d 50 million handguns and rifles legally and illegally owned by the American people" (122). As demonstrated in the film: Cops, Guns, and Drugs, the problem with controlling urban violence in the United States is that it is out of proportion in contrast to the available police force. In his book, The Saturday Night Special, Robert Sherrill explains the cheap, usually illegal, easily concealed handgun that plays a part in so many crimes in the United States. He reviews the role of guns in American life-from the shoot-outs of the Old West to the street violence of today. According to Sherrill, "most murders occur in shabby neighbourhoods; of the 690 murders in Detroit in 1971, for example, 575 occurred in the black slums mostly by handguns". As a Detroit sociologist added to this alarming figure: "Living in a frustrating stress-inducing environment like the United States every day of your life makes many people walking powder kegs" (38). In agreement with this statement, Sherrill suggests that the hardest hit of all American urban centres is the inter-cities of Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, and Washington. These cities largely consist of visible minorities who are frustrated with the hand dealt to them, and simply resort to "drugs, guns, and violence" as a way of life . As discussed in lecture, and viewed in the film: Cops, Guns, and Drugs, many of the youth in the underclass who become involved in this way of life, "are considered to be old if they live past the age of 20" . In another paper by Catherine F. Sproule and Deborah J. Kennett, they compared the incidence of killings by handguns, firearms other than handguns, and nonshooting methods between the United States and Canada for the years 1977 to 1983. In their study they found that "in Canada there were 443 handgun killings per 100,000 people compared to 4108 in the U.S. over the period of 1977-1983" . They also noted that the "American murder rates for handguns are higher than th...
