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Research summary: In the wake of repeated school shootings, today's youth have acquired the label of the "mass shooting generation." Another fitting label would be the "armed school generation." Most states now permit school security officers to carry firearms, and at least 466 school districts in 19 states allow teachers or staff members to be armed. In this context, understanding public opinion about guns in schools is essential. Using a 2018 national survey of 1,100 American adults, we examined public support for arming our nation's schools. Although consensus exists for school resource officers carrying weapons, respondents are divided about arming teachers and nonteaching staff. Those who believe in gun defensive effectiveness, lean right politically, are racially resentful, older, and have children are more likely to endorse arming nonlaw enforcement school personnel. National Rifle Association membership and altruistic fear are associated with support for arming teachers, while a belief in the moral wrongness of harming others predicts opposition to teachers having a gun in one hand and an apple in the other. Policy implications: The controversy around arming teachers will likely be ongoing. With decisions made locally, public opinion will continue to play an influential role in this debate. Our study provides important new evidence about the extent and correlates of public opinion on guns in schools. The next step is to examine how public attitudes change in response to information about the policy issues associated with arming schools. Future polls should examine the impact being armed has on the teaching profession and localized variations in support for arming the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A record number of firearm background checks were completed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and during the protests following the murder of George Floyd. Using monthly state-level data, we show that the increase in firearm background check rates in March 2020 and June 2020 differ from previous gun-buying events in at least two important ways. First, the increases in the background check rates surrounding COVID-19 and the George Floyd protests are significantly larger than previous gun-buying events. Second, the gun-buying events of 2020 are nonpartisan; the effect in Republican-leaning states is statistically indistinguishable from the effect in Democrat-leaning states. Our estimates suggest that there were 62 percent more background checks completed between March and August 2020 than expected, which amounts to over 7 million additional background checks. We provide evidence that the recent spikes in background checks are not motivated by gun policy uncertainty and discuss policy recommendations that may alleviate any negative outcomes associated with expanded gun ownership during an unprecedented pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses issues over gun ownership in the U.S., particularly the proposed inclusion of strict liability approach against irresponsible gun owners. Also cited are the risks related to stolen or lost firearms and their effects to society, the lack of tort law that gun violence victims can use to sue irresponsible gun owners, and why the principles of strict liability and negligence are insufficient to effectively regulate the use of firearms.

Who gets to be heard is a fundamental question in any democracy, and access to the arenas of political debate is every bit as contested as the disputes about policy within. The legal system offers rules of "standing" to determine who can make claims in a courtroom. We think the concept of standing is useful in making sense of access to a range of other political arenas as well. Notably, having an identifiable interest in the outcome of a particular set of decisions, a stake in the outcome, doesn 't necessarily grant a claimant access to an audience. Social movements work to convert stake into standing, and to win access to social and political arenas for distinct constituencies and claimants. Their arguments for access often parallel the legal criteria for standing. We provide an overview of the legal rules of standing, which afford judges considerable discretion in deciding who gets a hearing. We show that the rules for standing in the public sphere faintly echo those about access to a courtroom, although they are even less transparent and less reliable. Individuals and actors make claims about stake, expertise, and status to gain access to audiences in public debates, but standing is virtually always contested, contingent, and bounded. Using recent developments in the American gun debate, we detail political struggles for standing, considering the claims that various actors make in order to gain an audience. We find that significant audiences grant standing based on the political stance, rather than other identifiable criteria, contributing to a divisive and partisan debate, and critical challenges for making wise policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide is a critical public health problem worldwide. In the United States (US), firearm ownership is common, and firearms account for the majority of deaths by suicide. While suicide prevention strategies may include limiting access to firearms, the contentious nature of gun regulations in the US, particularly among members of rural communities, often gives rise to constitutional concerns and political polarization that could inhibit suicidal persons from seeking the help they need. We examine potential outcomes of public health strategies in the US that encourage limiting access to firearms for populations who both value firearm ownership and are vulnerable to suicide. Based on preliminary results from a firearm safety study, we argue that attempts to limit access to firearms among those at risk of suicide will only succeed when the most affected cultural groups are engaged in collaborative discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guns occupy a major-sometimes terrible-place in contemporary American life. Do Americans have not only a legal right, but also a moral right, to own handguns? After introducing the topic, this paper examines what a moral right to private handgun ownership would amount to. It then elucidates the logical structure of the strongest argument in favor of such a right, an argument that appeals to physical security, before assessing its cogency and identifying two questionable assumptions. In light of persisting reasonable disagreement about the argument's soundness, the paper identifies two gun control measures-demonstrated need for a gun as a condition of eligibility and the requirement to pass a rigorous gun safety course-that reasonable disputants on both sides of the issue have principled reasons to accept. The paper also advances the thesis that, if anyone has an undefeated moral right to own handguns, it is precisely those individuals who have a special need and demonstrate the relevant safety-related competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Laws reducing hurdles to legally carrying concealed firearms are argued to have a deterrent effect on crime by increasing its perceived costs. This argument rests on the assumption that these policies will either directly or indirectly increase the perceived distribution of firearm carriers, an assumption that is as yet untested. This article tests this assumption and, in so doing, suggests testing the necessary conditions of policy can be useful when assessing outcomes is difficult. Methods I collect survey data on the perceived number of firearm carriers across the United States and then use a hierarchical regression model to assess the impact of concealed carry policies on these perceptions, controlling for several contextual and individual-level factors. Results The data suggest that there is no statistically discernible relationship between concealed carry policies and the public's perceptions of the number of firearm carriers. Indeed, the data suggest that the perceived density of firearm carriers is similarly uncorrelated to the number of active concealed carriers. Conclusion The link between concealed carry policy and people's beliefs about the number of firearm carriers in their community is unidentifiable in the data. The rationale for concealed carry deterrence, however, depends on such a link existing: it assumes that potential assailants are aware of the distribution of firearm carriers in the potential victim population, but the empirical evidence presented here suggests that that assumption simply does not hold. Because beliefs over the distribution of firearm carriers are impervious to permitting policies and do not respond positively to the true distribution of carriers, the data suggest easing concealed carry cannot deter crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports the U.S. Eleventh Circuit court case " Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida." It informs that the case came to the court as health care practitioners, and various Florida chapters of medical professional organizations sued the Governor of Florida and state officials for enacting the Firearm Owners' Privacy Act. It mentions that the act protects firearm owners' privacy by prohibiting medical professionals from asking about gun ownership.

