CQR Gun Control Control.pdf · 236 CQ Researcher Fairfax, Va., blamed “vicious, violent video...

Gun ControlShould lawmakers tighten firearm restrictions?

The debate over gun control has been inescapable

since last December, when Adam Lanza killed 20

first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elemen-

tary School in Newtown, Conn., before taking his

own life in one of the nation’s most horrific mass shootings.

There have been marches and protests, Super Bowl advertise-

ments, emotional and contentious congressional and state hearings

and a new, tough gun-control law in New York state. Polls show

broad bipartisan public support for expanding background checks

to include private gun purchases, although support is weaker

and more polarized for a ban on assault-style weapons and

large-capacity ammunition magazines. Yet momentum may be

fading in Congress for passage of any new gun-control legislation

as members grapple with the federal government’s looming debt

limit and this month’s automatic budget cuts.

I

N

S

I

D

E

THE ISSUES ....................235

BACKGROUND ................242

CHRONOLOGY ................243

CURRENT SITUATION ........247

AT ISSUE........................249

OUTLOOK ......................250

BIBLIOGRAPHY ................254

THE NEXT STEP ..............255

THISREPORT

The parents of Ana Márquez-Greene, one of the 20first-graders killed last December at Sandy HookElementary School in Newtown, Conn., attend a local news conference on Jan. 14. The shootings

have triggered a flurry of debates over federal and state gun laws.

CQResearcherPublished by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc.

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CQ Researcher • March 8, 2013 • www.cqresearcher.comVolume 23, Number 10 • Pages 233-256

RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR

EXCELLENCE � AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD

90thAnniversary

1923-2013

234 CQ Researcher

THE ISSUES

235 • Would a ban on assaultweapons reduce gun vio-lence?• Would mandatory back-ground checks of all gunbuyers keep guns awayfrom dangerous people?• Do state laws allowingcitizens to carry concealedweapons make communitiessafer?

BACKGROUND

242 Early Gun CultureThe colonies imposed restrictions on gun ownership.

244 Federal Gun ControlA Prohibition-era crimewave prompted the firstfederal regulation of guns.

246 Gun DebateThe decade of the ’60swas a turning point in thecultural war over guns.

CURRENT SITUATION

247 New York Is FirstA new law beefs up thestate’s already-strict gunregulations.

248 More State ActionBy early March, state law-makers had introduced1,159 firearms-related bills,about 308 more than dur-ing that period in 2012.

250 NullificationTwo dozen states haveproposed nullifying federalgun-control laws.

OUTLOOK

250 Political RealityCongress is not expected toban assault weapons.

SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS

236 Concealed-Carry LawsSweep NationForty-nine states allow con-cealed firearms.

237 Anatomy of an AR-15 RifleFeatures can include threadedbarrels for mounting silencersor flash suppressors.

239 Types of FirearmsDescriptions of semiautomatic,automatic and assault firearms.

240 Public Backs Most Gun-Control ProposalsBackground checks for gun-show and private gun saleshave wide support.

243 ChronologyKey events since 1926.

244 Background-Check SystemHas Serious GapsCrucial mental-health anddrug-abuse records are notincluded in the database.

249 At Issue:Should all gun sales be reg-istered in a national data-base?

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

253 For More InformationOrganizations to contact.

254 BibliographySelected sources used.

255 The Next StepAdditional articles.

255 Citing CQ ResearcherSample bibliography formats.

GUN CONTROL

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Gun Control

THE ISSUEST he debate over gun

control has been in-escapable since last

December, when Adam Lanzaused a so-called assault rifle *to kill 20 first-graders and sixadults at Sandy Hook Ele-mentary School in Newtown,Conn., before taking his ownlife in one of the most hor-rific mass shootings in thenation’s history.The fallout from the mas-

sacre has been widespreadand relentless: marches andprotests, fiery advertisements,celebrity endorsements, con-tentious congressional andstate hearings, proposed fed-eral and state legislation anda tough, new gun-control lawin New York state.But whether the shooting

will spur Congress to passstricter nationwide controlsremains a toss-up — somesupport exists, even amongconservatives, for expandingbackground checks to includeprivate firearm sales, but afederal ban on assault weapons seemsto be a nonstarter. Meanwhile, morethan 1,000 firearm-related bills have beenintroduced in state legislatures, but onlyNew York has passed one to date.In late January, more than 2,000

people descended on Connecticut’sstatehouse in Hartford for a packedpublic hearing that ran more than17 hours. In a visual symbol of the

revived and often rancorous discus-sion of gun violence, gun-rights ad-vocates sported round yellow stick-ers reading “Another Responsible GunOwner,” while gun-control support-ers wore green ribbons in remem-brance of Newtown. 1

Advocacy groups on both sides tes-tified, along with gun industry repre-sentatives, gun-violence victims andprivate citizens. Parents of childrenkilled at Sandy Hook, though joinedin mourning, were not always unitedin their testimony.“I believe in a few simple gun laws.

I think we have more than enoughon the books,” said Mark Mattioli, whoseson James, 6, was killed.

“That wasn’t just a killing.That was a massacre,” said NeilHeslin, who lost his 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis. Heslintold lawmakers that privatecitizens have no need for as-sault weapons like the oneLanza used to kill his son. 2

But an impassioned Hen-son Ong, a Waterbury, Conn.,resident, said that if Korean shopowners had not armed them-selves with semiautomaticweapons with large-capacitymagazines during the 1992riots in Los Angeles, many oftheir stores would have beenburned to the ground. “Their’sstood because they stood theirground,” said Ong, who toldlawmakers he was an immi-grant and an American bychoice. 3

Fresh memories of theNewtown shootings formedthe backdrop for the publichearing. Lanza, a withdrawn20-year-old, shot his way intothe school wearing combatgear and armed with twosemiautomatic pistols, a Bush-master AR-15 semiautomaticrifle and numerous large-

capacity ammunition magazines, eachholding 30 rounds. (See glossary, p. 239,and diagram, p. 237.) Lanza used therifle to shoot his victims, all of themmultiple times, in under 10 minutes.The guns were legally owned by hismother, Nancy, whom Lanza had shotdead earlier in the day.“We’re going to have to come to-

gether and take meaningful action toprevent more tragedies like this, re-gardless of the politics,” PresidentObama said that afternoon. 4

After a week-long silence, WayneLaPierre, executive vice president ofthe National Rifle Association of Amer-ica (NRA), the country’s leading gun-rights organization, headquartered in

BY BARBARA MANTEL

Getty Images/Marc Piscotty

Colorado supporters of gun ownership, includingTheresa White of Estes Park, demonstrate at the stateCapitol in Denver on Jan. 9, 2013. The nation’s statelawmakers are divided on new gun legislation. Manyfavor tougher background checks, but others oppose

limits on assault weapons and high-capacitymagazines. The public strongly favors expanding

background checks to private gun sales, but reinstatinga federal ban on assault weapons seems unlikely.

* Federal and state laws banning semiauto-matic weapons with detachable magazinesand military-style features use the term “as-sault weapon” to describe such firearms. Butgun-rights advocates say only fully automaticfirearms, such as machine guns, are true as-sault weapons.

236 CQ Researcher

Fairfax, Va., blamed “vicious, violentvideo games” and lax law enforcementfor violent crime. 5

“The only thing that stops a badguy with a gun is a good guy with agun,” said LaPierre. He called for plac-ing armed security officers — whetherpolice or trained volunteers — at everypublic school in the nation. 6 But ac-cording to the Justice Department, near-ly half of the nation’s public schoolsalready had assigned police officerseven before the Newtown massacre.Few reliable studies have been doneon their effectiveness. 7

Unlike other recent mass shootings,which spurred outrage but no feder-al legislation, Newtown is different,say gun-control advocates. “People arereally feeling like they have had enoughof this violence and these deaths,” saysLaura Cutilletta, a senior staff attorneywith the San Francisco-based advoca-cy group Law Center to Prevent GunViolence.Several members of Congress with

“A” ratings from the NRA have re-eval-uated their positions on gun control.Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told aradio host that “everything is on thetable.” 8 Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said,“there’s got to be a way that we cando a bit more.” 9

Meanwhile, the NRA continues tooppose all gun-control proposals. Thedebate has gotten only more heatedsince mid-January, when Obama un-veiled sweeping recommendations froma gun-violence working group head-ed by Vice President Joseph Biden.Obama called on Congress to man-date universal background checks, banthe sale of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines and stiffen penal-ties for gun trafficking. Obama alsoannounced 23 more modest executiveactions, including launching a nation-al safe and responsible gun owner-ship campaign and improving mental-health care. 10

Gun-control advocates uniformlypraised Obama’s proposals. “It’s really

GUN CONTROL

Alaska

Hawaii

Concealed-Carry Laws Sweep Nation

Forty-nine states now allow gun owners to carry concealed firearms, compared with 31 in 1981. Thirty-five states — up from two in 1981 — have adopted “shall issue” laws, which require concealed-carry permits to be granted to gun owners who meet minimum qualifications. Meanwhile, the number of states with “may issue” laws, which allow officials to deny concealed-carry permits at their discretion, has declined by more than half.

N.Y.

Ohio

Texas

Va.

Minn.

Iowa

Mo.

Calif.

Nev.

Ore.

Colo.

Wash.

Idaho

Mont.

Utah

Ariz. N.M.

Wyo.

N.D.

S.D.

Okla. Ark.

La.

Ill.

Miss.

Tenn.

Ga.

