Preliminary Programme

What has the relationship been between guns and homicide in American history? Has the availability of guns (or a cultural preoccupation with guns) made the United States the most homicidal affluent society in the world today? There is every indication that America would have been a homicidal nation in the mid-nineteenth century had few or no guns been available, because the fundamental correlates of higher homicide rates were in place: political instability, distrust of government, a loss of fellow feeling along national lines, etc. It appears, however, that the widespread availability of modern firearms—breach-loading revolvers and rifles that used self-contained bullets—made it more difficult for homicide rates to fall once circumstances warranted in the late 1870s and early 1880s, and made subsequent surges in homicide greater than they might have been. Gun ownership had always been widespread in the United States, and roughly 60 percent of all households owned a working firearm. But muzzle-loading firearms were difficult to use on the spur of the moment, which is why they were almost never used in domestic homicides (marital homicides, romance homicides, and homicides of relatives) and why they were used in a significant portion of nondomestic homicides only when the homicide rate was high and Americans felt the need to prepare for confrontations with neighbors or strangers. Modern firearms, however, are easy to use on the spur of the moment, which is why they were suddenly responsible for a high proportion of domestic homicides and why they were used in a significant proportion of nondomestic homicides whether the homicide rate was high or low. The evidence for these conclusions is of course circumstantial: only a replay of history without the mass production of more sophisticated handguns, long guns, and ammunition could tell for certain whether guns made a difference. It is likely, however, that modern firearms helped sustain America’s high homicide rate among unrelated adults once it had appeared and helped raise its domestic homicide rate. (Show less)