Selina E. M. Kerr: Gun Violence Prevention? The Politics Behind Policy Responses to School Shootings in the United State
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BOOK REVIEW
Selina E. M. Kerr: Gun Violence Prevention? The Politics Behind Policy Responses to School Shootings in the United States Glasgow, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 141 pp., ISBN: 978-319-75312-6 Kristen R. Kinast1
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Received: 16 October 2020 / Accepted: 17 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
As a British social scientist and criminologist, Selina E.M. Kerr adds an interesting, self-proclaimed ‘neutral’ perspective to a largely American, partisan debate. School shootings, according to Kerr, are not only acts of targeted violence, but part of deep political rifts entrenched in the United States political system. In her book, Gun Violence Prevention? The Politics Behind Policy Responses to School Shootings in the United States, Kerr examines gunrelated policy, political and public responses, and issue framing in the wake of school shootings. Specifically, Kerr effectively uses the three school shootings of Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook as case studies, which, along with a chapter on politics and policymaking generally in the United States, make up the substance of her book. Kerr aims to establish that high-profile school shootings involving mass casualties give traction to policy debates but do not tend to result in legislative change, a thesis that she backs up with substantial historical context and facts. Focusing on framing, government approaches, government makeup, levels of public support, and other interest groups, Kerr persuasively explains why real, legislative change has been unattainable. Ultimately, Kerr’s conclusion that another mass school-shooting will result in nothing more than “yet another debate” is more than believable, especially given that is exactly what occurred in the wake of the tragic Parkland Shooting in 2018 that occurred after Kerr’s book was published (Kerr 2018, p. 128). Kerr begins her analysis with an introductory chapter that explains the relevant, related academic works, the methodology of her research, and a roadmap for where she plans to take the reader throughout her book. Interestingly enough, when discussing her methodology, Kerr mentions
* Kristen R. Kinast [email protected] 1
Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, IN, USA
she only interviewed anti-gun groups, legislators with antigun agendas, and survivors of mass school shootings, which unsurprisingly have a negative view of current gun regulations. Unfortunately, she does not identify why she limited her interviews to exclude an entire ideological half of the country, which in the end could have only strengthened the accurateness and academic respect for her work. Nonetheless, Kerr depicts an intriguing, if depressing gun culture and reality of gun violence in the United States. The number of school shootings in the United States is roughly double the combined number of school shootings in every country outside the United States. “[H]orror and tragic loss of life” are commonly associated with such incidents but
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