Guardiola 1

Johnathan Guardiola

Mrs. Briones

ENGL 1302-261

February 12, 2024

Why is nothing being done about guns? An Annotated Bibliography

Barry, Colleen L., et al. “Public Support for Gun Violence Prevention Policies Among Gun

Owners and Non-Gun Owners in 2017.” American Journal of Public Health (1971), vol.

108, no. 7, 2018, pp. 878–81, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304432.

This article focused on getting the public’s opinion on what they think about 24 different

policies from around the United States among non-gun owners and gun owners. A survey

was taken in the month of January 2017. The results of the survey indicated most

participants supported regulating or restricting firearms. Policies that had a high

percentage of public support included background checks, increased training in carrying a

concealed firearm, improved background checks into a person’s mental state, and

domestic violent offenders being barred from obtaining a firearm among others. A

majority of both gun and non-gun owners support these policies to reinforce U.S. gun

laws without totally infringing on ones right to bear arms.

Gluck, Abbe R., et al. “Gun Violence in Court.” The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, vol. 48,

no. 4, 2020, pp. 90–97, https://doi.org/10.1177/1073110520979406.

In this article, Gluck explains that legal action cannot solve a public health problem

however it can be an effective tool to regulate on how important the public health issue

is, releasing information on the affects of gun violence to persuade the public’s support,

so that lawmakers can then take legal action. She explains that litigation has been done on
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issues like opioids and tobacco so that people can initiate a chain change, to hold the

makers of such issues accountable, and to dispute money claims. Plaintiff’s have been

pushing to have gun cases in their case log to not much success. While victims continue

to take legal action on firearms with little success, more noticeable attorneys like state

attorney generals are surprisingly nowhere to be seen around these issues. She also

explains that using a more modern strategy to litigate would include standing up and

lobbying in states’ capitals to influence change among lawmakers.

Kochel, Tammy R. "The Views of Police Officers Toward Gun Legislation and Public Health

Policies Driven by Firearm Safety Concerns." Journal of Community Health, 2023,

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-023-01302-9. Accessed 31 Jan. 2024.

Kochel and Phillips explain that gun violence is a serious cause of pre-mature death in

the United States. Many have suggested a public health approach is the most plausible,

however this would require the participation of enforcing laws and policies. They

surveyed police officers from three different jurisdictions to focus on the officers’

viewpoints on the implication and enforcement of said policies. The survey’s findings

show that the officers have mixed and limiting support for supporting such laws. One law

being that individuals who may have mental health issues or a criminal background are

not allowed to access firearms. Most of the Officers supported barring guns from falling

into the hands of people who are convicted of domestic violence. The officers stopped

short of supporting an out right ban on assault weapons, magazines of high capacity, and

the ability of purchasing ammunition online. However, the Buffalo Police Department

supported most of the legislation due to the fact that they had recently encountered an

active shooter.
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Kolbe, Lloyd J. “School Gun Violence in the United States.” The Journal of School Health, vol.

90, no. 3, 2020, pp. 245–53, https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12866.

Kolbe states, that even tho less than 2 percent of homicides are school related, gun

violence incidents have been on the rise in schools since 1970. These instances in schools

have wounded 1,403 people and have killed 728. He explains that these shootings have

transformed the education field and that we all must work together to prevent such

tragedies. Kolbe focuses on the kind of nature a school shooting occurs and forms ways

to prevent future acts of violence. Results from reviewing made him come up with a

public health approach that examines schools’ surveillance systems, and what schools are

implementing to prevent such heinous attacks. Finally, he states, that nothing can stop

gun violence from occurring in schools and that schools must address safety and health

threats. He also states that The Departments of Homeland Security, Education, and Health

and Human services provide schools with resources like training and funding, but their

efforts are not correctly coordinated.

Klarevas, Louis, et al. “The Effect of Large-Capacity Magazine Bans on High-Fatality Mass

Shootings, 1990-2017.” American Journal of Public Health (1971), vol. 109, no. 12,

2019, pp. 1754–61, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305311.

Klarevas and colleagues in this article evaluate the banning of large-capacity magazines

(LCM) and the lethality and how much it effects mass shootings. They analyze state

panel data from soaring fatalities from mass shootings from the year 1990 to 2017. They

first determine the relationship of LCM bans all together, then assess state and federal

bans. First, they determine incident of high mass murder shootings. Second the amount of

people who were killed from such acts. They discover that there were 69 incidents of
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high-fatality mass shootings from the years 1990-2017. Perpetrators who used LCMS

caused a 62% increased average death toll. They also found that states that had not

banned LCMs experienced doubled the rate of casualties than of states who did ban

LCMS. States which did not ban LCMs encountered more victims in mass shootings and

a higher fatality. Klarevas and his peers stated that LCM bans seem to lower the number

of victims, the occurrence of such traumatic events, and the incidents of high fatality.