Conn.

Mass.

R.I.

MaineVt.

W.Va. N.J.

Del.

Md.

Ala.

Fla.

Wis.

Mich.

Ind.

N.C.

S.C.

N.H.

Kan.Ky.

D.C.

Neb.Pa.

* As of March 6, 2013

Sources: “Guns in Public Places: The Increasing Threat of Hidden Guns in America,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, August 2011, smartgunlaws.org/guns-in-public-places-the-increasing-threat-of-hidden-guns-in-america/; “State Concealed Weapons Permitting,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, January 2012, smartgunlaws.org/category/state-concealed-weapons-permitting/

Concealed-Weapon Laws by State, 1981 and 2013*

No carryMay issueShall issueNo permit required

Alaska

Hawaii

N.Y.

Ohio

Texas

Va.

Minn.

Calif.

Nev.

Ore.

Colo.

Wash.

Idaho

Mont.

Utah

Ariz. N.M.

Wyo.

N.D.

S.D.

Okla. Ark.

La.Miss.

Tenn.

Ga.

Conn.

Mass.

R.I.

MaineVt.

W.Va. N.J.

Del.

Md.

Ala.

Fla.

Mich.

N.C.

S.C.

N.H.

Kan.

D.C.

Neb.Pa.

1981

2013*

Ill.

Iowa

Mo.

Wis.

Ind.

Ky.

No-carry law struck down in December


unprecedented in its scope and com-plexity,” said Matt Bennett, co-founderof Third Way, a centrist think tank inWashington. 11 But many Republicanswere highly critical of the proposals,including Senate Minority Leader MitchMcConnell, R-Ky., who sent a record-ed message to gun owners across hisstate: “Their efforts to restrict your rights,invading your personal privacy andoverstepping their bounds with exec-utive orders, is just plain wrong.” 12

The NRA sponsored attack advertise-ments against the administration’s pro-posals, including one warning of amiddle class left defenseless against “mad-men, drug cartels and home-invadingkillers.”Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary

Committee is preparing gun-controllegislation, and lawmakers in severalstates have introduced bills to tough-en gun laws. At the same time, legis-lators in two dozen Western and Mid-western states have introduced bills toblock enforcement of any forthcom-ing federal gun control within theirborders.Mass shootings such as Newtown

garner national headlines but accountfor a small fraction of gun violence,much of which is concentrated amonginner-city minorities. “In 2012, for thefirst time, there will probably be morefirearm-related homicides and suicidesthan motor vehicle traffic fatalities,”said Garen Wintemute, director of theViolence Prevention Research Programat the University of California DavisMedical Center. 13

Nevertheless, the homicide rate inAmerica, while dramatically higher thanin many other Western democracies,is falling. 14 “We are at a 45-year his-toric low in terms of our murder rate,”says political scientist Patrick Egan ofNew York University. Since reachinga peak of 10.2 reported murders per100,000 people in 1980, the ratesteadily declined during the next 20years, plateaued through 2007, thendropped to 4.7 in 2011. 15

About two-thirds of murders are com-mitted with firearms — mostly hand-guns — and the gun-related homiciderate has dropped as well. Researcherssay possible reasons include violence-prevention programs, a decline in thecrack-cocaine market, the nation’s agingpopulation and the use of communi-ty policing, among others. Suicides bygun account for more than half offirearm-related deaths, and that ratealso has fallen. 16

In addition, individual gun owner-ship is at or near all-time lows, saysEgan. “Back in the 1970s, about onein two households kept a gun, andthese days it’s more like one in three,”

he says, citing data from the Univer-sity of Chicago’s General Social Sur-vey (GSS). Egan attributes the trendto increasing urbanization; an increasein households headed by singlewomen, who are less likely to ownguns than men; and a resulting de-cline in the number of children whoinherit the habit of gun ownershipfrom parents.While fewer individuals own guns

today, more guns are in circulation, atrend that accelerated after Newtown, asgun buyers flocked to retailers and gunshows in expectation of future restric-tions. “Our best guess is that fewer peo-ple are owning more guns,” says Egan.

Anatomy of an AR-15 Rifle

Gun-control advocates say firearms such as the Rock River Arms AR-15 rifle in this photo illustration have features that make them “assault weapons.” Such features can include a threaded barrel for mounting a silencer or flash suppressor, which reduces the visible flash that emanates from the muzzle when the gun is fired; a pistol grip that gives the shooter added control, and a detatchable maga-zine. This rifle is similar in style to the Bushmaster AR-15 used by Adam Lanza in his deadly attack on schoolchildren at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012. However, assault-style weapons account for only a small fraction of gun crimes, experts say.

Source: Photo illustration by Getty Images/Joe Raedle

Pistol grip

Detachable ammunition magazine

Threaded barrel and flash guard, which

reduces visible flash

Barrel shroud to protect

shooter’s handDetachable, folding or

telescoping stock

238 CQ Researcher

Americans own about 300 millionguns today, up from just under 200million 20 years ago, according to theBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearmsand Explosives (ATF). 17

Data on gun violence, ownershipand sales have been used to marshalarguments on all sides of the debate.However, such data are often “unreli-able” and “inadequate,” and the lackof dependable information severelyhampers research, according to a Na-tional Academy of Sciences report. 18

For instance, how many U.S. house-holds own guns? While the GSS saysabout one-third, other surveys put ithigher. How many guns are in circula-tion? Because no national gun registryexists, the ATF’s 300 million number isonly an estimate.How about the number of stolen

guns? “We really don’t know,” sayseconomist David Hemenway, directorof the Boston-based Harvard Injury Con-trol Research Center. If the aggregatefigure is unknown, researchers certain-ly can’t know “the who, what, when,where and how,” he says. Since 2004,Congress has restricted the ATF fromreleasing information from its FirearmsTracing System database. The restric-tion is known as the “Tiahrt Amend-ment,” after its principal sponsor, for-mer Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.Even FBI crime data can be in-

complete because local, county, state,tribal and federal law enforcement agen-cies provide it voluntarily.The lack of extensive gun-violence

research dates to the early 1990s. Aftertwo studies funded by the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention (CDC)showed that a gun in the home is as-sociated with increased risks of homi-cide and suicide in the home, the NRApressed a Republican-controlled Con-gress in 1996 to strip the CDC of the$2.6 million funding for such research.It then succeeded in casting the CDC’sgun research as motivated by supportfor gun restrictions, getting the fol-lowing sentence into 1997 legislation:

“None of the funds made available forinjury prevention and control at theCenters for Disease Control and Pre-vention may be used to advocate orpromote gun control.” 19

The CDC stopped funding researchon gun violence, and other sourceshave not picked up the slack. As oneof his executive actions, Obama has di-rected the CDC to resume research intocauses and prevention of gun violence,saying it is not “advocacy,” and has askedCongress for $10 million in funding.Against this backdrop, here are some

of the questions researchers, gun-rights and gun-control advocates,elected officials and law enforcementare asking:

Would a ban on assault weaponsreduce gun violence?The semiautomatic rifle that Lanza

used is one of the most popular riflesin America. But the gun — a civilianversion of the military’s fully automaticM-16 rifle — also has been theweapon of choice in several other re-cent rampages. Jacob Tyler Roberts,22, used one to kill two people andwound another before taking his ownlife in an Oregon shopping mall inDecember. 20 James Holmes, 24, is ac-cused of using one, along with a 12-gauge shotgun, to open fire in a Col-orado movie theater last July, killing 12and wounding 58. 21

So-called long guns — shotguns andrifles — are not the only firearms usedin mass shootings, defined by the FBIas incidents in which four or morevictims are killed. Forty-year-old WadeMichael Page, for example, used asemiautomatic handgun equipped witha 19-round magazine last August tokill six people and wound three at aSikh temple in Wisconsin. 22

In January, Sen. Dianne Feinstein,D-Calif., introduced a ban on assaultweapons and large-capacity magazinesthat hold more than 10 rounds of am-munition.“If 20 dead children in Newtown

wasn’t a wakeup call that theseweapons of war don’t belong on ourstreets, I don’t know what is,” she said.A press release from her office claimedthat a previous ban, the Federal As-sault Weapons Ban of 1994 in effectuntil 2004, “was effective at reducingcrime and getting these military-styleweapons off our streets.” 23

The NRA’s LaPierre has called Fein-stein’s proposal “a phony piece of legis-lation” that is “built on lies” and saidthe previous ban had no impact onlowering crime. 24

Both Feinstein and LaPierre wereselectively quoting from a Departmentof Justice analysis of the 1994 law,which banned the manufacture, trans-fer and possession of 18 specific mod-els by name and all other semiauto-matic firearms that fell under its generaldefinition of assault weapons: those thatcould accept a detachable magazineand had at least two specified military-style features, such as a bayonet mount,folding rifle stock and a threaded bar-rel for attaching silencers. 25 (See dia-gram, p. 237.)While the ban was in effect, “the

percentage of crime guns that wereassault weapons went down by a thirdor more,” says Christopher Koper, thereport’s principal investigator and aprofessor of criminology at GeorgeMason University in Fairfax, Va. How-ever, prior to the ban assault weaponshad been used in only a small fractionof gun crimes — about 2 percent —his study showed.The law also prohibited large-capacity

magazines holding more than 10 roundsof ammunition. Many non-banned semi-automatics accept such magazines, andsuch guns represented up to 26 per-cent of crime guns prior to the ban.A newspaper’s analysis of Virginia

data found a reduction in the num-ber of large-capacity magazines seizedby police during the ban. 26 But moregenerally, “we found that it was in-conclusive whether the use of large-capacity magazines declined in any

