Browsing by Subject "gun policy"

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    Firearm Homicide-Suicides in North Carolina: Evidence from the North Carolina Violent Death Reporting System, 2004-2014
    (2016-05-17) Kerber, Rose
    Homicide-suicides are a patterned type of violence that is distinct from other suicides and other homicides. The evidence presented in this analysis suggests that compared to both homicides and suicides, homicide-suicides are less reflective of personal problems experienced by the perpetrator and more reflective of troubled and abusive relationships between the perpetrator and the victim(s). The evidence suggests that perpetrators become maximally violent when they have lost control of a relationship. The intense fixation on the victim suggests that these incidents may be primarily homicidal. The suicidal act may be less premeditated than the homicide, and may instead reflect the perpetrator’s complete loss of control and inability to function without their primary relationship. Homicide-suicides are often preceded by a history of domestic violence and interaction with law enforcement. Interactions with law enforcement and the court system present key opportunities for intervention in abusive relationships that might prevent escalation. With better screening and robust policies that empower law enforcement and the court system to confiscate firearms from abusive individuals, hundreds of deaths could be prevented over the next decade.
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    The influence of audience: Analyzing the relationship between post-Sandy Hook newspaper coverage and readers’ positions on gun policy
    (2014-01-09) Koelsch, Anna
    The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut took place on December 14, 2012. Sandy Hook prompted President Barack Obama to issue 23 executive orders related to gun policy in early 2013. Newspapers throughout the country covered the policy changes and the Sandy Hook shooting in various ways. In the 90 days after Sandy Hook, 30 randomly selected newspapers published 1,017 articles mentioning guns in the context of the shooting. Fifteen newspapers were more likely to use gun control to characterize the shooting, fourteen were more likely to use gun rights, and one newspaper was evenly split in its use of gun control and gun rights. Newspapers also varied in the percentage of their total articles that mentioned guns in the context of Sandy Hook. Newspapers that published a larger percentage of their overall articles that mentioned guns in the context of Sandy Hook were more likely to frame the event with gun control. These newspaper articles were also examined using audience demand theory, which posits that demand may shape the way newspapers cover issues. Specifically, demand for gun rights newspaper coverage was measured using the number of donations to the National Rifle Association Political Action Committee. This number of NRA PAC donations per population in a given area slightly positively related with greater use of gun rights frames, and slightly negatively related with greater use of gun control frames, but these relationships were not statistically significant. This project suggests that audience demand theory can be applied to newspaper coverage of guns.