Firearms and Crime - Murder

The FBI defines murder as "the willful killing of one human being by another." However, the FBI points out that a murder included in the crime count might later be changed to a charge of justifiable homicide, self-defense, suicide, or accident. A person who is arrested and charged with murder (whose alleged crime is included in the crime count) may be innocent and later released.

Murders, Weapons, and Circumstances

The murder rate rose dramatically in the late 1980s, largely due to a rise in the number of teenagers—especially African-American males—who were involved as both victims and perpetrators. There are a number of theories as to why this was so, including poverty; a rise in youth gangs; the crack cocaine trade; a thriving black market (illegal trade) for handguns; and exposure to violent images on television, movies, video games, and popular music. The murder rate fell in 1998 to its lowest rate in three decades. In 2002 the estimated number of murders committed in the United States was 16,204, up 1% from the previous year but down 33.9% from 1993. This means that there were an estimated 5.6 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.

Figure 5.1 shows trends in homicides according to weapon type from 1976 to 2000. Handguns were the weapons most often used, and like the overall homicide rate, incidents involving handguns increased beginning in the mid-1980s. Table 5.1 shows data for 14,054 of the 16,204 murders committed in 2002. Firearms were the weapons most frequently used to commit murders, accounting for approximately six in every ten murders committed in the United States. Handguns were used in 51% of the murders, shotguns were used in 3.3%, and rifles in 3.4%. A knife or other cutting instrument was used in 13% of murders; personal weapons such as fists, hands, or feet in 12.5%; blunt instruments in 4.7%; and other weapons, such as poisons and explosives, in the remainder.

The vast majority of murderers and murder victims are men. In 2002 more than three times as many men as women were murdered—10,779 men compared to 3,251 women ("Homicide Victimization by Gender," in Homicide Trends in the United States, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, 2002). Murder is more often the work of acquaintances than strangers: 43.2% of the murder victims (6,076) knew their killers, and 12.7% of murder victims (1,784) were related to their killers. (See Figure 5.2.) When the FBI published the 2002 crime statistics, the relationship of the offender to the victim was not known in 42.8% of murders (6,015 victims). Strangers made up 14% of the murderers, with 1,963 victims.

The most common homicides involving one female victim and one male attacker are the result of domestic violence and most often involve a gun, according to the Violence Policy Center, a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America. In its study of the homicides that took place in 2002, the center found that more women are killed with firearms (54%) than any other type of weapon. Of the homicides committed with firearms, three-quarters (73%) involved

FIGURE 5.1

handguns (When Men Kill Women: An Analysis of Homicide Data, Washington, D.C.: Violence Policy Center, September 2004). According to the study, "Among victims who knew their offenders, 61% of female homicide victims were wives or intimate acquaintances of their male killers."

Another Violence Policy Center survey confirmed that most murder-suicides are committed with a firearm (94.5%). In a six-month period in 2001, of those that included the use of a firearm, 41.2% involved a handgun, 7.9% involved a shotgun, and 6.9% involved a rifle. The remaining 44% either did not specify what type of firearm was used or involved multiple weapons, of which at least one was a firearm ("Murder-Suicides with a Firearm," in American Roulette, Violence Policy Center, 2002, http://www.vpc.org/graphics/amroul.pdf [accessed October 9, 2004]).

The Criminal Advantages of Guns

A gun offers a criminal several advantages over other weapons. A gun offender can keep a greater physical distance from the victim to ensure his or her own safety and increase the chances of escaping. Moreover, a gun allows the offender to maintain a psychological distance as well, keeping the confrontation more impersonal and minimizing the emotional involvement. Control over potential victims can be easier to maintain with a gun; victims are less likely to run from a gun-carrying offender for fear of being shot.

Mass murders are usually carried out with a firearm because an armed person can kill a greater number of people in a limited amount of time. Because guns can kill from

FIGURE 5.2

a great distance, they are also the most effective weapon against well-guarded targets. Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is the heavy use of firearms in political assassinations or assassination attempts. It is unlikely that a felon would try to rob a large institution with many customers and multiple exits while wielding a club or knife.

