
Point Blank
Guns and Violence in America
Gary Kleck(Author)
AldineTransaction (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 31. March 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
528 pages
978-0-202-30762-6 (ISBN)
Description
By 1990 there were approximately 200 million guns in private hands in the United States, and around half of American households contained a gun. Over 30,000 people a year are killed with guns in suicides, homicides, and accidents, and Americans use guns for defensive purposes as many as a million times a year. There is little doubt that gun violence and control are issues of vital importance, and they continue to inspire national debate. It is doubtful, however, that most gun debates are worth listening to. Not surprisingly, they generally leave their participants exactly where they began, with their biases intact, and onlookers perplexed. Written deliberately to counter an atmosphere of hysteria and extremism, Point Blank, now in paperback, offers logical argument supported by empirical information. It confronts fundamental questions head-on. On its initial publication in 1993, Point Black won the Michael J. Hindelang Award of the American Society of Criminology for the book that "made the most outstanding contribution to criminology," Point Blank reports both original research and assesses existing evidence drawn from a wide variety of academic disciplines, including criminology, sociology, law, and medicine.
Reviews / Votes
"Kleck assesses the evidence, adduced with the tools of social science, on the issues of gun control and gun ownership - ideology, politics, and propaganda, as well as data on who owns guns, how they acquire them, and why; the effects of guns on violence - self-defense, violent crime, suicide, accidents; regulation - types, public opinion, impact on violence rates; and policy lessons. His findings indicate that guns do contribute to violence, but in complex ways that are not acknowledged by either activists or academics. From the mass of evidence, he draws informed recommendations for a national policy." - Book News, Inc."More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Somerset
United States
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Inc
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
759 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-202-30762-6 (9780202307626)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
10/2017
1st Edition
Routledge
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E-Book
07/2017
Routledge
€64.49
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E-Book
07/2017
Routledge
€64.49
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Person
Gary Kleck is professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida State University. He is the author of Targeting Guns: Firearms and their Control and coauthor, with Don Kates, of The Great American Gun Debate and Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Control. His articles have been published in several journals, including the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Social Problems, Criminology, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Journal of the American Medical Association, and Law & Society Review.
Content
I: Issues of Gun Control and Gun Ownership; 1: Ideology, Politics, and Propaganda; 2: Ownership and Uses of Guns; 3: Searching for "Bad" Guns: The Focus on Special Gun Types; II: Effects Of Guns On Violence; 4: Guns and Self-Defense; 5: Guns and Violent Crime; 6: Guns and Suicide; 7: Firearms Accidents; III: Regulating Guns; 8: Types of Gun Regulation; 9: Public Opinion and the Bases of Support for Gun Control; 10: The Impact of Gun Control on Violence Rates; IV: Policy Lessons; 11: Conclusions