DYNAMICS OF GUN VIOLENCE BY LEGAL AND ILLEGAL FIREARMS: A FRACTIONAL DERIVATIVE APPROACH

Crime committed by civilians and criminals using legal and illegal firearms and conversion of legal firearms into illegal ones has become a common practice around the world. As a result, policies to control civilian gun ownership have been debated in several countries. The issue arose because the linkages between firearm-related mortality, weapon accessibility, and violent crime data can imply diverse options for addressing criminality. In this paper, we have projected a mathematical model in terms of the Caputo fractional derivative to address the issues viz. input of legal guns, crime committed by legal and illegal guns, and strict government policies to monitor the license of legal guns, strict action against violent crime. The boundedness, existence and uniqueness of solutions and the stability of points of equilibrium are examined. It is observed that violent crime increases with the increase of crime committed by illegal guns, crime committed by legal guns and, decreases with the increase of legal guns, the deterrent effect of civilian gun ownership, and action of law against crime. Further, legal guns increase with the increase of the limitation of trade of illegal guns and decrease with the increase of conversion of legal guns into illegal guns and increase of the growth rate of illegal guns. Again, as crime is committed by legal guns also, the policy of illegal gun control does not assure a crime-free society. Weak gun control can lead to a society with less crime. Theoretical aspects are numerically verified in the present work.