My path to determining a research question on the subject of gun control and gun violence has largely been led by my preliminary research into the subject. As discussed in Week 1, the research I have come across indicates that there is a gulf between the perception of gun violence in this country and the attitudes toward gun control measures. While statistics from the National Institute of Justice (2011) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2016) show gun violence as a slowly declining, but still rampant, rate, and VPC (2016) statistics showing the disproportionate effect it has on black men, public opinion polls have shown a stark division growing between people who want gun control and who want greater gun rights (Gallup, 2013). To that end, I wanted to explore this divide with the following research question:
What are the primary reasons for greater gun control support by Americans in the light of current gun violence statistics?
HYPOTHESIS
When developing my hypothesis, I had to be extremely careful how to broach such a complex issue. Hypotheses are either supported or unsupported by the findings of research, and as such the hypothesis needs to be replicable, specific and supportable. To that end, I explored the various possibilities to answer the research question, chiefly relating to the argument Younge (2016) offers in his Nation column about the marginalized nature of communities of color. In this kernel, I found a potential answer to the hypothesis: exploring white America’s indifference to (and fear of) communities of color as a motivating factor in pushing for greater gun rights.
Hypothesis: Higher gun control statistics, particularly relating to people of color, fosters fear in white communities of a loss of safety, leading to a greater push for gun rights in order to protect themselves.
References
Gallup, Inc. (Feb. 13, 2013). Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics. SOURCEBOOK.
Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/t2632012.pdf
National Institute of Justice. (2016). Gun violence. NIJ. Retrieved from
https://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/gun-violence/Pages/welcome.aspx.
Pew Research Center. (Aug. 26, 2016). Gun rights vs. gun control. Pew Research Center.
Retrieved from http://www.people-press.org/2016/08/26/gun-rights-vs-gun-control/#total.
Violence Policy Center. (March 2016). Black homicide victimization in the United States.
Violence Policy Center.
Younge, G. (November 7, 2016). Why the gun control movement fails. The Nation: 13-15.
