the author discusses the effects of gun control laws. He goes against the popular belief that stricter gun laws actually reduce gun violence. He believes that gun control is ineffective because it has never been proven to decrease crime. Instead of stopping crime, he thinks that gun laws have the opposite effect, making criminals obtain guns from black markets promoting the illegal trade of firearms while everyone else would not have the ability to buy any firearms. As Polsby explained it, The class of people we wish to deprive of guns, then, is the very class with the most inelastic demand for them -- criminals -- whereas the people most likely to comply with gun control laws dont value guns in the first place. He even says that the laws may even influence criminals to commit more crimes by saying, Guns dont increase national rates of crime and violence -- but the continued proliferation of gun laws almost certainly does. Dean and Professor of Law Daniel D. Polsby works at George Mason law school. He was made the dean of the George Mason School of Law in 2004. Polsby has published dozens of articles for notable sources. He is the author of the award-winning article, "The False Promise of Gun Control," which was the cover essay of the March 1994 Atlantic Monthly. This is the article I have used in my research. In this article the author explains in greater detail on how gun laws may be flawed. He first points this out by pointing out that gun laws have never been proven to reduce the rate of crime. The author actually believes that they could be increasing crime because when there is a demand for illegally obtains weapons there will always be someone to supply that demand. The

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second significant issue discussed in this article is when the author describes how gun laws are not affecting the kind of people they are meant for. Instead he points out that they are actually making it harder for people who follow the laws to protect themselves from criminals. Hayes, Danny. "Why this gun control debate has been different." the Washington Post. 28 Jan 2013. Web. 12 Mar 2013. In this article the author explores the question of why the recent push for gun control has been so much more widespread than any other in our countries history. He gives statistics on past mass shootings and their correlation to the amount of media coverage they received. He explains how there is a pattern in the spike of media attention right after a mass shooting and how long it lasts. He believes because there was multiple consecutive shootings that the issue stayed in the media attracting attention from around the country. Unlike mass shootings in the past that were very spontaneous and spread out the government might of felt pressured to take action. Danny Hayes works at George Washington University. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and is in the American Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, Political Behavior, and Political Communication. He still writes for the Washington Post's Wonkblog, which is where his article Why this gun control debate has been different that I have used was written. For my research it is very important to find out why only recently there have been multiple mass shootings in a very short span of time and why there has been a major push for stricter gun control laws. This is where the information in this article comes into play as the N.p.,

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author explores the history of mass shootings in America and how the media reacted to them. He found that in the past mass shootings took about 20 percent of the news headlines and lasted for two to three weeks. Because there has been so many shootings in such a short amount of time he discovered that the media has continued to increase their coverage to a peak of over 75 percent of headline coverage, and has lasted for over two months. In conclusion I believe one can relate the amount of coverage on the issue has lead to a spike of interest on the topic, which in return has lead to a large push for new and stricter gun control laws. Schneider, Jack. "Gun advocates blame 'eroding values' for gun violence, mass shootings in US." Alaska Dispatch. N.p., 17 Jan 2013. Web. 17 Mar 2013. Jack Schneider discusses the topic of who or what is to blame for the recent mass shootings in this news article. Jack believes that school shootings are not a new occurrence, and guns have always played a part in them. He believes that guns are not to blame for the recent spike in mass shootings; instead he believes that an eroding set of values is to blame. Jack describes his point of view perfectly in the following quote, After all, if the problem is new and guns are old, then the problem cant be the guns. Jack talks about mass shootings fro the beginning and how they have evolved and become more frequent as time goes on. He also mentions that assault rifles may have played a part in making these tragedies more deadly but are not the cause of an increase in the amount of shootings happening. Finally, he places a large emphasis on the fact that mass shootings are not a new problem, and guns are not to blame. He says that as guns have gotten better the tragedies have become more deadly. Jack Schneider is currently an assistant professor at the Holy Cross school. He is a talented and experienced writer who received his B.A from Harvard College, M.A from

