Homeland Insecurity: Terrorism, Mass Shootings and the Public - Paperback

by Ann Gordon (Author), Kai Hamilton Gentry (Author)

In this book, Ann Gordon and Kai Hamilton Gentry expertly illuminate how the public has a role to play in ensuring its own security.

Recent terror attacks and mass shootings in the United States have added urgency to the need for research on terrorism, the public's understanding of the precursors of terrorism and public preparedness for mass shootings and acts of terror. Unfortunately, most Americans do not understand what constitutes suspicious behavior or how to report it. Even more alarmingly, the public does not know what to do in the event of terrorist attack or mass casualty incident. Drawing on five years of the Chapman Survey of American Fears (CSAF), a nationally representative survey, and real-world events, Homeland InSecurity offers actionable solutions on how to educate the public to overcome fear and play an active role securing schools, public venues and the homeland itself. The book addresses proposals by survivors and victims' families to reduce violence through campaigns to deny shooters the notoriety they seek and reduce access to guns. It also explores the rise of activism among survivors of school shootings and their quest to educate the public and end school shootings.

Homeland InSecurity will be essential for scholars, students, and policy makers.

Author Biography

Ann Gordon is associate professor of political science at Chapman University. She is the director of the Babbie Social Science Research Center and the Ludie and David C. Henley Social Sciences Research Laboratory. She is Co-PI of the ongoing Chapman Survey of American Fears and co-author of Fear Itself: The Causes and Consequences of Fear in America.

Kai Hamilton Gentry is a recent graduate of Chapman University with a B.A. in political science. He began working on the Chapman Survey of American Fears in 2015, and served as the assistant director of the Henley Social Sciences Research Laboratory. He plans to pursue graduate work in counterterrorism analysis.