Influence of Automatic Firearms on the Presence of Multiple Victims of Violence

• DOI: 10.1177/1043986208328163
• Published date: 01 February 2009
• Date: 01 February 2009
• Subject Matter: Articles

89

Journal of Contemporary

Criminal Justice

Volume25 Number 1

February 2009 89-105

© 2009 Sage Publications

10.1177/1043986208328163

http://ccj.sagepub.com

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Influence of Automatic Firearms

on the Presence of Multiple

Victims of Violence

A Research Note

Nicholas E. Libby

James D. Wright

University of Central Florida

This study investigates the impact of automatic firearm usage on the presence of multiple

victims within a violent encounter. In addition, key situational and contextual variables

from thecriminal eventsperspective arecontrolled. Datawere collected fromthe National

Incident-Based Reporting System of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Logistic regres-

sion analyses were conducted to determine if automatic firearms, comparedto semiauto-

matic firearms, increased the chance of multiple victims appearing within incidents of

serious violence. Resultsindicate that automaticweapons increase the likelihood of mul-

tiple victimization,although varioussituational andcontextual factorssuch as incidentcir-

cumstanceand victim–offender relationshipincrease these odds aswell.

Keywords: firearms; violence; NIBRS; criminal events; weapon effects

Although there is an abundance of research available on nearly everytopic related

to firearm ownership and use in the United States, relatively little scholarly

work has focused on the effects of fully automatic firearms. The purpose of this

research note is to build on what little research there is by investigating the effects

that automatic weapons used in violent criminal encounters have on the presence

of multiple victims. To accomplish this, we rely on information from the FBI’s

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data from 2005. At present,

NIBRS is the only source of widely available data that allow for the analysis of auto-

matic firearms.

Automatic Firearms in the United States

Our overview of automatic weapons use focuses on key federal legislation relating

to automatic weapons, operating on the assumption that the legislation was devel-

oped in response to valid threats to public safety in American society from the use

of automatic firearms. Some information from police and military use of these

90 Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

weapons is also presented. It should be noted that an automatic firearm is any

firearm that can fire more than one round for each sustained pull of the trigger.

Firearms that shoot only one round per pull of the trigger are classified as semiauto-

matics. Revolvers also fall into this latter category.

Legal History

The first federal legislation regulating automatic firearmsis the National Firearms

Act of 1934. This act was initially proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice

(USDOJ) in efforts to combat the tide of criminal violence that gained momentum

in the prohibition era. At the time, crime was perceived to be growing out of control,

and government officials were seeking additional tools for law enforcement to use in

attempts to restore law and order. It is interesting enough that prior to the passage of

the National Firearms Act of 1934, legislation that had no relation to firearm owner-

ship or use was being discussed. It is likely either that these previous discussions did

not view firearm use as a strong concern or that the use of firearms by criminals was

not a novel enough interest compared to other developments of the era. One area of

concern was the mobility of criminals and their ability to rapidly move through

police jurisdictions in the days when police radios were not commonplace. As a

result, one proposed law called for criminalizing felons riding in automobiles. Other

proposed legislation would have required papers for interstate travel, established

mandatory fingerprinting of all Americans, and enacted vagrancy laws to allow

police to engage in warrantless search and arrest of individuals known to habitually

violate the law using the police’s testimony of the arrestee’s character as evidence.

These laws were never adopted. The National Firearms Act, however, was the piece

of legislation eventually enacted, likely in response to either the St. Valentine’s Day

Massacre or the killing of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in a possible assassination

attempt on President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Peterson, 1952). This legislation in

essence made mandatory the registration of automatic weapons and also imposed a

fee on transfer of these weapons. Transfer of automatic weapons without paying the

tax or possessing requisite written forms was made illegal, as was the known pos-

session of weapons transferred in this way (Hardy, 1986).

Since 1934, other legislation has been passed that determines the legality of own-

ing firearms in general.Of note is the Federal Firearms Act of 1938, whichessentially

regulated interstate firearms commerce. Along with the National Firearms Act of

1934, this legislation would later form the backdrop of the Gun ControlAct of 1968.

Generally, this act clarified and expanded on legal issues of firearms ownership,

including transferal ofownership issues as well as specifying persons prohibitedfrom

owning firearms.As it relates to the present topic, the Gun Control Act also requires

licensing of automatic weapons, and buyers of these weapons must obtain approval

from the chief law enforcement officer of the jurisdiction in which they reside. The

Secretary of the Treasury must also approve interstate transfer of automatic firearms.