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Stanford University, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He published the book Excellence For All. He has also written of 50 articles for popular news sites and Education publications. This article is extremely important for my research because it explores a new perception on the recent increase in mass shootings effects on new gun control laws. Jack says some very important thing, first being that mass shootings are not a new phenomenon, second that guns have always played a part in them and have gotten progressively more powerful over time increasing the casualty rate in such events. This is very important to understand because many people in America read the news and see a certain type of gun being blamed for the tragedy and think that something needs to be done to prevent guns from being able to be used, but jack points out that you have to look at who is pointing the gun and not just the gun itself. Saidi, Nicole. "10 ways to put brakes on mass shootings in schools." CNN. N.p., 14 Dec 2012. Web. 17 Mar 2013. In the wake of multiple mass shooting occurrences there is a sense of urge in the media to find a way to put a stop to it I order to find the reason behind them. In this article Saidi gives ten well thought out possible ways to put an end to the shootings. She gives the typical response of increasing gun control laws and improving security, but because they have been thoroughly discussed in previous sources I would like to focus on a few of the proposals that have not been mentioned. One very interesting suggestion Saidi gives is to cut back in the amount of violence being broadcasted in the media. She poses a powerful question when she says If you are going to ban guns, why not ban them in movies, television, and video games. She says that if you are going to think about banning the weapons why not look into what is making these individuals pick up such weapons in the first place. Another important issue Saidi points out is the need for

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the news to quit highlighting the facts of the tragedy and dont give the killer any attention. Instead she proposes that the media focus on helping those who are affected. Saidi is currently a Writer/Producer at CNN. She has also held the positions of associate producer, Media specialist/Pan American Initiatives, Reporter/Web editor at The State Press Saturday intern at East Valley Tribune, and Web intern at City of Chandler. She graduated with a degree from Arizona State University. These are all very credible sources of research and reporting, which is why I feel that she can be trusted to provide accurate and reliable information on my topic. She also spends a lot of time investigating the mass shooting tragedies and has a lot of experienced knowledge of what may be effective ways in preventing future tragedies. The reason I felt this article was important for my research is because it offered multiple new proposals for ways to put a stop to mass shootings. This is important because it offers something new from just discussing gun control laws and their effectiveness. She offers some very valuable new ideas such as not highlighting the killer in the news, encourage the safety of firearms from the access of children, and focus on preventing the social signs of mental struggles that may be leading to these killings. Scott, Bradley. The Effectiveness of Gun Control Laws. Diss. Kean University, 2010. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc., 2010. Print. This scholarly journal shows and describes research on how effective gun control laws are based on different categories of people. Some of these categories include rural and urban populations, unemployed, ethnicities, and different age groups of people. In order to fully understand the effectiveness of gun control laws on Americans this segregation was extremely

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important. What was found is that less people were effected by new gun control laws large sample sizes then was predicted when the laws were proposed. In conclusion the author says that unless the gun control laws are incorporating factors from each group of people, or at least the majority, than the laws as a whole will continue to fail or perform less than expected. This source is credited by an extremely reputable publishing organization and is backed by Kean University. I believe this source is very useful in my research because it actually has research on the effectiveness of gun control laws. This allows me to fully understand what types of people are affected in different ways by these laws. This helps me answer my question of whether these laws should be used or not.

Reflection In the beginning stages of my research, I laid out the different views of my question that I needed to address in order to answer my inquiry question without bias. Once I had these branches I was able to get several credible sources for each with a primary examination of each. I then chose several from each category to use based on the differences in opinion or ides to the others. This made sure that I had well-rounded research to answer my question multiple ways. I was then able to put them into a proper list with my summary and credibility. I mainly used news articles as I found the most helpful in my line of inquiry, which relies heavily of having up to date information. I do feel like I got unbiased information from very experienced and credible writers that made me feel confident in my choices. The main problem I faced when finding and recording my sources was how to address giving credit to the

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scholarly journal. I learned a lot about how to make sure a source was credible before I went on to used it which was something I had never done before. I also really liked the simplicity of the library database search, which helped me find credible sources quickly. My line of inquiry took a slight turn from trying to relate new gun laws to recent shootings, into what kind of impact these laws play, if any, on stopping these mass shootings. To me it became much more easier to write this way as it made more sense. I also found a lot more information on what these gun control laws have done in the past and if they are applicable today.