Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control

Social Institutions and Social Change

by Gary Kleck (Editor)

This new paperback comprehensively reviews the research evidence on the links between guns, violence, and gun control, and reports results of the author’s own research as well. In Targeting Guns, Kleck follows the line of argument and careful statistical inference of his earlier prizewinning volume, Point Blank, while updating the literature reviews and statistical information, and adding two chapters.

468 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Mark Breuer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any one who wishes to truly understand issues surrounding gun violence must look them from an unbiased, fact-based perspective. Kleck does a thorough, albeit at times incredibly dry, analysis of his own studies and those of others. Unfortunately most people stop with what they hear in the popular press, if they study the issue at all. Much of what seems obvious (e.g. more guns equal more crime, gun ownership is increasing) is simply not supported by the data. This book will be very troubling for those who are satisfied with simplistic platitudes about 'assault weapons' and handgun control. Perhaps if more people stuck to the facts and not emotional outbursts, we could have some serious discussions about how to actually reduce gun violence.