Gun control is a hot topic of debate across the country and from the Fresno State campus there are words of caution for Gov. Jerry Brown as he considers 12 bills meant to reduce gun crime.
“Each side needs to realize that research on guns is complicated,” said Dr. Jason Kissner, an associate professor in the criminology department. “Most of the time people cite statistics that they think are favorable to their argument. But there is no support, generally speaking, for gun control or for the other side.”
Brown has until Oct. 13 to decide what to do with the bills. The impact of the bills will range from banning the use of lead ammunition by July 2016 to expanding the list of crimes resulting in ban from owning firearms.
After state lawmakers passed the bills, Brown was asked by reporters on Sept. 16, the day of the mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, about the legislation awaiting his decision.
“First of all, California has the toughest gun laws in the country and we’re proud of that achievement, which has been done over many, many years,” Brown said. “And I think we want to look very carefully and not just react to events of the day.
“When we pass laws, it’s not a decision of the moment. It’s a decision for the decades. And we want to look very carefully at what it is we’re setting in motion.”
On Saturday, President Barack Obama told supporters in a keynote speech at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual awards dinner to encourage lawmakers to pass gun control legislation.
“We can’t rest until all of our children can go to school or walk down the street free from the fear that they will be struck down by a stray bullet,” Obama said.
The issue, Kissner said, is that the country might be experiencing something that criminologists call “moral panic,” which is when authority figures or interest groups magnify a crime-related problem.
He said “a very divisive social issue” has become political in nature rather than focused on the data.
Kissner said a decrease in homicides (the Pew Research Center said in May that gun homicides have declined by 49 percent since its peak in 1993) over the years may indicate the availability of guns doesn’t increase the likelihood of crime.
The debate, he said, lacks statistical clarity and legislators need to be careful of making decisions that limit constitutional rights based on research they don’t understand.
“Our constitutional rights are not supposed to depend on what other people do to break the law,” Kissner said. “Next door to my house could be a meth lab, should we give up privacy rights because of that?”
In response to the argument from gun-rights advocates that mental health””not guns””should be the focus of new laws, Kissner said that argument has problems as well.
“Who decides who is too mentally ill to own a gun?” Kissner said. “How do we determine the link between some mental illnesses and gun violence?”
He said that whether or not there even is a gun problem in the U.S. is open to debate because of conflicting information advocates are using.
“I think whichever side you are on [in the debate], honest people will admit this is about politics,” Kissner said.