GUN CONTROL


real way,” says Koper. “That, of course,has to be linked to the grandfather-ing provision in the law.”Indeed, the law had a huge loop-

hole. Any banned magazine or assaultweapon manufactured before the lawtook effect remained legal to own orsell. There were nearly 1.5 million as-sault weapons privately owned in theUnited States at the time, along withnearly 25 million guns equipped withlarge-capacity magazines. 27

Did the ban reduce gun crime? “Wedidn’t really expect to see a reduc-tion in the rate of gun crime overall,”Koper says. “People could substituteother guns for the ones that werebanned. But by forcing that substitu-tion, we thought it could reduce thenumber of gunshots and the numberof victims.”But, there was no evidence that it

did, Koper says. “However, if the lawhad been in place longer and we hadhad a drop in the use of large-capacitymagazines, would you then see moreof an impact on gun deaths and guninjuries?” he asks.Feinstein’s proposed legislation tries

to correct what gun-control advocatesbelieve were the expired law’s weak-nesses. It would ban 157 specificweapons by name. And it would re-duce the number of military-style fea-tures that define a semiautomaticweapon as an assault weapon fromtwo to one, making it more difficultfor gun manufacturers to make cos-metic changes to elude the ban, asthey did under the expired law. Asbefore, large-capacity magazines hold-ing more than 10 rounds of ammuni-tion would be prohibited.While the law would exempt assault

weapons lawfully possessed at thedate of enactment, it would requirepurchasers of such weapons to un-dergo a background check, and itwould prohibit the sale or transfer ofgrandfathered large-capacity magazines.In addition, the law would not auto-matically expire. 28

“We are very supportive of the bill,”says Cutilletta of the Law Center toPrevent Gun Violence. “The hope isthat even the grandfathered weaponsand magazines will at least be regu-lated and their potential damage willbe curtailed.”But gun-rights groups say Fein-

stein’s bill wouldn’t reduce gun vio-lence. “There would be instant weaponsubstitution,” says Alan Gottlieb, exec-utive vice president of the SecondAmendment Foundation, a legal-actiongroup in Bellevue, Wash., that pro-motes gun rights. “A shotgun can doas much damage as a so-called assaultweapon.”Gottlieb says the ban on large-

capacity magazines wouldn’t reducegun violence either because someoneintent on inflicting mass damage coulduse many smaller magazines. “It takesa whopping three seconds to changea magazine,” says Gottlieb.Koper offers this assessment. “In the

long run, the bill, if passed, wouldprobably not affect the overall rate ofgun crime. But it could result in asmall reduction in shootings becauseyou are forcing offenders to substituteless-lethal weapons and magazines. Bysmall, I don’t mean trivial.”The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun

Policy and Research also warned ofthe need to be realistic about the like-

ly impact of any ban, pointing to astudy in Jersey City, N.J., that found10 or more rounds were fired in fewerthan 5 percent of gun incidents. Still,the center said, “We have decided toregulate the design of numerous con-sumer products, such as cribs and small,high-powered magnets, in order to pre-vent far fewer deaths than could beprevented with a ban of [large-capacitymagazines].” 29

But gun-rights advocates say Fein-stein’s law would contradict a 2008ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court inDistrict of Columbia v. Heller, in whichthe court struck down the District’shandgun ban. 30 “The Heller case saidthat guns that are in common use bylaw-abiding people are protected bythe Second Amendment,” says Virginiaattorney Stephen Halbrook, who hassuccessfully argued gun-rights casesbefore the court. “And the kinds ofguns that are being banned are verymuch in common use.”“That’s a reasonable interpretation of

the Heller case,” says Adam Winkler, aconstitutional law professor at UCLASchool of Law, “yet I think the coun-terargument is that the Supreme Courtmight interpret the common-use re-quirement to only apply when neededfor self-defense.” The firearms bannedunder Feinstein’s bill are not self-defenseweapons, says Winkler.

Types of Firearms

Semiautomatic: Each pull of the trigger results in a complete firing cycle, from discharge through reloading. Most guns sold in the United States, including handguns, are semiautomatic.

Automatic: Loads, discharges and reloads as long as the trigger remains depressed. Machine guns, for example, are automatic.

Assault weapon: Gun-rights advocates say only automatic firearms are assault weapons. Others say the definition also includes semiautomatic firearms with detachable magazines and at least one military-style feature, such as a bayonet mount or threaded barrel for attaching a silencer.

AFP/Getty Images/Joe Klamar

240 CQ Researcher

Would mandatory backgroundchecks of all gun buyers keepguns away from criminals andother dangerous people?Federal law prohibits possession of

firearms by — among others — felons,fugitives, certain categories of domes-tic-violence offenders, drug addictsand those found mentally incompe-tent or a danger to themselves or oth-ers because of mental illness or whohave been involuntarily committed toa mental institution. The 1994 BradyHandgun Violence Prevention Act re-quires gun buyers to submit to back-ground checks — usually taking justa few minutes — but only if pur-chasing through a federally licensedgun dealer. Private sales — at gunshows, online or person-to person —are exempt, yet they may account for30 to 40 percent of firearms sales, ac-cording to 1994 survey data, the mostrecent available. 31

The proposal to expand backgroundchecks to include private firearms sales— a less controversial idea than ban-ning assault weapons or large-capacitymagazines — is gathering bipartisanmomentum, at least in the Senate. Ju-diciary Committee Chairman PatrickLeahy, D-Vt., is a strong supporter, anda diverse group of four senators — in-cluding Democratic Sen. Charles Schumerof New York, a liberal, Republican Sen.Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, an NRAmember and strong conservative, andmoderate GOP Sen. Mark Kirk of Illi-nois — has been meeting privately towork out a compromise. “We’ll getsomething, I hope. I’m praying for it,”said Sen. Manchin of West Virginia, oneof the participants. 32 Sen. Coburn’s re-sistance to requiring private sellers tokeep a record of transactions is ap-parently holding up the compromise.“Until you close this loophole, you’re

giving people with a propensity for

violence an opportunity to buy gunswithout any background check,” saysLadd Everitt, director of communica-tions for the Washington-based advo-cacy group Coalition to Stop Gun Vi-olence. “It makes no sense.”A survey of state prison inmates con-

victed of crimes committed with a hand-gun found that nearly 80 percent saidthey got their guns from private sources— either friends or families or fromstreet or black-market suppliers. Anoth-er 10 percent said they stole their gun;one in 10 said they purchased a gunfrom a licensed dealer. 33

The NRA is opposed to expandingbackground checks. “Let’s be honest,background checks will never be ‘uni-versal’ because criminals will neversubmit to them,” said LaPierre. 34

Everitt calls that response the anar-chy argument: “They say that criminalsdon’t obey laws, so why should wehave laws?” But that misses the point,he says. “There still would be ways forcriminals to get around backgroundchecks, but the people who sold themthe gun would be held accountable.Now they are not.”The NRA argument also assumes

that criminals are smart, determinedand informed, says Philip Cook, a pro-fessor of economics and sociology atDuke University in Durham, N.C. “Alarge percentage of criminals are youth-ful, not very well educated and veryimpatient, and even if you put smallobstacles in their path that might dis-courage them from getting guns, itwould help.”Gun-control advocates say the Brady

Act, even with the private-sales ex-emption, has been effective. “By block-ing 2 million attempts to purchase [since1994], we have placed a barrier,” saysBecca Knox, director of research at theWashington-based Brady Campaign toPrevent Gun Violence. “The estimate isthat half of those denials are to felons.”But a study of the law’s first five

years, conducted by Cook and JensLudwig, director of the University of

GUN CONTROL

Source: “Gun Control: Key Data Points From Pew Research,” Pew Research Center, February 2013, www.pewresearch.org/2013/02/07/gun-control-key-data-points-from-pew-research/

Public Backs Most Gun-Control Proposals

A majority of Americans support requiring background checks for gun-show and private gun sales, establishing a federal database to track gun sales, barring people who are mentally ill from purchasing guns and putting police in more schools. However, most oppose arming more teachers.

