For almost forty years gun ownership and the motivational underpinnings of why guns are valued has received little attention in psychology. The gun rights debate is an unresolved salient item that has been on the national agenda for decades, and national polls provide evidence for a slow and steady voter realignment over this issue. Motivation science tools that explain value creation, regulatory focus and regulatory fit, help to explain the salience and importance of gun rights for millions of Americans. Three field experiments, with replications and extensions, demonstrated motivational fit between the prevention orientation (marked by vigilant concern for threats) and gun ownership. This research remained agnostic regarding the legal and moral components of the gun rights debate. Instead, these experiments demonstrate the malleability of gun value as a function of fundamental motivations. This applied political psychology research made two basic contributions to regulatory fit theory. First, these field experiments found fit effects between motivational inductions and distinct field environments. Also, by incorporating a pure control condition into these regulatory fit experiments, this research pinned down that literal dollar value of motivationally relevant objects is intensified by fit (as opposed to decreased by non-fit).

Thesis (M.J.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2008. / "August, 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-160). Library also has microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [2009]. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--Acadia University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-106). Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Political Science, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis explores the creation of the Second Amendment and how it has been interpreted over time. The purpose of this thesis is to understand present-day debates over gun control and offer an interpretation of the right that best suits the modern era. By analyzing the history of gun ownership in the United States, it is clear that the intention of the Second Amendment was to extend the right to the individual and should not be limited to collective use. As the Bill of Rights was extended to protect the people from state governments, the history of states’ rights in the regulation of firearms should be taken into account. With a country divided in their views on gun control policy, states should maintain the power to regulate arms, with federal courts intervening only when legislation is particularly radical. This thesis offers an interpretation of the Second Amendment best suited for the nation on both historical and practical by investigating the most prominent debates today: individual vs. collective rights, federal vs. states’ rights. With all things considered, this thesis concludes the most suitable interpretation of the Second Amendment for the people is: a right of the people protected, as individuals, from federal infringement, and regulated by the states, that are checked by the federal courts only when deemed necessary.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 334-365). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Honors Project (B.A.) -- Carson-Newman College, 2010. / Project advisor: Dr. Kara Stooksbury.

In 2008, the Supreme Court announced its decision in the landmark Second Amendment case, D.C. v. Heller. In its decision, the Court construed the scope of the right to bear arms for the first time. To that end, the Court found that the right to arms is an individual right, unconnected with military service. In this essay, I use the opinion of the Court and the dissents thereto as a lens by which to view the history and historiography of the right to bear arms, as well as the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on the subject. In the course of this analysis, I argue that there are numerous problems with the Court's reasoning, as well as that of the dissents. Further, complications and ambiguities in the historical record have contributed to the misunderstanding of the original meaning of the Second Amendment and its appropriate interpretation as part of the Constitutional text. I argue that the proper interpretation of the Second Amendment is one that construes the right as robust and individual, worthy of its place in the Bill of Rights, but certainly subject to reasonable regulation.

This thesis analyzes the policy effects of several state gun control restrictions in the United States. The study employs the data of gun related crimes and gun control restrictions from Statistical Abstract of Criminal Justice Handbook through five years (from 1995 to 2000). Although many scholars have studied previously gun control policy effects on crimes, they always focus on the total violence level and ignore to compare the policy effects of different gun control laws. The present study examines intensively gun related crimes and compares several gun control policies. Pooled data is employed to access the effects of gun control restrictions, and it is another advancement based on previous studies, which always use cross-sectional or time series designs. These findings partially reject the previous conclusions that gun control laws have no effects on violence and for gun related homicides and robberies; several gun control restrictions like registration, license, and waiting period show some significant policy effects. Contrary to the past study, the permit to purchase, which has been regarded as the most efficient law, produces no significant policy effects. Sale report to police and certain firearm prohibited also have no significant effects. Among control variables, race and urban population exert the obvious influences on the gun violence, and specifically, the density of population affects the gun related homicides and high school graduates affects the gun related robberies. Implications of these findings and potential for future research are discussed.

Massacre tracks three intersecting narratives during and after a fictionalized recounting of the infamous Virginia Tech massacre. In each characters’ search of individual re-creation and autonomy, they encounter the failings of their person, their families, their institutions, and their country. Formed by the great and impossible trauma that bound them, massacre survivors Connor and Tara navigate the tricky and deceitful terrain of a marriage that should never have been.