Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item The effects of red flag laws on firearm suicides and homicides(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2021) Harris, Mitchell John; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mark AndersonRisk-based firearm removal laws, commonly known as Red Flag laws have become increasingly popular among lawmakers attempting to reduce gun violence in America. Despite widespread public support, these laws have yet to be studied in economics. Using mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System, I find that Red Flag laws have a significant negative effect on firearm suicides and firearm homicides. Upon further analysis, I find that there is evidence of a pre-existing downward trend in both firearm suicides and firearm homicides. Red Flag laws do not cause changes in these mortality outcomes, rather there is an unobserved shock that decreases firearm suicides and homicides, while simultaneously affecting a state's propensity to adopt a Red Flag law. These results contradict existing non-economic literature, which suggests that Red Flag laws cause a large decrease in firearm suicides.Item The effect of access to concealed carry permit data: evidence from North Carolina(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2019) Dwinell, Conner Joseph; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Isaac SwensenGun regulation in the United States is a contentious political issue. This is exacerbated by the fact that the economics literature has not come to a clear consensus on the effects gun possession has on crime. In this paper, I examine whether access to online gun permit data deters criminal behavior. On July 12th, 2012, WRAL, a Raleigh, North Carolina local television station, published a database containing the number of concealed carry permits held on every street in the station's viewing area. This allowed members of the public to search the database and find the number of permits at the street level in twenty-two of the 100 total counties. This paper studies how public availability of concealed carry permit data affects violent and property crime rates. I use multiple difference-in-differences strategies, exploiting variation in the timing of WRAL's database going online, inclusion in the television station's viewing area, and agency-level permit concentration to examine the effect of a plausibly exogenous shock to crime in North Carolina. My findings indicate that there are no statistically significant changes in property or violent crime rates for counties whose permit data was published relative to those outside WRAL's viewership area. I also find no evidence of crimes shifting between areas of high and low gun concentration. However, an extension of my empirical model suggests that applications for concealed carry permits rise by approximately 18.1% in treated counties after publication of the concealed carry database.Item Observing variation of acoustical characteristics of several common firearms in a quasi anechoic environment at a high sampling rate(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2016) Routh, Tushar Kanti; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert C. MaherAudio recordings from a shooting incident may provide crucial information for a criminal investigation. A typical gunshot signal includes two high amplitude and short duration impulsive signature sounds, the muzzle blast, observed in all the gunshot waveforms, and the bullet s shock wave, which can only be detected if the bullet travels at supersonic speed. Acoustic gunshot analysis generally focuses on the study of muzzle blast signals, which last only a few milliseconds. Ideally, gunshot signals needed to be record at a very high sampling rate to reveal the muzzle blast details. Real life gunshot recordings are record with equipment not designed for these high-amplitude sounds. Moreover, the recordings contain the direct sound of the gun along with multiple overlapping signals due to sound reflections from the ground, nearby surfaces, and other obstacles. The resulting reverberant recording may be difficult to interpret. To study the details of these signals in a scientific manner, we have developed a quasi-anechoic procedure to capture gunshot signals at a very high sampling rate (500 kHz samples per second) using 12 microphones covering 180° in azimuth. The recordings are made in an open air environment with a raised shooting platform and microphone position, resulting in sufficient delay between the arrival of the direct sound at the microphones and the arrival of the first reflection (from the ground). The firearms used in this experiment include a Remington 870 shotgun, 308 Winchester rifle, AR15 rifle, and a 22LR rifle. Handguns tested include a Colt 1911A1, Glock 19 with 9mm ammunition, Glock 23, Sig 239, and a Ruger SP101 with both 357 Magnum and 38 Special ammunition. A number of successive shots were record for each of the firearm type. Based on analysis of the recorded data, we find that acoustic gunshot signals vary from one firearm to another in terms of peak sound pressure and Muzzle blast duration. For a given firearm, we observe significant differences in sound level and also Muzzle blast duration as a function of azimuth and find that there is measurable variation in signal details among successive shots from the same firearm.