Public Support for Gun Policy Proposals,January-February 2013

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Chicago Crime Lab, a research insti-tute, found “no evidence of a reduc-tion in the homicide rate that couldbe attributed to Brady.” The re-searchers compared homicide rates in32 states directly affected by the BradyAct with the 18 states that already hadtheir own similar laws on the books.Homicide rates were dropping

nationwide before the act was passed,due in part, experts say, to the endof the crack cocaine epidemic,changes in policing and increased im-prisonment rates. The trends were re-markably similar in both groups ofstates, and the researchers found thetrends in homicide rates remained re-markably similar after the Brady Actwas passed. 35

So how do the researchers recon-cile the Brady Act’s lack of a detectableimpact on homicide rates with the mil-lions of people denied handgunsthrough background checks since theact became law? “We did some back-of-the-envelope calculations using whatwe know about the people who at-tempt to buy a gun from a dealer eventhough they are disqualified — howlikely they are to go commit homi-cide,” says Cook. Using data from Cal-ifornia and extrapolating nationwide,he estimates that the 60,000 annualdenials in the five years he studiedwould have prevented roughly 40 homi-cides — or about eight per year.Cook blames “the private-sale loop-

hole” primarily for the Brady Act’s lackof detectable impact on homiciderates. “And we can close that,” he says.In addition, a majority of adults whoend up committing a crime with a gundid not fall into any of the categoriesthat would have disqualified them frombuying the gun, says Cook. “In CookCounty [Ill.] data, only 40 percent of de-fendants in murder cases were disqual-ified by having a felony conviction.”That’s why many criminologists want

Congress to expand the list of peopleineligible to possess a gun to includethose convicted of violent misde-

meanors, such as misdemeanor assaultand battery, which are generally pun-ishable with jail time of up to one year.“The Brady Campaign is in favor of thatexpansion,” says Knox.The gap in records that states vol-

untarily submit to the FBI’s NationalInstant Criminal Background CheckSystem, particularly mental healthrecords, also prevents the Brady Actfrom having a more measurable im-pact on homicide rates. As a result ofthat gap, buyers who should be dis-qualified slip through the system, peo-ple on all sides of the gun debateagree. (See sidebar, p. 244.)California, Rhode Island and New

York have completely closed the back-ground-check loophole, requiring suchchecks for every gun purchase. (NewYork just did so in January). Yet Cooksays researchers don’t know how effec-tive those laws been in stemming gunviolence. “There is no money for theseevaluations,” says Cook.In any case, it’s not easy to con-

duct such evaluations because gunsflow from states with lax laws to stateswith strict laws. At gun shows in Reno,Nev., “a third of the cars in the park-ing lot are from California,” said gunviolence expert Wintemute. 36

Do state laws allowing citizensto carry concealed weaponsmake communities safer?More than 76,000 Ohio residents re-

ceived licenses to carry concealedweapons last year, the highest num-ber since the state began licensing in2004, according to Ohio Attorney Gen-eral Mike DeWine. Six out of sevenwere new licenses and the rest re-newals. “As a strong supporter of theSecond Amendment, I am pleased tosee more Ohioans than ever beforeare exercising their rights under Ohio’sconcealed carry law,” DeWine said. 37

Over the past 30 years, states havedrastically loosened their “right-to-carry”laws, which allow citizens who canlegally own firearms to carry con-

cealed weapons in public, often ex-cept in parks, schools, government of-fices, bars and places of worship. (Seemaps, p. 236.) For example:• Nineteen states prohibited con-

cealed carry in 1981; today none do.(Washington, D.C. does ban it.) In De-cember, the Seventh U.S. Circuit Courtof Appeals in Chicago told Illinois itsban was unconstitutional and gave ituntil early June to draft a concealed-carry law.• In 1981, 28 states had “may-issue”

permit laws, which allow officials togrant or deny a concealed-carry per-mit; today 10 states have such laws.• In 1981, two states had “shall-issue”

permit legislation, which require officialsto issue a concealed-carry permit to any-one meeting minimum qualifications;today, 35 states have such laws.• In 1981, only Vermont did not

require a gun owner to have a per-mit to carry a concealed firearm; todayAlaska, Arizona, Vermont and Wyomingrequire no permit. 38

Gun-rights advocates say right-to-carry laws, especially “shall-issue”laws, reduce crime. “The presence ofa gun in the hands of good personmakes us all safer. It’s true. Historyproves it,” said the NRA’s LaPierre. 39

He and others argue that not only cangun-carrying individuals ward off at-tackers, but criminals are deterred be-cause they don’t know who does ordoes not carry a concealed weapon.In most states, the percentage of adultswith active concealed-carry permits isin the single digits. For example, inOhio the figure is 3.2 percent. 40

Gun-control advocates could not dis-agree more. “Carrying guns in publicputs American families and commu-nities at risk of more gun deaths andinjuries, as opposed to providing greaterprotection,” says Knox of the BradyCampaign, which opposes shall-issuepermit laws.It’s a fierce debate that was turbocharged

in 1997, when economist John Lottconcluded, based on his analysis of

242 CQ Researcher

GUN CONTROL

nationwide county data, that right-to-carry laws deter violent crime. TheNRA and state legislatures have usedLott’s research to justify right-to-carrylegislation.Lott’s work triggered a tremendous

number of followup studies. “There havebeen more than two dozen, each claim-ing to be somewhat superior to theothers,” says Harvard’s Hemenway. Someresearchers lined up with Lott whilemany others found serious problemswith the data and analysis. The Na-tional Academy of Sciences’ 2004 re-port found “no credible evidence thatthe passage of right-to-carry laws de-creases or increases violent crime.” 41

One persistent Lott critic, John Dono-hue of Stanford Law School, revisitedthe issue in 2010 and concluded,again, that right-to-carry laws do notdeter crime. In fact, he said, “aggra-vated assault rises when [such] lawsare adopted.” 42

“Screening is very weak, and youhave people getting these permits whohave some type of criminal record, whohave mental health history, a history ofdrug abuse or a history of domesticviolence,” says Everitt of the Coalitionto Stop Gun Violence. In addition, “Thepresence of a gun can turn somethingthat should have been a fistfight intosomething far more lethal.”Donohue and fellow researcher Ian

Ayres of Yale Law School have saidthat arming citizens could encouragean “arms race” in which criminals “re-spond to shall-issue laws by packingmore heat and shooting quicker.” Andwith as many as one million or moreguns stolen each year, “putting moreguns in the hands of the law-abidingpopulation necessarily means that moreguns will end up in the hands of crim-inals,” they wrote. 43

The majority of shall-issue states rec-ognize permits from other states, butmost states with may-issue permit lawsdo not. 44 The U.S. House of Repre-sentatives passed a bill in 2011 thatwould create reciprocity in every state

that gives citizens the right to carryconcealed weapons.“It’s something that we absolutely

oppose,” says Knox. “This would be arace to the bottom. The state with theloosest regulations would be drivingwho could carry.”

BACKGROUNDEarly Gun Culture

G un-control and gun-rights regu-lations share a long history in

the United States. Adult white men inthe American colonies had the rightto own firearms for hunting and self-defense and, in fact, were required touse them in the service of local mili-tias, often in battles with Native Amer-icans. But the colonies also placed re-strictions on gun ownership.In 1637 about 100 Massachusetts

Bay colonists were ordered to surren-der their “guns, pistols, swords, pow-der, shot & match” on suspicion ofbeing heretics, wrote journalist CraigWhitney. 45 Maryland barred RomanCatholics from possessing firearms, andPennsylvania disarmed Loyalists duringthe Revolutionary War. These were not“criminals or traitors who took up armson behalf of the British” but “ordinarycitizens exercising their fundamentalright to freedom of conscience,” wroteUCLA’s Winkler. 46

Colonies also forbade slaves, freeblacks and people of mixed race —who in some states far outnumberedwhites — from owning firearms, fearingthey might revolt. Combine their num-bers with the up to 40 percent of thepopulation who were Loyalists, and thecolonies “were perfectly willing to con-fiscate weapons from anyone deemeduntrustworthy — a category so broad-ly defined that it included a majority ofthe people,” wrote Winkler. 47

After the Revolution, the FoundingFathers addressed gun rights in theSecond Amendment, part of the Billof Rights attached to the U.S. Consti-tution in 1791. The amendment reads:“A well regulated Militia being neces-sary to the security of a free State, theright of the people to keep and bearArms shall not be infringed.” Variousstates drafted constitutions with simi-lar provisions. Their intended mean-ing became the subject of debate inthe early 19th century as states en-acted “the first comprehensive lawsprohibiting handguns and other con-cealed weapons,” according to histo-rian Saul Cornell. 48

In 1813, Kentucky and Louisiana be-came the first states to ban the carryingof concealed weapons. Indiana did soin 1820, followed over the next twodecades by Georgia, Tennessee, Vir-ginia and Alabama. 49 The Southernstates were responding to the extra-ordinary violence in the region, wherean honor culture meant “that insultscould not be safely ignored,” wrotehistorian Clayton Cramer. “If someoneinsulted you publicly, or cast doubtsabout your honor, you challenged themto a duel” or pulled out a gun orBowie knife to “settle the matter righton the spot.” 50

These early gun-control laws spawnedlegal challenges asserting constitutionalrights to bear arms for individual self-defense. Most courts disagreed and up-held the laws, interpreting the right tobear arms as a community duty andnot an individual right. However, “a fewcourts embraced the new ideology ofgun rights,” wrote Cornell. 51

While some states were tighteninggun regulations, “others, such as Mis-sissippi and Connecticut, were writinginto their constitutions more robust state-ments affirming the right of individu-als to have weapons for self-defense,”he wrote. At the same time, “Otherstates rejected the new language andreaffirmed the traditional civic model

Continued on p. 244


Chronology1920s-1930sStates and Congress pass gun-control legislation.

1926American Bar Association commis-sion, with National Rifle Associa-tion (NRA) support, adopts modelstate legislation regulating the con-cealed carry and sale of handguns;Pennsylvania is among the first toadopt it.

1934National Firearms Act of 1934 —first federal gun-control law —levies $200 tax on the manufac-ture or sale of machine guns and“sawed-off” shotguns; owners mustregister them with the U.S. TreasuryDepartment.

1938National Firearms Act of 1938 re-quires interstate gun dealers to belicensed and to record sales; pro-hibits gun sales to convictedfelons. . . . Carrying concealedhandguns is either prohibited orpermitted only with a license inevery state but two.

•

1960s-1990sDemocratic administrationssign major gun-control legisla-tion into law. Republican Pres-ident Ronald Reagan promotesgun rights.

