Jordan's theory, implicit in this rhetorical question, is that there are millions or hundreds of thousands or even thousands of people who would in fact attempt to kill lots of people with a gun, but are deterred by the thought that so many other private individuals are armed and would kill them if they tried. Note: Jordan's theory is not that people are deterred by the police, the likelihood of capture and a death sentence or a life term in prison, but by private action by private citizens.
This is a far more Hobbesean view of human nature under capitalism than is supported by the evidence. The fact is, most people don't try to to kill lots of other people, or even specific individuals who have annoyed them or harmed them, because they have no real inclination to seriously harm others.
I am not just making up sweet Rousseauean fables here. (Rousseau in fact thought that human nature in complex modern societies was vicious and corrupt, and Hobbes thought that human nature in complex modern societies was fairly docile if directed away from pursuit of honor and towards profit, but never mind that.) The empirical research indicates that most people are not violent criminals not because they fear sanctions, whether privately or publicly imposed, but because they want to do the right thing. See, e.g., Tom Tyler's Why People Obey the Law. No doubt some people are deterred because of private gun ownership and others because fear of prison or the police, but it's just not true that the main reason there aren't thousands or tens or hundreds of thousands of mass murderers is that some people own guns or even that the cops will stop you if you start a massacre. Most people don't even want to start a massacre.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-People-Obey-Law-Tyler/dp/0300044038
Why People Obey the Law Author: Tom R. Tyler Publisher: Yale University Press, © 1990
Yale University Press 92A Yale Station New Haven, CT 06520 (203) 4324)960 $35.00 (c), $13.00 (p)
Description:
This report of a significant sociological/psychological study of the relationship between citizens and the law, law enforcement, and the system of justice has five parts with 13 chapters, three appendices, and an index in 273 pages. Part One describes the problem and briefly indicates what may be a cause for major social upheaval. Previous research suggests that citizens are interested in procedural justice but leaders emphasize an instrumental understanding. Leaders believe people obey laws because of the outcomes and therefore make laws and attach ever stiffer and more draconian penalties for breaking them. Citizens are not as much interested in outcomes as in the sense of fairness and equity they have in dealing with those who seek to make them comply with the law. The study reported here aimed at testing the conclusion that citizens are interested in procedural justice.
Parts Two and Three present the data from an initial random sample of 1,575 respondents to a telephone interview of about 25 minutes. A year later a random subset of 804 respondents were reinterviewed. The questionnaires used in both interviews are included in an appendix to the book. These chapters discuss the results in relationship to the concept of legitimacy of authority. When authority is viewed as legitimate, compliance to the law increases. Part Four presents the results in terms of the concept of procedural justice. The data show a strong commitment to procedural justice on the part of the citizens. Part Five, Conclusions, states unequivocally that the normative issues matter. People understand their system of justice in terms unrelated to outcomes.
Discussion:
The significance of the finding that individual citizens respond to perceptions of fairness and unfairness rather than to the simple concept of the outcome being favorable or unfavorable is immense. It strengthens the concept of a free democratic society and suggests that special interest groups cannot really dominate and control. It also means that those who would rule had best be able to attend to the issue of fairness rather than simply demanding obedience. Here is the rub: our lawmakers take an instrumental view of law and miss the ordinary citizen's desire to be treated fairly first of all. The way to increase compliance with the law, as suggested by this report, is to emphasize fair and equitable treatment for all rather than to increase the punitiveness and harshness of the consequences of breaking the law.
In the system for dealing with allegations of child abuse, the emphasis has been placed on prosecution and punishment. Although the laws of every state in one way or another endorse the concept of family reunification, the reality is that families are destroyed and permanently damaged when an accusation of abuse hits the system. The chief response heard in every support group for families who have been involved in the system and in the few research studies assessing the impact of intervention is the cry that everybody has been treated unfairly. (Anonymous, 1991; Burak, 1988; Luza, & Ortiz, 1991; Schultz, 1989). Victims are used as objects to obtain convictions. Those in the system operate and make decisions on the basis of myth rather than knowledge (Conte, Fogarty, & Collins, 1991). A chief complaint, repeated over and over, is that nobody ever interviews the accused or listens to the other side of the story (San Diego County Grand Jury, 1992).
Tyler's book should be read and understood by everybody who is involved in the system of making or enforcing laws. If it were, the system might well become more equitable and citizens more compliant.
--- Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
> WDK writes:
>
> > If for some fucked-up reason you really, really
> wanted to kill a shit
> > load of people in a school building, about how
> many of them do you
> > think
> > you could take out using this dirt-simple
> technique?
>
> Exactly. And guns are so easy to get, I'm told.
>
> It's a wonder everyone doesn't just do this. Like,
> all the time.
>
> Hell, conservative estimates are that ~120M people
> in the US could do
> this tomorrow.
>
> Hmmm. Wonder why not?
>
> /jordan
>
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