Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms

Armed and Considered Dangerous is a book about "bad guys" and their guns. But Wright and Rossi contend that for every suspected criminal who owns and abuses a firearm, a hundred or more average citizens own guns for sport, for recreation, for self-protection, and for other reasons generally regarded as appropriate or legitimate. Armed and Considered Dangerous is the most ambitious survey ever undertaken of criminal acquisition, possession, and use of guns. There are vast differences between the average gun owner and the average gun-abusing felon, but the analyses reported here do not suggest any obvious way to translate these differences into gun control policies. Most policy implications drawn from the book are negative in character: this will not work for this reason, that will not work for that reason, and so on. When experts are asked, "Okay, then what will work?" they usually fall back on the old warhorses of poverty, the drug problem, or the inadequate resources of the criminal justice system, and otherwise have little to say. This is not a failure of social science. It simply asks more of the data than the data were ever intended to provide. Several of Wright and Rossi's findings have become "coin of the realm" in the gun control debate, cited frequently by persons who have long since forgotten where the data came from or what their limitations are. Several other findings, including many that are important, have been largely ignored. Still other findings have been superseded by better and more recent data or rendered anachronistic by intervening events. With the inclusion of a new introduction detailing recent statistics and updated information this new edition of Armed and Considered Dangerous is a rich source of information for all interested in learning about weapon behavior and ownership in America.

Table of Contents:
1: The Criminal Acquisition and Use of Firearms; 2: The Felon Survey: Methods, Procedures, Descriptive Data; 3: Varieties of Armed Criminals: A Descriptive Typology; 4: Patterns of Weapons Ownership and Use: On the Circumstances of Criminal Violence; 5: Family, Friends, and Firearms the Effects of Socialization on Felons’ Weapons Behavior; 6: Motivations to Go Armed; 7: Confronting the Armed Victim; 8: The Criminal as a Firearms Consumer; 9: Patterns of Acquisition Where and How Felons Obtain Guns; 10: Patterns of Acquisition: Gun Theft; 11: Handgun Controls and Weapons Choice: The Substitution Issue; 12: “The Great American Gun War”: Some Policy Implications of the Felon Study

About the Author :
James D. Wright is professor of sociology at the University of Central Florida. His current research interests include violence, urban poverty and inequality, health and the homeless population, and the "divorce reform" movement. Peter H. Rossi (1921-2006) was professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Director of the Social and Demographic Research Institute, and Past President of the American Sociological Association. Nicholas E. Libby is managing editor of Homicide Studies and a PhD student in sociology at the University of Central Florida.

Review :
-This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in criminal violence, containing much that is of interest beyond issues of weaponry. However, it is essential reading for those interested in the significance of weaponry to crime and in the issue of gun control. Its findings should be sobering to those who regard gun control as an easy -technological- solution to violence in America, but they are also critical to making the hard choices and subtle judgments needed to craft gun-control policies that will do more good than harm.- --Gary Kleck, Social Forces -[In] previous works much is guess at but little is known about criminals' gun ownership and use. Armed and Considered Dangerous goes a long way toward solving this problem. It is a must for those interested in firearms, crime, or policy research... [It] contains a great deal... [of] useful information especially on the way criminals get guns and the nature of criminal gun markets.- --David J. Bordua, Contemporary Sociology "This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in criminal violence, containing much that is of interest beyond issues of weaponry. However, it is essential reading for those interested in the significance of weaponry to crime and in the issue of gun control. Its findings should be sobering to those who regard gun control as an easy "technological" solution to violence in America, but they are also critical to making the hard choices and subtle judgments needed to craft gun-control policies that will do more good than harm." --Gary Kleck, Social Forces "[In] previous works much is guess at but little is known about criminals' gun ownership and use. Armed and Considered Dangerous goes a long way toward solving this problem. It is a must for those interested in firearms, crime, or policy research... [It] contains a great deal... [of] useful information especially on the way criminals get guns and the nature of criminal gun markets." --David J. Bordua, Contemporary Sociology "This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in criminal violence, containing much that is of interest beyond issues of weaponry. However, it is essential reading for those interested in the significance of weaponry to crime and in the issue of gun control. Its findings should be sobering to those who regard gun control as an easy "technological" solution to violence in America, but they are also critical to making the hard choices and subtle judgments needed to craft gun-control policies that will do more good than harm." --Gary Kleck, Social Forces "[In] previous works much is guess at but little is known about criminals' gun ownership and use. Armed and Considered Dangerous goes a long way toward solving this problem. It is a must for those interested in firearms, crime, or policy research... [It] contains a great deal... [of] useful information especially on the way criminals get guns and the nature of criminal gun markets." --David J. Bordua, Contemporary Sociology