1968After the assassinations of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, Democratic presi-dential candidate Sen. Robert F.Kennedy and the Rev. MartinLuther King Jr, President Lyndon B.Johnson signs the Gun Control Actof 1968; it prohibits convictedfelons, drug users and the seriously

mentally ill from buying guns, rais-es the age to purchase guns froma federally licensed dealer to 21and expands dealer licensing re-quirements.

1986Reagan signs Firearm Owners’ Pro-tection Act limiting the Bureau ofAlcohol, Tobacco and Firearmsfrom inspecting licensed gun deal-ers more than once a year andforbidding the government fromcreating a national registry of gunowners.

1990Gun-Free School Zones Act makesit a federal crime to knowinglybring a gun within 1,000 feet of aschool or fire a gun within thatzone. In 1995 the U.S. SupremeCourt rules that punishment ofgun possession or use nearschools is a state matter.

1993President Bill Clinton signs BradyHandgun Violence Act requiringlicensed gun dealers to conductbackground checks of buyers; un-licensed private sellers are exempt.

1994Violent Crime Control and LawEnforcement Act of 1994 (oftencalled the “assault weapons ban”)prohibits the manufacture and saleof semiautomatic assault weaponsfor 10 years; it also bans ammuni-tion magazines holding more than10 rounds.

•

2000s Gun-controladvocates face defeats in Con-gress and Supreme Court, butmassacre of 20 children inNewtown, Conn., in Decemberreignites gun-control debate.

2003Congress passes Tiahrt Amendmentprohibiting law enforcement fromreleasing data showing wherecriminals bought their firearms.

2004“Assault weapons” ban expires.

2005President George W. Bush signs Pro-tection of Lawful Commerce in ArmsAct granting gun manufacturers im-munity from civil lawsuits involvingcrimes committed with guns.

2008Supreme Court holds that Americanshave an individual right under theSecond Amendment to possesfirearms for self-defense within thehome.

2012Federal appeals court rules thatIllinois’ ban on concealed carry offirearms is unconstitutional and givesthe state until early June to draft aconcealed carry law (Dec. 11). . . .Adam Lanza kills 20 children andsix adults at Sandy Hook Elemen-tary in Newtown, Conn., sparkingnational outrage and renewinggun-control debate (Dec. 14).

2013President Obama proposes sweep-ing gun-control legislation. . . .Congress begins gun-control hear-ings. . . . Sen. Dianne Feinstein,D-Calif., introduces legislation toban assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. . . .New York legislature passes oneof the nation’s strictest gun-controllaws. Thirty-four of 62 New Yorkcounties pass resolutions demand-ing that lawmakers repeal the act;a state court has agreed to reviewwhether the new law was rushedthrough the legislature in violationof the state constitution.

244 CQ Researcher

of the right to bear arms.” For exam-ple, Maine’s constitution, adopted in1820, declared that “every citizen hasa right to keep and bear arms for thecommon defense.” 52

Federal Gun Control

T he NRA was not initially a gun-rights organization. “Dismayed by

the lack of marksmanship shown bytheir troops [during the Civil War],Union veterans Col. William C. Churchand Gen. George Wingate formed theNational Rifle Association in 1871,”reads the NRA website. Its primary

goal would be to “promote and en-courage rifle shooting on a scientificbasis,” according to Church. 53

The NRA held target-shooting com-petitions and sponsored gun clubs andshooting ranges. Membership swelledbetween World War I (1914-1918) andWorld War II (1939-1945), when theU.S. military gave more than 200,000surplus rifles to NRA members for freeor at government cost.The NRA also helped write model

state gun-control legislation containingsome provisions similar to those ve-hemently opposed by the associationtoday. The Uniform Firearms Act, pro-duced by an American Bar Associa-tion commission in 1926, applied

mostly to handguns. It recommendedthat states require individuals to applyfor a license to carry a concealed gunin public and that states issue such li-censes with discretion. Handgun sell-ers had to be licensed, keep salesrecords and forward them to law en-forcement officials and refrain fromselling guns to those convicted of vi-olent crimes. 54

The NRA promoted this model leg-islation nationwide, and numerousstates adopted it in whole or in part.In fact, a 1938 scholarly article con-cluded: “Today the carrying of con-cealed pistols is either prohibited ab-solutely or permitted only with a licensein every state but two.” 55

GUN CONTROL

Continued from p. 242

The nation’s system for checking the background of gunbuyers is supposed to help keep firearms out of thehands of felons, fugitives, drug abusers, people legally

determined to be dangerous or incompetent to manage theiraffairs due to mental illness or those who have been commit-ted to a mental institution, among others. Licensed firearmsdealers call or email the National Instant Criminal BackgroundCheck System (NICS) and usually receive an immediate answerabout whether to deny or allow a sale.But the NICS database has serious gaps. Crucial mental-

health and drug-abuse records are missing because states arenot required to share them with NICS. They do so voluntari-ly. “Unfortunately, as long as these gaps remain, they are goingto be fatal,” says John Feinblatt, chairman of New York-basedMayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 800 mayors that is-sued a recent report on gaps in the background system.The report points to two mass killers who eluded the back-

ground check system:• Seung Hui Cho passed several background checks to pur-

chase the guns he used to kill 32 people and himself at Vir-ginia Tech University in 2007, despite a judge’s earlier deter-mination that he was mentally ill. Virginia had never enteredhis mental-health records in the NCIS system.• Jared Loughner had a history of drug abuse, according

to media accounts, that was never reported to NCIS before hepassed background checks to purchase guns he used to killsix people and critically wound 13 others — including Rep.Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., in Tucson in 2011. 1

Before the Virginia Tech shootings, only Alabama, Colorado,

Connecticut and Georgia required agencies to share relevantmental-health records with NCIS. After the shootings, 19 addi-tional states — including Virginia — adopted such laws. 2

The federal government also increased funding to help stateswith record keeping and reporting after the Virginia Tech shootings.Since then, the gap has narrowed. From 2004 to 2011, states

increased the number of mental-health records available to NICSfor background checks by 500 percent. However, according tothe Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal watch-dog agency, “this progress largely reflects the efforts of 12 states.”Most states, the GAO said, “have made little or no progress inproviding these records.” 3

“Many states are still performing poorly,” says Feinblatt. Forinstance, 23 have reported fewer than 100 mental-health recordsto the federal background-check database since its creation in1999, and 44 states have submitted fewer than 10 records aboutdrug abuse. As a result, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has con-cluded that millions of records identifying drug abusers and peo-ple with serious mental illness are absent from the system. 4

But even if the background check system worked perfect-ly, it would have only a marginal impact on gun violence, saysJeffrey Swanson, a professor of psychiatry at Duke Universityand a leading expert in the causes and control of violence. “Itwould probably reduce overall gun violence against others by4 or 5 percent,” says Swanson, because the mentally ill accountfor a very small fraction of violent crime.While the mentally ill are responsible for close to 20 percent

of mass shootings, said Michael Stone, a New York forensicpsychiatrist, “most mass murders are done by working-class men

Background-Check System Has Serious GapsCrucial mental-health and drug-abuse records are not included in the database.


Congress came later to gun control.The federal government’s first majorattempt occurred in the 1930s asProhibition-era gangsters with com-pact machine guns outgunned city po-lice, and notorious criminals such asJohn Dillinger, Bonnie Parker and ClydeBarrow, George “Machine Gun” Kelly,Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd and Kate“Ma” Barker used guns and cars forcrime sprees across state lines.The National Firearms Act of 1934,

signed into law by President FranklinD. Roosevelt, imposed a $200 tax onthe manufacture, sale or transfer ofmachine guns and “sawed-off” shot-guns and rifles with barrels less than18 inches long. Anyone possessing such

guns had to register them with the U.S.Treasury Department. While no one ex-pected criminals to comply, their failureto do so meant that if caught with sucha gun, a criminal could be jailed for taxevasion or non-registration, and “thegovernment wouldn’t have to provethat the person had killed anyone,”wrote Winkler. 56

The Roosevelt administration initiallywanted to include handguns in thelaw, a provision the NRA opposed be-cause it said it would make it difficultfor ordinary citizens to defend them-selves against criminals. After a mas-sive NRA-organized letter writing cam-paign, Congress dropped the handgunprovision.

