Oscar Morales

Professor Bruce

English 301

16 December 2018

Annotated Bibliography

Working Title:

Is Gun Control affecting our safety?

Research Question:

Gun control has been a hot topic in the media. We want to keep our communities safe

but also ourselves. How can we strike a balance between protecting our 2nd amendment rights

and ensuring that no unwanted violence, such as mass shooting sprees, occur because of our

want for our 2nd amendment rights?

Thesis:

Although there is a common belief that increasing gun control would keep us safe from

violence caused by firearms, and reduce suicides and decrease domestic murder rates,

decreasing gun control would provide more citizens the opportunity to protect themselves in

their own home and it would allow them to feel safe if they were ever to be face in a home

invasion types situation

Introduction:

It’s as if today’s media has been plagued with the mention of new gun control laws and

restrictions but one main thing that we want to know is if the new restrictions are doing

anything to combat the amount of gun violence occurring in our country. What we have seen in
these past few years is several people taking firearms that they have legally purchased and

using them to go on mass shooting sprees (La Velle, 2012). Naturally people want to be safe

when they are out and about in public areas and don’t want to be in fear of someone using a

firearm to harm others but, in a study, conducted in multiple cities it shows that gun controls

measures show to have little to no effect on crime rates (Kleck, 2016). Knowing this we should

be changing the way that we view gun policies so that we don’t strip our 2nd amendment rights

instead we should actively be working to keep firearms out of the hands of people that

shouldn’t own them and in the hands of law abiding citizens who use them for what they were

intended for.

Annotations:

Kleck, G., Kovandzic, T., & Bellows, J. (2016). Does Gun Control Reduce Violent

Crime? Criminal Justice Review (Sage Publications), 41(4), 488–513. https://doi-org.lib-

proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1177/0734016816670457

This source analyzes different types of gun controls issues and their effect on reducing violent

crimes

I will be using this peer reviewed source to show how increased gun control measures show no

evidence on effects on crime rates. By applying the statistic that crime rates have not gone

down after the implementation of gun control measure I will be able to show how ineffective

they are.

La Valle, J. M. (2013). “Gun Control” vs. “Self-Protection”: A Case against the Ideological

Divide. Justice Policy Journal, 10(1), 1–26. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.lib-

proxy.fullerton.edu/login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dcja%26AN%3d91526630%26site%

3dehost-live%26scope%3dsite

This source provides statistical data on firearm violence and suggest different types of policy

changes that would benefit both sides of the gun control issue.

I will use this source to help show that there shouldn’t be a blanket ban on firearms and that

both sides of the gun issues, people for and against gun control need to concede to keep

ourselves safe from gun violence. There are some gun controls measure that are effective, so

we need to make sure that we are smart abut which gun control measures we pass.

Kleck, G., Gertz, M., & Bratton, J. (2009). Why do people support gun control? Alternative

explanations of support for handgun bans. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(5), 496–504.

https://doi-org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2009.07.010

This source provides data on the different views that different people, with varying

backgrounds, have on gun control.

I will be using this source to show how people can have varying view on the issues of gun

control and I will also show how their views can be very narrow minded when it comes to gun

control. As some people believe that no one should own a firearm, but they do not think about

other people in different situations than the ones they find themselves in.

Cook, P. J. (2018). Challenge of Firearms Control in a Free Society. Criminology & Public

Policy, 17(2), 437–451. https://doi-org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1111/1745-9133.12359

This source provides multiple studies on what can reduce violence and provides data on how

people obtain the firearms they used in their crimes committed.

I will be using this source to offer different types of alternatives to gun control and how the

focus should be keeping guns out of the wrong people’s hands.