9781422273531

Crime

When people say that the United States has a gun violence problem, they often (whether they know it or not) mean that it has a handgun violence problem. No other firearm in the nation is responsible for as many deaths and injuries as the handgun. The United States has nine times as many handgun murders as murders from every other type of gun combined, and eight times as many violent crimes are committed with handguns than with every other type of gun combined. Their small size makes them convenient for any type of activity requiring lethal force or merely the threat of lethal force.

Handguns and Gangs: Your Gun Is “Your Police”

The Marshall Project, a nonprofit organization seeking to cover issues in the American criminal justice system, interviewed members of a Chicago-based gang, the Gangster Disciples, in 2018. “In Chicago,” one of the members said, “[people] want a gun before a car. Your gun, that’s your police. I have a problem,

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