Firearms, violence, and self-protection.

The association that J. B. Bingenheimer et al. have found between exposure to firearm violence and subsequent perpetration of violence (“Firearm violence exposure and serious violent behavior,” Reports, 27 May, p. [1323][1]) may well reflect a causal effect of prior victimization, but I believe they have misread what is being caused. They classified a subject as a “perpetrator of serious violence” if she or he reported being theatened or attacked by another or had “been in” a gang fight, but also if the subject had “carried a hidden weapon.” Their dependent or outcome variable is problematic partly because it makes no distinction between defensive, even lawful, violence and offensive violence. More importantly, this variable probably reflects just one type of behavior, carrying weapons for self-protection, which should not be described as violent behavior. The authors report that 12.6% of their sample of (roughly high school age) youth were classified as perpetrators of serious violence, but do not say what share of these were so classified solely because the person had carried weapons for self-protection. But there is strong reason to believe that this share is over half and could approach 100%. A survey of Chicago high school students conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [([1][2]), p. 26] in the same year as the present study, 2001, revealed that 21.2% had carried weapons (6.3% had carried guns) in the previous 30 days. Thus, one would expect that at least 21% of the present study's sample would report defensive weapon carrying alone, easily enough to account for all of the 12.6% classified as “violent perpetrators.” If most of the variation in the outcome variable is really variation in defensive weapon carrying, it means that all the authors have really discovered, or rediscovered, is the rather banal fact that people who have reasons to believe they are likely to be victimized in the future are more likely to carry guns for defensive purposes ([2][3]). 1. [↵][4] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Youth risk behavior surveillance—United States, 2001,” Morbid. Mortal. Weekly 51 , 1 (28 June 2002). 2. [↵][5] 1. G. Kleck, 2. M. Gertz , J. Res. Crime Delinquency 35((no. 2)), 193 (1998). [OpenUrl][6][Abstract/FREE Full Text][7] # Response {#article-title-2} We appreciate Kleck's thoughtful letter. It is true that carrying a concealed weapon was the most commonly reported of the behaviors that make up our measure of violent behavior. Nearly 10% of adolescents in our sample reported carrying a concealed weapon in the year prior to their Assessment 3 interview, compared with 4% who reported participating in a gang fight, 2% who reported attacking someone with a weapon, 1% who reported shooting at someone, and less than 1% who reported shooting someone. Contrary to Kleck's conjecture, however, we believe that it is reasonable to include carrying a concealed weapon in our index of serious violent behavior. Weapon carrying is a logical prerequisite to several explicitly violent acts and is indicative of a certain degree of willingness or intent to engage in violence. Moreover, carrying a hidden weapon is strongly associated with all of the other behaviors included in our measure. Compared with those who denied carrying a hidden weapon, subjects who reported doing so were over 23 times as likely to report attacking someone with a weapon, some 27 times as likely to report shooting at someone, and nearly 10 times as likely to report being in a gang fight. Although almost 70% of those who reported carrying a concealed weapon also reported another violent behavior, less than 3% of those who denied carrying a concealed weapon reported other forms of violence. Furthermore, the relationships we found between exposure to firearm violence and our index of violent behavior are also evident when each behavior is analyzed as a separate outcome. We reported in our paper that subjects who reported exposure to firearm violence at Assessment 2 were over three times as likely to report some form of violent behavior at Assessment 3 [odds ratio (OR) = 3.71, χ2 = 41.99, P < 0.001]. Breaking this down by behavior, exposed subjects were more likely than unexposed subjects to report carrying a concealed weapon (OR = 3.47, χ2 = 31.36, P < 0.001), being in a gang fight (OR = 3.74, χ2 = 16.73, P < 0.001), attacking someone with a weapon (OR = 9.77, χ2 = 21.62, P < 0.001), or shooting at someone (OR = 11.40, χ2 = 13.18, P < 0.001). Within the analytic propensity strata, those who were exposed to firearm violence were approximately twice as likely to report some form of violent behavior (OR = 2.43, χ2 = 11.76, P = 0.001) and were also more likely to report carrying a concealed weapon (OR = 2.34, χ2 = 9.00, P = 0.003), shooting at someone (OR = 2.78, χ2 = 1.62, P = 0.204), being in a gang fight (OR = 3.27, χ2 = 7.95, P = 0.005), and attacking someone with a weapon (OR = 8.10, χ2 = 9.06, P = 0.003). These unadjusted and propensity-stratified analyses show that our original results apply not only to weapon carrying but also to other forms of violent behavior. As Kleck suggests, some of the violent behaviors reported by participants in our study may have been motivated in part by self-defense. Yet motivations can be complex, and people often delude themselves and others about the reasons for their actions. Ours is a study of behavior, and our data on adolescents living in Chicago in the late 1990s strongly support the conclusion that exposure to firearm violence increases the likelihood of violent behavior. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1110096 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #ref-2 [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 "View reference 1 in text" [5]: #xref-ref-2-1 "View reference 2 in text" [6]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DJournal%2Bof%2BResearch%2Bin%2BCrime%2Band%2BDelinquency%26rft.stitle%253DJournal%2Bof%2BResearch%2Bin%2BCrime%2Band%2BDelinquency%26rft.issn%253D0022-4278%26rft.aulast%253DKLECK%26rft.auinit1%253DG.%26rft.volume%253D35%26rft.issue%253D2%26rft.spage%253D193%26rft.epage%253D224%26rft.atitle%253DCarrying%2BGuns%2Bfor%2BProtection%253A%2BResults%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BNational%2BSelf-Defense%2BSurvey%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1177%252F0022427898035002004%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [7]: /lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiQUJTVCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6NToic3BqcmMiO3M6NToicmVzaWQiO3M6ODoiMzUvMi8xOTMiO3M6NDoiYXRvbSI7czoyMzoiL3NjaS8zMDkvNTc0MS8xNjc1LmF0b20iO31zOjg6ImZyYWdtZW50IjtzOjA6IiI7fQ==