| Gary Kleck | |
|---|---|
Dr. Gary Kleck, FSU Criminologist |
|
| Born | March 2, 1951 |
| Alma mater | Florida State University |
| Occupation | Author, columnist, Criminologist |
Gary Kleck (born March 2, 1951) is a criminologist at Florida State University.
Contents |
Kleck has done numerous studies of the effects of guns on death and injury in crimes,[1] on suicides,[2] and gun accidents,[3] the impact of gun control laws on rates of violence,[4][5] the frequency and effectiveness of defensive gun use by crime victims,[6][7] patterns of gun ownership,[8] why people support gun control,[9] and the myth of big-time gun trafficking.[10]
Kleck conducted a national survey in 1994 (the National Self-Defense Survey) and, extrapolating from the 5,000 households surveyed, estimated that in 1993 there were approximately 2.5 million incidents in which victims used guns for self-protection, compared to about four hundred thousand crimes committed by offenders with guns.[11]
In addition to his work on guns and violence, Kleck has done research concluding that increasing levels of punishment will not increase the deterrent effects of punishment,[12] and that capital punishment does not have any measurable effect on homicide rates.[13]
A study of gun use in the 1990s, by David Hemenway at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, claimed that criminal use of guns is far more common than self-defense use of guns.[14] Kleck notes, however, that Hemenway's own surveys confirmed Kleck's conclusion that defensive gun uses number at least in the hundreds of thousands each year, and that a far larger number of surveys (at least 20) have shown that defensive uses outnumbered criminal uses.[15]
In 1993, Kleck won the Michael J. Hindelang Award from the American Society of Criminology for his book Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America (Aldine de Gruyter, 1991). He has testified before Congress and state legislatures on gun control proposals. His research was cited in the Supreme Court's landmark District of Columbia v. Heller decision, which struck down the D.C. handgun ban and held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.