Citation

McLaughlin V. J. Firearms Public Policy 2003; 15.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Second Amendment Foundation)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A central claim made by advocates of further restrictions on the ownership of firearms by civilians is that the enactment of additional laws, will reduce the use of firearms by criminals. This Article measures the homicides that took place in Savannah, Georgia, in two eight-year periods with ninety years in-between. The focus is on the instrument in these homicides. Because gun control laws are much more stringent and pervasive in the second eight-year period than in the first such period, we may find what, if any, effects the gun control laws have had on homicide. This article compares the weapon used to commit “civilian versus civilian” homicide in Savannah for two time periods: 1896 to 1903 and 1986 to 1993. The Article investigates changes in the type of weapons used in homicide, the type of firearms used in homicide, and wound patterns of firearms homicide victims. The use of handguns in homicide rose from the first time period to the second.