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Disparate Policy Responses to Gun Violence by State Governments
Disparate Policy Responses to Gun Violence by State Governments
상세정보
- 자료유형
- 학위논문 서양
- 최종처리일시
- 20260311091524.5
- ISBN
- 9798270234782
- DDC
- 363
- 서명/저자
- Disparate Policy Responses to Gun Violence by State Governments / Christopher Cassella
- 발행사항
- [Sl] : The University of Texas at Austin, 2025
- 형태사항
- 1 electronic resource (155 pages)
- 주기사항
- Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-06, Section: A.
- 주기사항
- Advisors: Jones, Bryan D.; Epp, Derek A. Committee members: Walker, Hannah; Shepherd, Michael.
- 학위논문주기
- - Ph.D. : The University of Texas at Austin, 2025.
- 초록/해제
- 요약This dissertation examines the factors that contributed to gun policy change at the state level. At the federal level, lawmakers have struggled to pass laws and rules to curb gun violence. Interest groups, namely the National Rifle Association (NRA), have successfully prevented gun control advocates from enacting their gun violence prevention (GVP) legislation. As a result of this influence over Congress, scholars have focused on the NRA as the leading cause of stagnated federal gun control. However, scholars' fixation on federal interest groups has caused them to overlook an important hub of policy activity: state legislatures.I argue that while state governments have been \extit{more} responsive to gun violence when compared to the federal government, their response is conditional on several factors. I find that gun policy change does not always match the severity of states' gun violence. Instead, I show that state-level institutions are constrained by policy design, policy feedback, and American federalism. I also demonstrate that the extent to which these institutions are constrained is conditional on partisanship, where preferences towards policy solutions at one point in time lead to path-dependent policy outcomes in the future. Understanding the relationship between federalism, problem solving, policy responses, and institutional constraint, explains how and when gun policy is is passed. These findings can also be applied to any policy topic that is subject to cooperative federalism.This dissertation is divided into three substantive sections. In the first section (Chapter 3), I introduce 10 years of gun violence data from Gun Violence Archive (2014-2023), as well as a collection of state gun laws and policy movements (1813-2022). These are the two main datasets used throughout the project. I place this data into an error correction model and measure changes in gun policy over time. Contrary to expectations, I find that there is no significant relationship between changes in gun deaths per-capita and gun policy change. However, I find that there is a significant and negative relationship between policy activity the previous year and the subsequent year. This relationship holds even when controlling for state-level political factors including legislative professionalism and party control of government.In the second section (Chapter 4), I analyze the policy dynamics uncovered in the first chapter over time. I argue that even if states want to respond to gun violence, there are constraints placed on their legislatures that are a strong determinant of future policy activity. To develop this theory, I first place states on a gun policy scale that measures, both, permissive and rights-restrictive legislation. Then, I theorize that there are federally-imposed constraints that determine the high-end and low-end of the scale; this is a bi-product of cooperative federalism in firearm regulation. I hypothesize that states are also constrained by previous policy activity. Once a state has developed a framework for regulating firearms they tend to stay on that path until they reach a floor or ceiling; this is what I call Policy-Driven Constraint.I test my hypotheses using an ordered logit model and find mixed results. While it is clear that states that begin with a certain type of policymaking will continue down that path (policy-driven constraint), there is not a ceiling effect. For gun control legislation in particular, it becomes most likely that a state will pass gun control legislation if they are in the 75th percentile of gun laws. I find, too, that these relationships are stronger when there are more incidents of gun violence.In the third section (Chapter 5), I discuss several state-level factors that could further explain changes in gun policy. I pivot away from individual gun deaths per-capita as a variable of interest and towards mass shootings as a focusing event that drives policy change. Previous studies have shown that mass shootings can lead to policy changes in their home states; they can also shift public opinion. But, there is not much research on whether similar policy changes occur in similar states. I propose three hypotheses about how states' proximity to a mass shooting, as well as states' party in government, could serve as a more reliable indicator of gun policy change than in-state, low-salience gun violence following a mass shooting. I find mixed results for my hypotheses. I find that states that shared partisan characteristics with those states affected by a mass shooting were more likely to pass gun legislation. I also find that the type of legislation passed tends to have some relationship with the circumstances of the specific shooting. States also passed these laws within a finite time frame, specifically after the string of mass shootings between 2017 and 2019.This project contributes to several fields in social science. First, it contributes to gun studies by applying a process-oriented approach to explaining policy changes that extends beyond conventional arguments about interest-group pluralism. Second, it contributes to studies on political institutions, namely American federalism, by demonstrating that state legislatures are beholden to both the needs of their citizens and the restraints, intentional or otherwise, created by cooperative federalism. Finally, it contributes to research on state politics and policy diffusion by showing how proximity, partisanship, and focusing events can be sufficient, but not necessary, factors in explaining why policies change.
- 언어주기
- English
- 일반주제명
- Public administration
- 일반주제명
- Political science
- 일반주제명
- Public policy
- 키워드
- Gun legislation
- 키워드
- Gun policy
- 기타저자
- The University of Texas at Austin Government
- 기본자료저록
- Dissertations Abstracts International. 87-06A.
- 전자적 위치 및 접속
- 로그인 후 원문을 볼 수 있습니다.
MARC
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■040 ▼aMiAaPQD▼beng▼cMiAaPQD▼erda
■082 ▼a363
■1001 ▼aCassella, Christopher▼eauthor.