Shootings in the Workplace and at School

Table 5.2 is a timeline showing notable incidents of multiple shootings. The workplace and school have emerged as favored targets for these atrocities. In 2003 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor estimated that every year nearly one thousand workers are murdered and 1.5 million are assaulted at work, both in multiple shootings and in other attacks, including individual murders and robberies. The on-the-job homicide toll amounts to more than 10% of all fatal work injuries.

A 2004 study by Handgun-Free America ("Terror Nine to Five: Guns in the Workplace, 1994–2003," May 2004) revealed that violence in the American workplace has risen dramatically over the past couple of years. In 2002, there were twenty-five workplace shootings, with thirty-three victims killed; in 2003, there were forty-five incidents, with sixty-nine victims killed and another forty-six wounded. The study also showed that 91.6% of workplace shooters were men and 51.8% had experienced a negative change in

TABLE 5.1

Murder circumstances by weapon, 2002
Circumstances	Total murder victims	Total firearms	Handguns	Rifles	Shotguns	Other guns or type not stated	Knives or cutting instruments	Blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc.)	Personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.)	Poison	Pushed or thrown out window	Explosives	Fire	Narcotics	Drowning	Strangulation	Asphyxiation	Other
SOURCE: "Table 2.13. Murder Circumstances by Weapon", in Crime in the United States, 2002, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2003, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/02cius.htm (accessed October 8, 2004)
Total	14,054	9,369	7,176	480	476	1,237	1,767	666	929	23	4	11	104	48	18	143	103	869
Felony type total:	2,314	1,640	1,304	63	64	209	198	116	99	1	1	5	44	12	0	38	26	134
Rape	43	6	4	0	0	2	9	5	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	5	0
Robbery	1,092	797	664	24	34	75	93	74	47	0	0	0	3	0	0	17	10	51
Burglary	96	56	45	2	6	3	18	10	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	5
Larceny-theft	15	9	8	0	0	1	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Motor vehicle theft	16	9	4	2	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	4
Arson	59	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	4	35	0	0	4	0	12
Prostitution and commercialized vice	8	1	1	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
Other sex offenses	8	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Narcotic drug laws	657	553	425	22	14	92	39	13	11	0	1	0	2	12	0	1	2	23
Gambling	5	5	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other—not specified	315	201	145	13	9	34	32	9	20	1	0	0	4	0	0	5	7	36
Suspected felony type	67	53	40	7	1	5	7	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	4
Other than felony type total:	7,097	4,522	3,532	281	284	425	1,072	330	639	20	1	6	29	26	12	69	55	316
Romantic triangle	130	92	64	11	4	13	27	3	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	2
Child killed by babysitter	38	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6
Brawl due to influence of alcohol	153	72	60	2	5	5	38	12	23	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	6
Brawl due to influence of narcotics	84	65	50	4	4	7	5	6	2	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	3
Argument over money or property	203	134	110	6	8	10	42	12	9	0	0	2	0	0	0	3	0	1
Other arguments	3,527	2,166	1,726	134	149	157	733	196	253	4	0	2	11	0	2	35	17	108
Gangland killings	73	68	59	2	0	7	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Juvenile gang killings	911	870	752	37	18	63	23	4	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	11
Institutional killings	12	1	0	0	1	0	1	1	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Sniper attack	11	11	3	7	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other—not specified	1,955	1,043	708	78	95	162	200	92	311	16	0	2	18	23	10	28	34	178
Unknown	4,576	3,154	2,300	129	127	598	490	218	191	2	2	0	31	10	6	35	22	415

