Barring All Guns ■ 103 were all home games, 1 might add). The inmate team was always good because it didn't have the job mobility attrition problem that plagued our outside teams. Over the course of several seasons, I got to know some of the guys well enough to share some talk. I often asked about weapons, and because I had the trust of a few veterans of the system, they answered honestly. 'There is a lot of nasty gang shit in here, mostly racial and where you're from [ethnic],' one lifer told me. "If you don't belong to a power group [gang], you'd better be a shadow or a physical power yourself. ... Or, like me, part of the permanent furniture so I'm let alone. 'Some of the younger, weaker ones buy zip guns made inside. That's true for the babies and the mamas (young male prisoners soon to be bait for nasty homosexual rape). It's a nasty place in here. Some gotta have a weapon just to survive, 'cause the guards don't care." He described the guns he'd seen as "the usual zip guns like we had as kids on the street. You know, a piece of pipe to fit the shell, a wood handle, and a spring or rubber band to drive a nail into the bullet to fire it. You gotta put that kinda gun up to the man's face to make it do any good. But, I tell you, men in here have them guns, they sure do." As my friend related, there is ample empirical evidence to support the claim that most prison firearms are held for defensive purposes. In the fall of 1975, criminologist Gordon Firman conducted research among a sampling of Ohio prison convicts, whose consensus was that use of a firearm to prevent attack on one's person or property was justified. The majority also 'had easy access' to homemade guns in prison. Firman also reported that prisoners scoffed at the idea that confiscation of guns from civilians would do anything to decrease the outside /civilian crime rate. Most convicts felt that assault crimes and daylight burglaries would increase dramatically if citizens were disarmed. During prison riots, shop-generated firearms are also seen. Videotapes of prisoner riots in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York in the 1980s and early 1990s show