■24510▼aDisparate Policy Responses to Gun Violence by State Governments ▼cChristopher Cassella
■260 ▼a[Sl]▼bThe University of Texas at Austin▼c2025
■264 1▼aAnn Arbor▼bProQuest Dissertations & Theses▼c2025
■300 ▼a1 electronic resource (155 pages)
■336 ▼atext▼btxt▼2rdacontent
■337 ▼acomputer▼bc▼2rdamedia
■338 ▼aonline resource▼bcr▼2rdacarrier
■500 ▼aSource: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-06, Section: A.
■500 ▼aAdvisors: Jones, Bryan D.; Epp, Derek A. Committee members: Walker, Hannah; Shepherd, Michael.
■5021 ▼bPh.D.▼cThe University of Texas at Austin▼d2025.
■520 ▼aThis dissertation examines the factors that contributed to gun policy change at the state level. At the federal level, lawmakers have struggled to pass laws and rules to curb gun violence. Interest groups, namely the National Rifle Association (NRA), have successfully prevented gun control advocates from enacting their gun violence prevention (GVP) legislation. As a result of this influence over Congress, scholars have focused on the NRA as the leading cause of stagnated federal gun control. However, scholars' fixation on federal interest groups has caused them to overlook an important hub of policy activity: state legislatures.I argue that while state governments have been \extit{more} responsive to gun violence when compared to the federal government, their response is conditional on several factors. I find that gun policy change does not always match the severity of states' gun violence. Instead, I show that state-level institutions are constrained by policy design, policy feedback, and American federalism. I also demonstrate that the extent to which these institutions are constrained is conditional on partisanship, where preferences towards policy solutions at one point in time lead to path-dependent policy outcomes in the future. Understanding the relationship between federalism, problem solving, policy responses, and institutional constraint, explains how and when gun policy is is passed. These findings can also be applied to any policy topic that is subject to cooperative federalism.This dissertation is divided into three substantive sections. In the first section (Chapter 3), I introduce 10 years of gun violence data from Gun Violence Archive (2014-2023), as well as a collection of state gun laws and policy movements (1813-2022). These are the two main datasets used throughout the project. I place this data into an error correction model and measure changes in gun policy over time. Contrary to expectations, I find that there is no significant relationship between changes in gun deaths per-capita and gun policy change. However, I find that there is a significant and negative relationship between policy activity the previous year and the subsequent year. This relationship holds even when controlling for state-level political factors including legislative professionalism and party control of government.In the second section (Chapter 4), I analyze the policy dynamics uncovered in the first chapter over time. I argue that even if states want to respond to gun violence, there are constraints placed on their legislatures that are a strong determinant of future policy activity. To develop this theory, I first place states on a gun policy scale that measures, both, permissive and rights-restrictive legislation. Then, I theorize that there are federally-imposed constraints that determine the high-end and low-end of the scale; this is a bi-product of cooperative federalism in firearm regulation. I hypothesize that states are also constrained by previous policy activity. Once a state has developed a framework for regulating firearms they tend to stay on that path until they reach a floor or ceiling; this is what I call Policy-Driven Constraint.I test my hypotheses using an ordered logit model and find mixed results. While it is clear that states that begin with a certain type of policymaking will continue down that path (policy-driven constraint), there is not a ceiling effect. For gun control legislation in particular, it becomes most likely that a state will pass gun control legislation if they are in the 75th percentile of gun laws. I find, too, that these relationships are stronger when there are more incidents of gun violence.In the third section (Chapter 5), I discuss several state-level factors that could further explain changes in gun policy. I pivot away from individual gun deaths per-capita as a variable of interest and towards mass shootings as a focusing event that drives policy change. Previous studies have shown that mass shootings can lead to policy changes in their home states; they can also shift public opinion. But, there is not much research on whether similar policy changes occur in similar states. I propose three hypotheses about how states' proximity to a mass shooting, as well as states' party in government, could serve as a more reliable indicator of gun policy change than in-state, low-salience gun violence following a mass shooting. I find mixed results for my hypotheses. I find that states that shared partisan characteristics with those states affected by a mass shooting were more likely to pass gun legislation. I also find that the type of legislation passed tends to have some relationship with the circumstances of the specific shooting. States also passed these laws within a finite time frame, specifically after the string of mass shootings between 2017 and 2019.This project contributes to several fields in social science. First, it contributes to gun studies by applying a process-oriented approach to explaining policy changes that extends beyond conventional arguments about interest-group pluralism. Second, it contributes to studies on political institutions, namely American federalism, by demonstrating that state legislatures are beholden to both the needs of their citizens and the restraints, intentional or otherwise, created by cooperative federalism. Finally, it contributes to research on state politics and policy diffusion by showing how proximity, partisanship, and focusing events can be sufficient, but not necessary, factors in explaining why policies change.
■546 ▼aEnglish
■590 ▼aSchool code: 0227
■650 4▼aPublic administration
■650 4▼aPolitical science
■650 4▼aPublic policy
■653 ▼aGun violence prevention
■653 ▼aAmerican federalism
■653 ▼aGun legislation
■653 ▼aLegislative professionalism
■653 ▼aGun policy
■7102 ▼aThe University of Texas at Austin▼bGovernment.▼edegree granting institution.
■7201 ▼aJones, Bryan D.▼edegree supervisor.
■7201 ▼aEpp, Derek A.▼edegree supervisor.
■7730 ▼tDissertations Abstracts International▼g87-06A.
■85640▼uhttp://www.riss.kr/pdu/ddodLink.do?id=T17361268▼nKERIS▼z이 자료의 원문은 한국교육학술정보원에서 제공합니다.