TABLE 5.2

Notable multiple shootings, 1989–2003
SOURCE: Created by the Information Plus Staff for Thomson Gale, 2004
2003	Wielding a semiautomatic pistol, Jonathon Russell killed three of his co-workers and injured five others before killing himself outside of Modine Manufacturing Co., Jefferson City, Missouri.
2002	John Allen Williams, who qualified as an expert marksman with the M-16 in the U.S. Army, and his stepson, 17-year-old John Lee Malvo, were accused of killing 10 people and wounding three others in Washington, DC, and vicinity, in a three-week killing spree with a .232 caliber Bushmaster XM15 semi-automatic rifle.
2000	In Queens, New York, two young gunmen bound, gagged, and shot seven employees with a .380-caliber gun in a Wendy's restaurant. Five of the workers were killed.
2000	Richard Glassel, armed with three handguns, an AR-15 assault rifle, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, shot and killed two women and injured three during a homeowners association meeting.
1999	In Los Angeles, five were wounded and a postal worker was fatally shot at the North Valley Jewish Community Center. Buford O. Furrow Jr. was given two life sentences.
1999	In Atlanta, Georgia, Mark Barton killed 9 people and wounded 13 at two brokerage firms before killing himself.
1999	Twenty-one-year-old Benjamin Nathaniel Smith killed two people and injured nine in a three-day rampage through Indiana and Illinois, before shooting himself.
1999	At Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 fellow students and a teacher, and wounded 23 others, before shooting and killing themselves.
1998	In Springfield, Oregon, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel fired more than 50 rounds from a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle into a highschool cafeteria. Two male students died and 23 other students were injured. The boy also shot and killed his parents.
1998	Four middle-school students and a teacher in Jonesboro, Arkansas, were killed and 10 other students were injured when a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old shot at the school from a nearby wooded area.
1997	Using a gun, Ali Hassan Abu Kamal killed one person and injured six others before taking his own life on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in Manhattan.
1993	Two people were shot and killed and three wounded outside the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia.
1993	Using an assault weapon, Gian Ferri killed eight people and wounded six others in a San Francisco office tower.
1991	Twenty-three people were fatally shot in a cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, by George Hennard Jr., who then shot himself.
1991	Six monks, a nun, and two male followers were slain at a Buddhist temple near Phoenix, Arizona, by Jonathan Doody, a robber who did not want to be identified.
1990	James Pough killed 10 and wounded seven in Jacksonville, Florida, with 2 handguns and an assault-type rifle.
1989	Seven people were killed and 13 others wounded at Standard-Gravure Co. in Louisville, Kentucky, by Joseph Wesbecker, a former employee, who then shot himself.
1989	Wielding a semiautomatic AK-47, Patrick Edward Purdy killed five children and wounded 30, including a teacher, in Stockton, California.

their employment status—23.8% had been laid off, and 28% had been demoted or suspended by management. Figure 5.3 illustrates the significant increase in workplace shootings over a ten-year period (1994–2003).

The most common type of workplace fatality is a shooting during a robbery of a retail, service, or transportation worker, but on-the-job killings are also perpetrated by disgruntled workers. Such was the case of a forty-two-year-old software tester, Michael McDermott, who on December 26, 2000, opened fire on his coworkers at an Internet consulting company in Wakefield, Massachusetts, killing seven. The victims—four women and three men—were shot multiple times. Police recovered an AK-47, a shotgun, and a semiautomatic pistol used in the deadly assault. News reports by ABC, the Los Angeles Times, and others cited as a possible motive McDermott's anger over a plan to deduct unpaid taxes from his wages.

On July 8, 2003, Doug Williams, a worker at the Lockheed Martin plant in Meridian, Mississippi, used a rifle and a shotgun to kill five of his co-workers, injure eight others, and kill himself during a company meeting. A ConAgra Foods employee, twenty-one-year-old Elijah Brown, used two handguns to kill five employees, injure two more and kill himself in Kansas City, Missouri in July 2004. These kinds of incidents have become common enough that some companies now train management to be alert to potentially dangerous employees, particularly those who have been told they have lost their jobs.

The timeline (Table 5.2) includes the April 1999 incident in which Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed thirteen and wounded twenty-three at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, before shooting and killing themselves. They used a TEC-DC9 handgun, a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun, a pump-action shotgun, and a 9mm semiautomatic rifle. Chapter 7 includes further information regarding school shootings.