Article Review - Gun Control
Frank Zimring's article "Is Gun Control Likely to Reduce Violent Killings?" explores the divisive nature of gun control legislation, and the arguments over its effectiveness. Gun control laws, according to Zimring, are typically argued to help reduce criminal homicides, but other arguments state that the murders would occur either way, because the murderer would find some other type of weapon with which to do the deed. According to Zimring's argument, in which he studies homicide rates in relationship to the rate of attacks, banning firearms would most likely cause a measurable lessening of homicides in an urban setting. However, the question remains as to whether or not those decreased levels of gun violence would just result in a higher ratio of knife-related violence.
In my estimation, Zimring does a fairly decent job of examining the varying statistics that go into the rates of homicides and crime in a large city like Chicago. Statistics are used, and an experimental sample, to explore his hypothesis, or at least the issues at hand. Equal credence is given to both sides of the gun control argument, and all of the figures are given the appropriate context (i.e. telling us in simple terms what these ratios mean or could mean). I would say that Zimring presents his argument appropriately; he provides the means by which to stage an argument that deadly violence without the legal presence of guns would be at a net loss.
Works Cited
Zimring, Frank. "Is Gun Control Likely to Reduce Violent Killings?" University of Chicago Law
Review, vol. 35, no. 4, p. 721. 1968. Print