The NRA supported the law be-cause it was an “indirect” approach tocontrolling gun violence. “I think thatunder the Constitution the United Stateshas no jurisdiction to legislate in a po-lice sense with respect to firearms,”NRA president Karl T. Frederick testi-fied at a 1934 congressional hearingbefore the law was passed. “I thinkthat is exclusively a matter for stateregulation, and I think that the onlypossible way in which the United Statescan legislate is through its taxing power,which is an indirect method of ap-proach, through its control over inter-state commerce, which was perfectlyproper, and through control over im-portations.” 57

who’ve been jilted, fired or otherwise humiliated — and whothen undergo a crisis of rage and get out one of the 300 millionguns in our country and do their thing.” 5

In an article earlier this year, Swanson and his colleaguesdetailed other flaws in assumptions underlying the background-check system. 6 For example, the small fraction of the mental-ly ill who are dangerous often don’t seek treatment beforedoing something harmful, so they would not show up in abackground-check database. And even when they do seek help,doctors often can’t identify them as dangerous, according tostudies. “Psychiatrists are just not very good at predicting whois going to be violent or not,” says Swanson. “It’s not muchbetter than chance.”Despite that record, New York’s newest gun-control law re-

quires a doctor, psychologist, registered nurse or licensed clin-ical social worker who determines that a patient is a dangerto himself or others to report that patient to the government.The government may then decide to prevent the person frompossessing a firearm or revoke an existing license. 7 Under cur-rent professional guidelines, only involuntary hospitalizationsand direct threats made by patients are required to be report-ed to state authorities, who then share the information withthe federal background-check database, according to The NewYork Times. 8

Many mental-health professionals oppose this new provi-sion, fearing that people will avoid treatment or not reveal theirtrue thoughts in therapy. “If people with suicidal or homicidalimpulses avoid treatment for fear of being reported in this way,they may be more likely to act on those impulses,” said Paul

Appelbaum, director of law, ethics and psychiatry at New York’sColumbia University Medical Center. 9

Some experts say it’s debatable whether mental-health pro-fessionals will take the reporting requirement seriously, becausethe law does not hold them liable if the decision to report ornot to report a patient to authorities is made — in the statute’swording — “reasonably and in good faith.” 10

— Barbara Mantel

1 “Fatal Gaps,” Mayors Against Illegal Guns, November 2011, p. 2, www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/downloads/pdf/maig_mimeo_revb.pdf.2 Ibid., p. 14.3 “Sharing Promising Practices and Assessing Incentives Could Better Posi-tion Justice to Assist States in Providing Records for Background Checks,”Government Accountability Office, July 2012, p. 9, www.gao.gov/assets/600/592452.pdf.4 “Fatal Gaps,” op. cit., p. 3.5 Benedict Carey and Anemona Hartocollis, “Warning Signs of Violent Acts OftenUnclear,” The New York Times, Jan. 15, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/health/breaking-link-of-violence-and-mental-illness.html?_r=0.6 Jeffrey W. Swanson, et al., “Preventing Gun Violence Involving Peoplewith Serious Mental Illness,” Reducing Gun Violence in America: InformingPolicy with Evidence and Analysis (2013), p. 36.7 “Program Bill #1,” New York Legislative Bill Drafting Commission, pp. 19-20,www.governor.ny.gov/assets/documents/GPB_1_GUNS_BILL_LBD_12007_03_3.pdf.8 Carey and Hartocollis, op. cit.9 “Experts: Tougher N.Y. gun control law may discourage therapy,” The As-sociated Press, Jan. 16, 2013, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/15/ny-gun-law-therapy/1836323.10 “Program Bill #1,” op. cit., p. 20.

246 CQ Researcher

Four years later, Congress expand-ed the federal government’s reach, re-quiring gun sellers to obtain a licensefrom the Internal Revenue Service andprohibiting the sale of guns and am-munition to felons — provisions theNRA supported.“After this flurry of

activity, Congress andthe NRA went back totheir respective cornersand more or less lefteach other alone,”wrote journalist OshaGray Davidson. TheNRA’s “lobbying wingremained incidental tothe organization’s pri-mary mission of serv-ing hunters and targetshooters.” 58

Gun Debate

T hat changed dra-matically three

decades later. “The1960s were the turningpoint for the culturalwar over guns as weknow it,” wrote Whit-ney. Rising crime, racialtensions and a loss ofpublic confidence in thepolice “led millions ofAmericans to buyweapons for personalprotection,” he wrote.Despite more guns

and more homicides, Congress was “re-luctant to pass gun laws that would betaken as a threat to the lawful use ofweapons by ordinary Americans,” saidWhitney. 59

Congress took no action on gunsafter the assassination of President JohnF. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. But pub-lic opinion shifted a few years later,as race riots engulfed the nation’s citiesand members of the revolutionary BlackPanther Party openly — and legally

— displayed their guns in public toattract media attention. And after theassassinations of civil rights leader Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. and Democrat-ic senator and presidential candidateRobert F. Kennedy two months apart

in 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnsonpleaded with Congress to pass gun-control legislation “in the name of san-ity, in the name of safety and in thename of an aroused nation.” 60 In Oc-tober, he signed into law the Gun Con-trol Act of 1968.The statute requires all persons

manufacturing, importing or sellingfirearms as a business to be federal-ly licensed; prohibits the interstatesale of firearms through the mail;

bans all interstate sales of handguns;lists categories of people to whomfirearms may not be sold, includingconvicted felons and the seriouslymentally ill; and requires dealers tomaintain records of gun sales.

Franklin Orth, NRA ex-ecutive vice president —the seat of power at theorganization — testifiedbefore Congress in favorof the law. “We do notthink any sane American,who calls himself an Amer-ican, can object to plac-ing into this bill the in-strument which killed thepresident of the UnitedStates,” he said.But a growing number

of NRA members were fu-rious at Orth. “Their ob-jections didn’t so muchstem from opposition toany specific sections of thelegislation; it was the con-cept of gun control itselfthat they disliked, evenhated,” wrote Davidson. 61

The 1968 dispute was“the opening volley in whatwas to become an all-outwar, one that would splitthe gun group wide openover the next decade,”wrote Davidson. The divi-sion pitted mostly oldermembers who believed theNRA should focus onteaching gun safety and

organizing shooting competitions andhunting clinics against younger mem-bers who wanted the NRA to focus onblocking any and all gun-control mea-sures as violations of the Second Amend-ment. At the organization’s 1976 an-nual meeting in Cincinnati, the young“hard-liners” took control, using par-liamentary procedure to shift powerfrom officials to the membership,which then voted out the old guardand voted in the new.

GUN CONTROL

Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National RifleAssociation (NRA), has criticized proposed gun-control legislation,although a January Pew Research Center poll shows 85 percent of

gun owners support making private gun sales subject tobackground checks. Only 43 percent of gun owners, however,

said they support a ban on assault-style weapons.

Getty Images/Mark Wilson


“The Cincinnati Revolt (as the episodebecame known) changed forever theface of the NRA,” according to David-son. It “became more than a rifle club.It became the Gun Lobby.” 62

In 1986, the NRA scored a victorywhen President Ronald Reagan signedinto law the Firearm Owners’ Protec-tion Act. It prohibits civilian transfer orpossession of machine guns but legal-izes shipments of ammunition throughthe mail; allows gun owners to trans-port firearms through states where theyare banned; prohibits the federal gov-ernment from maintaining a registry ofguns and their owners; and mandatesthat the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobaccoand Firearms (ATF) inspect licensed gundealers for compliance with the 1968law no more than once a year. TheNRA had complained that ATF agentshad been harassing dealers.The pendulum swung the other

way under President Bill Clinton. InDecember 1993 he signed the BradyHandgun Violence Prevention Act in-stituting background checks for gunpurchases through licensed dealers.The law was named after Reagan PressSecretary James Brady, who was seri-ously wounded in an assassination at-tempt on Reagan in 1981. And in 1994Clinton signed a measure banning whatit defined as assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. TheNRA vehemently opposed both laws.After the Brady Act was passed, theNRA told its members that rogue gov-ernment agents will start to “go houseto house, kicking in the law-abidinggun owners’ doors.” 63

Congress has passed no majorgun-control legislation since then. In2008, the Supreme Court surprised gun-control advocates in its District of Co-lumbia v. Heller ruling, which nulli-fied Washington, D.C.’s ban onhandgun ownership by declaring thatindividuals have a Second Amend-ment right to possess firearms “fortraditionally lawful purposes, such asself-defense within the home.” But

the court made it clear that its opin-ion did not “cast doubt” on a widevariety of gun-control laws that regu-lated who could possess firearms,where they could be carried and howthey could be sold. The court alsorecognized limitations on “dangerousand unusual” weapons but did notdefine them. 64

“The court went out of its way tomake clear that the right to bear armscan co-exist with gun control,” saysWinkler.

CURRENTSITUATION

New York Is First

N ew York has become the first —and so far only — state to pass

gun-control legislation since the New-town shootings. “I’m proud to be aNew Yorker because New York is doingsomething — because we are fightingback,” Democratic Gov. Andrew M.Cuomo said in mid-January as he signedthe New York Secure Ammunition andFirearms Enforcement Act, or SAFEAct, into law. 65

The act makes the state’s already-strict gun regulations some of the na-tion’s toughest. It broadens the defi-nition of banned assault weapons;requires owners of existing assaultweapons, grandfathered under the law,to register them with the New YorkState Police; reduces the limit onmagazine capacity from 10 rounds ofammunition to seven; requires back-ground checks of not only gun pur-chasers but also ammunition buyers;expands background checks to pri-vate sales, except between immediatefamily members; and establishestougher penalties for the use of ille-gal guns.

The legislation won praise fromgun-control advocates, including NewYork City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg,who said it “protects the SecondAmendment rights of people, and atthe same time it makes all New York-ers safer.” 66

But 34 of 62 New York countieshave passed resolutions demandingthat lawmakers repeal the act. 67 Anda state court has agreed to review whetherthe new law was rushed through thelegislature in violation of the state con-stitution. “To have Cuomo dictate to thehonest gun owners of New York be-cause of the few criminals is criminalin itself,” says Harold “Budd” Schroeder,chairman of the Shooters Committee onPolitical Education (SCOPE), a volunteergun-rights organization with 12 chaptersacross the state.In addition, “the law is unworkable,”

says Schroeder. While Feinstein droppedfrom her proposed federal assault-weapons ban a requirement that own-ers of grandfathered weapons registertheir guns, New York state’s law kepta registration provision. “If you don’trequire registration, someone could saythat they had the gun when the banwent into effect, and there is no wayto prove that they didn’t. It’s an en-forcement tool,” says Cutilletta of theLaw Center to Prevent Violence.Schroeder, like the NRA, calls reg-

istration the first step toward firearmsconfiscation. However, seven states andWashington, D.C., require registrationof some or all firearms and “no gunshave been confiscated,” says Cutilletta.“It’s either paranoia or it’s a politicalargument to try to scare people.”Nevertheless, a civil disobedience

movement is brewing. “The sense Iget from all the gun owners I havebeen talking to is that the [New York]law says register your long guns —and that is not going to happen,” saysSchroeder. According to the New YorkPost, gun-club leaders, gun dealers andSecond Amendment advocacy groupsare organizing a registration boycott.

