Heidi Harris, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Writing
From: Sraddhanjoli Bhadra, Undergraduate Date: February 9, 2014 RE: Report Proposal Regarding Possible Gun Control Policy in UALR to reduce the crime rates involving gun
Proposed Study
Gun violence has become a problematic issue for all U.S. institutions including UALR. In my research report, I propose to study the statistics of gun violence at UALR, various gun control laws passed by the State, gun control regulations at various universities within the State and outside where serious gun violence has taken student and faculty lives.
Statement of Problem
Association of American Universities in their report on gun violence had stated Our schools and campuses have unfortunately become centres of national mourning, from Columbine to Virginia Tech, and now Newtown. Gun violence has become a serious issue in majority of schools in the country. There has been no known incident of similar violence at UALR. However gun-point robbery within the campus is often reported by Public Safety. This has created a fear in every students heart. Every other day we receive an email notifying about the crime that took place. Such publicity has affected student enrolment at UALR. No parents want to send their loved ones to a school where they hear about gun violence. Therefore, for the safety and security of the students, faculties and staffs, there needs to be some preventive measures to this problem. First a research is required to determine the statistics of crime data at UALR over past five years and establish the trend. What the U.S. government feels about gun control issue? What measures other universities are implementing to minimize the violence rate? What measures other universities are taking to prevent gun violence? How can we maintain a crime-free campus without affecting individual right? These are some questions I plan to research in this report.
Intended Audience
My intended audience for this research is UALR that includes public safety and the students, staffs, and faculties to enhance their safety and confidence.
Scope of Proposed Study
My study will explore the following issues: 1. An assessment of current crime rate involving gun on-campus and to determine the trend over past five years. 2. An assessment of current UALR gun policy and how it is affecting the crime rates. 3. An assessment of other universities gun policy and its impact on student safety. 4. An assessment of consequences in terms of loss of lives due to gun violence. 5. An assessment of State laws that can affect gun control policy at UALR. 6. A recommendation for our university on gun control policy.
Data Sources (MLA format)
1. White House Plan to Reduce Gun Violence. Congressional Digest. March 2013. Web.
This article focuses on the measures proposed by the President Barack Obama for the licensed firearms dealers while selling guns in order to better protect the children and the communities of U.S. from tragic mass shootings. These steps include: close background check loopholes; strengthen the background check system; banning of military-style assault weapons; encourage safe gun ownership; how to make schools safer, and so on. This source will be useful because it talks about the various measures that can be taken to mitigate the gun violence. A part of this article talks about steps that need to be followed on how to make schools safer, which I can use as solutions to the gun violence issue. This source is reliable because I have found it in UALR library database and the Congressional Digest is an independent monthly publication which is published by Congressional Digest Corporation. It also provides Debate Online Services.
2. Peter Dreier. Massacres and Movements: Challenging the Gun Industrial Complex. New Labor Forum (Sage Publications Inc). May 2013. Web.
This article focuses on how the gun control became an issue in the United States. It focuses on the many surveys conducted in U.S. since 2000 which show that the majority of the Americans support stricter gun laws. Gun control was not an issue in the 2012 presidential campaign. But on December 14, the mass killings in Newtown, Connecticut put the topic near the top of the nations agenda. It also focuses on how the gun industrial complex was affected and targeted after the incident in Newtown. This source will be useful because it shows how intense the gun control issue is in U.S. and how vastly it affects the lives of the people in U.S. I will use this source to emphasize on what can be the consequences in terms of loss of human lives as well as at an emotional level for people who have lost their near and dear ones if the U.S. government does not take up this issue seriously. This source is reliable because the Sage Publications Inc. is a prestigious search and the survey was conducted by a Pew Research Centre, which is popular for conducting public opinion polling. I have found this article in UALR library database.
3. Wasserman, M. Lewis. Gun Control on College and University Campuses in the Wake of District of Columbia V. Hellar and McDonald V. City of Chicago. Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law. 2011. Vol. 19 Issue 1, p1-57. Web.
This article focuses on the court declaring that the Second Amendment protects citizens right to keep and bear arms in the home for the purpose of self-defence. This article evaluates the capacity of public colleges and universities to enact gun control policies and its effects on faculty, staff, students and others in light of the landmark Heller and McDonald decisions. This article also highlights about areas in which campus officials should feel secure in enacting firearm controls as well as where ambiguity remains. This source will be useful because it will allow me to look into this issue in a broader way, i.e., the pros and the cons of gun control policies. I will use this source to examine what are the gun control laws in other universities and whether they are useful or not. This source is reliable because Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law is a student-edited journal and is the first and only nonpartisan publication devoted exclusively to examining the interaction between law and politics. It was founded under the guidance of Circuit Judge Antonin Scalia in 1982. I have found this in an educational institutions database, i.e., UALR.
4. Kyle A. Burgason, Shaun A. Thomas and Emily R. Berthelot. The Nature of Violence A Multilevel Analysis of Gun Use and Victim Injury in Violent Interpersonal Encounters. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2013. vol. 29 p371-393. Web.
This article focuses on the different ways of gun use by researching on the incidents and physical injuries sustained by the victims of the incident. This article examines the incident-level data from the National Incident Based Reporting system in conjunction with contextual-level data on the cities in which it occurred. This source is useful because it talks about the pattern of gun violence and the variations in it. This source is reliable because it is written by people from University of Arkansas at Little Rock from Department of Criminal Justice and is published by Journal of Interpersonal Violence which is devoted to the study and treatment of victims and is published monthly. I have taken this source from Google scholar.
5. James A. Fox and Monica J. DeLateur. Mass Shootings in America: Moving Beyond Newtown. Homicide Studies. February 2014. vol. 18 no. 1 125-145. Web.
This article focuses on the mass shootings taking place at different venues which also include the one in Connecticut elementary school. It also talks about advocates for tighter gun restrictions, for upgrading security in public places especially in schools. It also focuses on school shootings taking place. It also focuses on variety of myths and misconceptions about the mass shooters. This article is useful because it talks about gun use at an extreme level. I will use this article to suggest policy proposals regarding gun control issue in order to avoid gun violence. This article is reliable because Homicide Studies which is a high quality, multidisciplinary publication devoted to the dissemination of information concerning research, public policy and so on. I have taken this source from Google scholar.