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            Auburn University - University Relations
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4/12/95                 Janet McCoy

AU EXPERT: INCREASE IN GUN-RELATED CRIMES DOESN'T MEAN TREND

      AUBURN -- The recent increase of gun-related violent crimes -- 
both nationally and in Alabama -- doesn't necessarily indicate a trend is 
developing, an Auburn University gun control expert says.
      Tamryn Etten, instructor in the Department of Sociology, who 
researches public policy on gun issues, says "although Lee County 
especially has experienced several events in a short amount of time, it 
doesn't mean there is an increasing trend of gun violence. It is as all 
behavior goes -- it goes in spurts."
      The former TV and newspaper journalist, who also studies juvenile 
justice and juvenile delinquency, says the increase of youth using guns 
has been hyped by politicians and the news media.
       "If you look at juvenile crime trends over the past 30 years, as 
a whole juvenile crime is down, and it fluctuates," she says. "But, if 
you look at violent crimes and only consider 1987-1995, there has been an 
alarming increase in juvenile weapon's carrying and in black-on-black 
homicide.
      "There had been an increase in gun-related juvenile violence in 
the past eight or nine years, but the numbers were very, very small to 
begin with so that's why the increases in rates have been so large. It 
looks so dramatic."
      On the increase, however, is weapons carrying and weapons 
acquisition by juveniles, says Etten.
       "What we as social scientists have not been able to determine is 
why," she says. "We can say all other things being equal, the crack 
(cocaine) epidemic of the 80s created tremendous problems -- a lot more 
arrests for tons of different types of crime, larceny in particular. 
      "You can say given the crack epidemic there was this weapons 
activity, (but) we can't come up with other causal factors for it 
(juvenile crime). 
      "What we're seeing is an increase in black-on-black homicides, 
specifically. In that particular subgroup, there is something happening 
in some social settings around the United States where juveniles are 
acquiring guns for power and they  are becoming less inhibited about 
using them."
      Etten says before any government agency does anything to curb gun 
crime, they first need evidence as to what is the problem and how bad it 
is. Then they should develop ways to solve the problem.
      "When it comes to guns and gun control, we don't have a lot of 
good data about good ways to address the problem, and one of the reasons 
is that people who commit gun crimes are committing crimes and there are 
many factors that can influence why a person commits a crime," she says. 
"There are many factors that can influence why someone may choose to use 
a gun as a part of committing a crime.
      
      "If you want to control that person's acquisition to a firearm so 
that crime goes down, you may not be successful because that person may 
choose to do the crime anyway, with or without the gun."
      
      Alabama will never have gun control, Etten says, because 
Southerners won't support it.
      "Southern states predominately do not support measures of gun 
control," says Etton, who studies the evolution of gun laws. "We are a 
frontier society and we did so successfully because we had access to 
weapons, and now we've taken on a very sporting tradition in the South.
      "People feel threatened when you say to them, 'We are going to 
institute forms of gun control'," she says. "The perception is if I 
register my handgun, my rifle and everything else, 30 years from now 
they'll decide the government is in charge and come after mine."
      Also, Etten says, gun control measures are powerless to enacted 
to prevent the illegal acquisition of guns.
      Instead, the demand for guns needs to be controlled, says Etten.
       "Smart public policy I've heard suggests that instead of trying 
to control the supply of guns, you should to try and solve the demand of 
guns," she says.  "We have to look at why does that 12-year-old want one, 
why do they think they need one, why if daddy has one at home in a locked 
box for self protection does the little one feel the need to bring it to 
school?
      "Where (controlling demand) starts is at home, teaching children 
that to resolve conflicts you don't need violence and you don't need 
force," Etten adds. "You need two calm people who listen to one another's 
discussion and way critically what is being said.
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april95:guns                                                              
CONTACT: Etten, 334/844-5049.