248 CQ Researcher

GUN CONTROL

While the boycott’s size won’t beknown until the registration deadlineof April 15, 2014, the state expects“widespread violations,” an unnamedCuomo-administration source told thenewspaper. “Many of these assault-rifleowners aren’t going to register; we re-alize that,” the source said. Failing toregister is a class-A misdemeanor, pun-ishable by up to a year in prison. 68

More State Action

C urrently, few states have strict gun-control measures on the books.

Six states and Washington, D.C., re-quire universal background checks —for private firearm sales and salesthrough licensed dealers — but in somestates the requirements don’t apply toall types of guns. Four states requirelicenses for anyone buying or owningany firearm, while seven states requireonly handgun buyers and owners tobe licensed. Seven states and Wash-ington, D.C., ban variously defined as-sault weapons, while six of thosestates also ban large-capacity ammu-nition magazines. 69

But by the first week of March,1,159 firearms-related bills had beenintroduced in state legislatures, 308more than during the same periodin 2012, according to Cutilletta. Slight-ly more than half of this year’s pro-posals would expand gun controls.Some would for the first time ban as-sault weapons or limit magazine size,such as proposals in Vermont, SouthCarolina and Virginia; others wouldtighten existing bans, as New Yorkdid. Several would require backgroundchecks on private firearms sales,such as a measure introduced inNew Mexico.“Regulating ammunition sales is also

popular,” says Cutilletta, “like banningInternet sales or mail-order sales of am-munition or requiring a backgroundcheck before buying ammunition —

Continued on p. 250

* includes the District of Columbia

Source: “Search Gun Laws By Policy,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 2013, smartgunlaws.org/search-gun-law-by-gun-policy/

State Gun Laws Vary Widely

Since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, state legisla-tures have been debating various proposals for changing gun laws, but so far only New York’s has acted. It joins California, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia in adopting some of the nation’s toughest gun measures, including requiring “universal” background checks on all gun purchases, some of which are now exempt under the federal Brady Act.

Universal Background Checks(Checks required for sales by both licensed dealers and private sellers)

• California, New York, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., require universal background checks on sales of all classes of firearms.

• Maryland requires universal background checks on purchases of handguns and assault weapons.

• Connecticut and Pennsylvania require universal background checks on all handgun sales.

Licenses and Permits

• Anyone buying or owning a gun in Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts or New Jersey must get a license or permit.

• California, Connecticut, Iowa, Michigan, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island require a license or permit for handguns only.

Safety Training and Exams

• Massachusetts requires gun buyers to take a firearms safety course before buying a gun.

• California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Michigan and Rhode Island also require gun-safety training, but only for handgun purchasers or owners.

Assault Weapons

• Although the definitions of “assault weapon” vary, the following states ban sales of assault weapons: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and the District of Columbia.

• Hawaii and Maryland ban assault pistols.• Maryland, Minnesota and Virginia regulate the sale and use of assault

weapons.

Large-Capacity Ammunition Magazines

• New York has banned magazines holding more than seven rounds.• California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia ban

magazines holding more than 10 rounds. New Jersey bans magazines holding more than 15 rounds.

• Maryland bans magazines holding more than 20 rounds.

Key State Gun Laws*

no


At Issue:Should all gun sales be registered in a national database?yes

yesGAREN WINTEMUTEBAKER-TERET CHAIR IN VIOLENCEPREVENTION, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,DAVIS

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER, MARCH 2013

a n estimated 478,422 firearm-related violent crimes oc-curred in 2011, including 11,101 homicides. To helpprevent such violence, federal statute prohibits felons

and certain others from acquiring or possessing firearms. Peoplewho acquire firearms from licensed gun dealers and pawnbrokersmust provide identification and undergo a background check toverify they can legally own them. The retailer keeps a permanentrecord of the transaction.Our current system is plagued by two major shortcomings.

First, perhaps 40 percent of all firearm acquisitions, and atleast 80 percent of those made with criminal intent, are madefrom private parties. No identification need be shown, nobackground check conducted, no record kept.Second, licensed retailers keep their records to themselves.

If a firearm is used in a crime and an effort is made to traceits chain of ownership, the trace ordinarily ends with the firstretail purchaser. Yet 85 percent of the time, the criminal whoused the firearm is someone else. Without an archive of trans-actions, the firearm cannot be traced beyond its first purchaser.Background checks and purchase denials are very effective,

reducing by approximately 25 percent the risk of the buyer com-mitting new firearm-related or violent crimes. Six states alreadyrequire all firearm transfers to be routed through licensed retailers,so background checks are completed and records are kept.In California, handgun transaction records are archived by

the state’s Department of Justice; records for rifles and shotgunswill be added in January 2014. Comprehensive background-checkpolicies interfere with the criminal acquisition of firearms anddisrupt firearm trafficking. In California, traces of a firearmused in a crime end with the most recent purchaser, not thefirst. Cold cases become hot cases.The United States should set a single, simple, equitable

standard for firearm transfers. It should require all transfers(with certain exceptions for those within a family) to includea background check and a permanent record. The policyshould not be limited to acquisitions at gun shows, which ac-count for only a small proportion of private-party firearmtransfers. To make it easier for law enforcement to tracefirearms used in crimes, retailers should report to the FBI themake, model, caliber and serial number of the firearms theysell; they shouldn’t have to report the purchasers, except forthe first. Law enforcement can then trace a firearm used in acrime to its most recent transaction and obtain more informationfrom the retailer.no

STEPHEN P. HALBROOKATTORNEY; AUTHOR, THE FOUNDERS’SECOND AMENDMENT

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER, MARCH 2013

“y our papers are not in order!” It’s five years inprison for not registering to exercise a constitu-tional right. Unthinkable for any other right, but not the “right” to keep and bear arms — just ig-

nore the “shall not be infringed” part of the Second Amendment.Attorney General Eric Holder proposed that punishment for not

registering a firearm in the District of Columbia when he was U.S.attorney there. Sen. Dianne Feinstein demands the registration ofmillions of “assault weapons,” which means anything she wants itto mean. Right now, in the Southern Border States, anyone buyingmore than one semiautomatic rifle per week is reported to theBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.New York City required registration of hunting rifles and

other “long guns” in the 1960s. It later declared them “assaultweapons” and sent the police to confiscate them. New Yorkstate just passed a law saying countless ordinary rifles have“assault” traits needing registration. California even recordspurchases of duck-hunting guns and single-shot rifles.Criminals don’t register guns. That’s why, even where regis-

tration is required, the police don’t check registration recordsbefore responding to crime scenes. Canada just abolished itsbillion-dollar gun-registration system because it never solved asingle crime.Germany just implemented a central database of all lawful

firearms, a European Union diktat. The German interior minis-ter promised very high security for handling the data, while askeptic said “everything that is registered can be taken awayby the government.” Sound familiar? A year before the Nazisseized power, Germany decreed gun registration, and the Inte-rior Minister warned at the time: “Precautions must be takenthat these lists not . . . fall into the hands of radical elements.”Hitler then used them first to disarm democratic “enemies ofthe state” and then, in 1938, the Jews during the violentpogrom known as Kristallnacht.In France, Prime Minister Pierre Laval decreed gun registration.

After France fell to Germany in 1940, Laval guided the Frenchpolice to collaborate with the Nazis, who executed anyonefailing to surrender firearms in 24 hours.Americans were well aware of these events. Just before

Pearl Harbor, Congress forbade registration of guns used forsport or self-defense. It did the same in the Firearms Owners’Protection Act of 1986 and Brady Act of 1993.The purpose of registration is confiscation. Until then, the

records are fodder for exploitation by hackers and burglars.