Lunn, Lucienne, et al. “A Framework for Guiding Transformative Growth after School

Shootings.” Peace and Conflict, vol. 27, no. 3, 2021, pp. 486–96,

https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000534.

Lunn states that for the past 20 years, firearm violence in schools has completely exposed

adolescents and children’s safety, social communication, and psychological mentality.

While school shootings are on the rise, research conducted internationally about how to

support students and staff. This protocol, however, only benefits administrators in dealing

with these instances, leaving victims to cope with the side effects alone of living through

such a disaster. This article gives hope to survivors by forming a system to help manage

the long-term side effects so that these victims can once again continue to grow without

fear. This protocol is based on the theories of Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) that allows

for positive mental growth after one experience a life altering event. This outline enforces

communities, staff, and students well being by rebuilding what was lost during said

incident. The goal for this article is to have an organized system for survivors of school

shootings to return to a life of “normalcy”.

Metzl, Jonathan M., et al. “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Future of Psychiatric

Research into American Gun Violence.” Harvard Review of Psychiatry, vol. 29, no. 1,
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2021, pp. 81–89, https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000280.

Metzl and his colleagues outline a four-part strategy for the purpose of future research

around mental health so that there is a better understanding of what causes these evil acts

and multiple victims of gun homicide. First, they explain that when researching

researchers must forgo the stigma that such acts are driven by only thinking its

psychological. They explain that we must look within the social structure and culture

script. Second, they say scholars and professionals in the psychology field need to be

aware of correlating violence with mental illness. Third, they must understand what role

the firearm access when a shooting happens. When checking backgrounds, it should

consist of psychological, political, social, and legal checks of private gun owners. Fourth,

implement effective laws and policies with interventions to lower the possibility of these

types of incidents happening and to fund research and informs and that is implemented

throughout the affected communities to prevent gun violence.

Reeping, Paul M., et al. “Rapid Response to Mass Shootings: A Review and

Recommendations.” Criminology & Public Policy, vol. 19, no. 1, 2020, pp. 295–315,

https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12479.

For this research Reeping and colleagues conducted a review of text in the National

Library of Medicine’s journal database and MEDLINE. They want to determine the

response of people like the police, emergency vehicles and gather as much information as

possible to reduce harm of a mass shooting. To their findings, when shootings happen in

the U.S., several steps can be taken as soon as the first build is shot until the very last

victim of the shooting is transported to the hospital. To reduce people from being severely

or even slightly injured or from even dying the authors lay out ten recommendations that
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range from determining how much first responders need to be dispatched to training

police officers to transport while giving the life saving care victims may need. Some

recommendations are transporting a wounded person that has a gunshot wound as quickly

as possible to ensure the best outcome is achieved. Another is conducting massive

training scenarios that involve educators, police and bystanders in hemorrhage control

while also displaying hemorrhaging kits on site. Another one would be forming hotlines

that would allow families to communicate with the right people on the issue at hand.

Sargent, Rikki H., and Leonard S. Newman. “Attitudes toward Guns and Mental Illness Stigma

among College Students in the United States.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, vol.

91, no. 2, 2021, pp. 271–79, https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000527.

Sargent and Newman state that in the U.S. citizens oppose tightening gun laws in the

aftermath of a mass shooting because it’s mostly labeled as a psychologic issue. With this

stigma people who are pro-guns are the ones who often correlate the shooting with the

shooter having a mental illness. They gathered three studies and assessed whether people

who are opposed to gun restrictions are feeding into that stigma. Among the studies were

college students in the U.S. They explain that although people who favor firearms think

negative towards people with some kind of mental illness they were not indicators for the

political affiliation.

Siegel, Reva B., and Joseph Blocher. “Why Regulate Guns?” The Journal of Law, Medicine &

Ethics, vol. 48, no. 4_suppl, 2020, pp. 11–16,

https://doi.org/10.1177/1073110520979395.

When courts take up litigation about whether or not to restrict guns in some way they

often ask how this would effectively serve as public safety. Siegel and Blocher say
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specific gun laws protect people from bullets and allow people to more comfortably live

their life in public setting like attending church, going to school, assembling to protest, or

even shop in an outlet mall. They tell their audience that it’s time for courts to adhere to

their duties and restrict guns for people who take advantage and consider everyone’s

constitutional liberties. They also state that with current precedent written by sitting

conservative justices, they order courts to uphold and protect the constitutional rights of

every American.