The article analyzes the policies for providing firearms to school employees in Arkansas. Topics discussed include the legislative activity of Arkansas General Assembly in enacting laws for firearm possession, the role of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies Act (PIPSA) in limiting employees of public school districts in getting licenses for firearms, and the laws permitting public school district employees to possess firearms in school property.

Violent conflict in the Western Balkans has been a significant problem for more than a decade. Addressing the problem of violence in the Western Balkans requires attention to the availability, circulation and control of weapons - particularly small arms and light weapons, which continue to cause the most significant problems. After a tremendous influx of armaments during the Balkan wars of the 1990s - as well as a significant proliferation of weapons made in Yugoslavia - a large amount of weaponry continues to exist in the region, and governments must struggle to develop and implement appropriate arms control measures in an effort to meet standards of western integration. This article analyses the extent to which the countries of the Western Balkans are addresssing their weapons issues and specifically to what extent they have successfully developed and implemented measures to control the movement of arms. The author finds that there is a significant gap between policy and practice as most countries have developed legal instruments on small arms control but struggle somewhat to implement them. Finally, the author argues that motivations for small arms control behaviour vary throughout the region, requiring individual country considerations in order to address each country's specific behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 1994 federal law bans possession of handguns by persons under 18 years of age. Also in 1994, 11 states passed their own juvenile gun possession bans. Eighteen states had previously passed bans, 15 of them between 1975 and 1993. These laws were intended to reduce homicides, but arguments can be made that they have no effect on or that they even increase the homicide rate. This paper estimates the laws' impacts on various crime measures, primarily juvenile gun homicide victimizations and suicide, using a fixedeffects research design with statelevel data for at least 19 years. The analysis compares impacts on gun versus nongun homicides and gun versus nongun suicides. Even with many different crime measures and regression specifications, there is scant evidence that the laws have the intended effect of reducing gun homicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides a theoretical and political geographic and human rights context for the plan of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa police department to exchange Glock semiautomatic guns and its magazine for new ones. Human rights and political geography; Constitutional arguments; Changing rationale for gun ownership; Glock semiautomatic and its place in Georgia; Meanings, uses and geography of guns in the United States.

Comments on the 1994 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and the difficulty in tracing its connection with suicide and homicide trends in the United States. Comments on the article 'Homicide and Suicide Rates Associated With Implementation of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act,' by Jens Ludwig and Philip J. Cook; Why primary and secondary handgun markets need to be examined; Relevance of interstate gun smuggling.

In this guest editorial, the author addresses the latest school shootings at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This event is weighed up against reports written by prominent academics, including anthropologists, during previous school shootings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the risks associated with gun ownership in the U.S. The topics discussed include the vital role of physicians in educating the patients as well as their families in gun ownership risks devoid of violating their privacy and the war waged by the organization the National Rifle Association on the said issue.