250 CQ Researcher

that’s been introduced in California.”Gun safety also is being addressed;laws that would regulate the way gunsare stored have been introduced inMontana, Nebraska, California, Missouriand South Carolina.Perhaps no state is being watched

more closely by both sides of the gundebate than Colorado, a historicallypro-gun state and home to two of thenation’s most notorious mass shoot-ings: the 1999 Columbine High Schoolmassacre and last year’s killing spreeat an Aurora movie theater. 70 In lateFebruary, the state’s Democratic-controlledHouse approved a package of billsthat would require background checksfor all gun transactions, paid for bythe purchaser; ban ammunition mag-azines with more than 15 rounds; andallow colleges to ban concealedweapons on campus. No Republicansvoted for the bills, and several Democratscrossed party lines to vote against them.“This is part of our heritage,” Demo-

cratic Rep. Ed Vigil said during thedebate, explaining why he opposedthe measures. “This is part of what ittook to settle this land. I cannot turnmy back on that.” The bills have movedto the state Senate, where Democraticcontrol is much slimmer. 71

Meanwhile, pressure is building onConnecticut’s elected officials tostrengthen the state’s gun-control lawsin the wake of the Newtown shoot-ings. A bipartisan legislative task forcehas missed a self-imposed deadlineto recommend consensus gun-controlmeasures, and a separate task forceappointed by Democratic Gov. Dan-nel P. Malloy is not expected to pro-duce its recommendation until laterthis month.“The public is demanding they act,”

said Scott McLean, an analyst with theQuinnipiac University Polling Institutein Hamden, Conn. In mid-February,5,500 people rallied for gun controlat the statehouse. Soon after, Malloyannounced his own proposals — ex-

panded background checks, lowermagazine limits and a broader defi-nition of assault weapons — andvowed to push his plan through thelegislature. “I think it’s time to lay itout on the table and get it done,”Malloy said. 72

Nullification

J ust under half of the firearm-relatedmeasures introduced in states thisyear would loosen gun controls. Somewould allow guns to be carried inpublic schools, and others attempt tonullify new, and in some cases ex-isting, federal gun-control laws. Forinstance, Alaska Republican state Rep.Michael Kelly has proposed the Alas-ka Firearm Freedom Act, which wouldmake it illegal for federal agents toenforce new gun-control legislationon Alaskan soil. Similar legislationhas been introduced in 23 other states.In two — Montana and Wyoming —such bills have passed the House,and a nullification measure has passedthe Senate in Kentucky. 73

These bills are being promotedby a national states’-rights groupcalled the Tenth Amendment Cen-ter, which argues that states do nothave to enforce laws they believeare unconstitutional.* But the U.S.Supreme Court has repeatedly reject-ed state nullification laws. “The statescan’t simply choose to defy and over-ride a valid federal law,” said AllenRostron, a professor of constitutionallaw at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The U.S. Constitutiondeems federal statutes “the supremelaw of the land,” he said. 74

Liability Insurance

I n at least six states legislators haveproposed bills requiring gun own-ers to purchase liability insurance. Back-ers hope insurers would reward safebehavior — such as having a triggerlock — with lower premiums, accordingto The New York Times. “I believe thatif we get the private sector and in-surance companies involved in gunsafety, we can help prevent a numberof gun tragedies every year,” saidDavid P. Linsky, a Democratic staterepresentative in Massachusetts. “In-surance companies are very good atevaluating risk factors and setting theirpremiums appropriately.”However, the insurance industry is

wary of such proposals, according tothe paper, especially if they require cov-erage for damages resulting not justfrom negligence but also from “willfulacts,” such as shooting an intruder, whichare generally not covered. 75

“Insurance will cover you if yourhome burns down in an electrical fire,but it will not cover you if you burndown your own house, and you can-not insure yourself for arson,” saidRobert P. Hartwig, president of theNew York-based Insurance Informa-tion Institute. 76

OUTLOOKPolitical Reality

B road public support exists forcertain gun-control measures, and

a sharp partisan divide separates thepublic on others, according to a PewResearch Center poll. Eighty-three per-cent of Americans support backgroundchecks for private and gun-show sales,a position for which there is biparti-san agreement. But only slightly more

GUN CONTROL

Continued from p. 248

* The 10th Amendment to the Constitutionstates: “The powers not delegated to the Unit-ed States by the Constitution, nor prohibitedby it to the States, are reserved to the Statesrespectively, or to the people.”


than half of Americans support pro-posals to ban assault weapons andhigh-capacity ammunition maga-zines, and those opinions breakalong party lines. 77

Similar thinking is reflected in theDemocratic-controlled U.S. Senate,where the gun-control debate is cur-rently centered. “I’m very optimisticabout legislation on universal back-ground checks, [because] you see evenconservative politicians coming for-ward and supporting it,” says Everitt ofthe Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Infact, Republican Sen. John McCain ofArizona told NBC’s “Meet the Press” onFeb. 17, “I think most of us will beable to support” bipartisan gun-controllegislation whose centerpiece is an ex-pansion of background checks. 78

Support also is growing in the Sen-ate for increased penalties for illegalgun trafficking and “straw purchases,”in which an individual buys a gunthrough a licensed dealer and thenpasses the gun to someone who typ-ically would not pass a backgroundcheck. The Senate Judiciary Commit-tee was scheduled to consider billsaddressing those issues — plus school-safety measures, universal backgroundchecks and an assault-weapons ban— on March 7.But the chances of Congress ban-

ning assault weapons are close to zero,says Gottlieb of the Second Amend-ment Foundation. “This is not goingto go anywhere,” he says. Many po-litical analysts agree chances areslim and doubt that the controver-sial ban would become part of anygun-control legislation emerging fromthe Senate Judiciary Committee.As an alternative, Feinstein could

offer her legislation banning assaultweapons and limiting large-capacitymagazines on the floor of the Senateas an amendment. However, “If it’s justoffered as a floor amendment it’s like-ly to fail, because it’s a stand-aloneprovision and Republicans will fili-buster and it will be almost impossi-

ble for Democrats to get 60 votes,”said Darrell West, director of gover-nance studies at the Washington-basedBrookings Institution. 79 (A filibusteris a procedure to delay or block avote by one or more senators speak-ing on any topic for as long as theywish. It takes 60 Senators to agree toend a filibuster.)While Everitt favors a ban on assault

weapons, his highest priority is a re-quirement for universal backgroundchecks. “Universal background checksare a staple of any civilized country’sgun laws, and one that we’ve neverhad on the books and should havebeen done decades ago in this coun-try,” he says.Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled

House is waiting to see what the Sen-ate does before it takes up the issue ofgun violence. “They feel if we’re able todo something, there might be a chance,”said Senate Judiciary Committee Chair-man Leahy.” “If we’re unable, frankly,they’re not going to try anything at all.I think that’s a political reality.” 80

Notes

1 Ray Rivera and Peter Applebome, “Sandy HookParents’ Testimony to Legislature Reflects Divideon Guns,” The New York Times, Jan. 28, 2013,www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/nyregion/connecticut-legislature-hearing-on-gun-violence.html.2 Mattioli and Heslin quotes are from ibid.3 “Gun Violence Prevention Testimony — Hen-son,” YouTube, Feb. 27, 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJt-yrXKYG4&feature=endscreen.4 “President Obama Makes a Statement onthe Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut,” TheWhite House, Dec. 14, 2012, www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2012/12/14/president-obama-makes-statement-shooting-newtown-connecticut.5 For background, see Sarah Glazer, “VideoGames,” CQ Researcher, Nov. 10, 2006, pp.937-960; updated, Sept. 23, 2011. For back-ground on gun debates, see the following CQResearchers: Kenneth Jost, “Gun Violence,”May 25, 2007, pp. 457-480; Bob Adams, “GunControl Debate,” Nov. 12, 2004, pp. 949-972.

6 National Rifle Association press conference,Dec. 21, 2012, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2012/12/21/nras-wayne-lapierre-put-armed-police-officers-in-every-school/.7 Barbara Raymond, “Assigning Police Officersto School,” U.S. Department of Justice, April 2010,pp. 1, 7, www.cops.usdoj.gov/Publications/e041028272-assign-officers-to-schools.pdf.8 “The Andrea Tantaros Show,” Jan. 14, 2013,www.trn1.com/tantaros-audio.9 “Gun Rights Supporter Sen. Mark Warner SaysTighter Firearms Laws Needed,” “Newshour,”PBS, Dec. 18, 2012, www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec12/warner_12-18.html.10 “Now is the Time: Gun Violence ReductionExecutive Actions,” The White House, Jan. 26,2013, www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/wh_now_is_the_time_actions.pdf.11 Ruby Cramer, “Gun Control Advocates:Obama’s Proposals ‘Unprecedented,’ ” Buzzfeed,Jan. 16, 2013, www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/gun-control-advocates-obamas-proposals-unpreced.12 Joseph Gerth, “Mitch McConnell vows toblock President Obama’s gun control initiatives,”The Courier-Journal, Jan. 20, 2013, www.courier-journal.com/article/20130119/NEWS010605/301190088/Mitch-McConnell-vows-block-President-Obama-s-gun-control-initiatives?nclick_check=1.13 Garen J. Wintemute, “Tragedy’s Legacy,”The New England Journal of Medicine, Jan. 31,2013, p. 397, www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1215491.14 Letter, The University of Chicago Crime Lab,Jan. 10, 2013, p. 1, http://crimelab.uchicago.edu/sites/crimelab.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Biden%20Commission%20letter_20130110_final.pdf.15 “Crime in the United States 2011,” Table 1,FBI, www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-1;“Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics Data Build-ing Tool,” FBI, www.ucrdatatool.gov/Search/Crime/State/TrendsInOneVar.cfm.16 “WISQARS Injury Mortality Reports, 1981-1991,” Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention, http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate9.html; “WISQARS Injury Mortality Re-ports, National and Regional, 1999-2010,”Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_us.html.17 William Krouse, “Gun Control Legislation:Executive Summary,” Congressional ResearchService, Nov. 14, 2012, p. 8, www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32842.pdf.

252 CQ Researcher

18 “Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review,”National Research Council of the NationalAcademies, December 2004, p. 3, www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10881&page=2.19 Zachary Roth, “Blackout: How the NRAsuppressed gun violence research,” MSNBC,Jan. 14, 2013, http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/14/blackout-how-the-nra-suppressed-gun-violence-research.20 Jordan Yerman, “Jacob Tyler Roberts IDedas Oregon mall shooter: Photos,” examiner.com, Dec. 12, 2012, www.examiner.com/article/jacob-tyler-roberts-ided-as-oregon-mall-shooter-photos.21 “Mass Shooting Incidents in America (1984-2012),” Citizens Crime Commission of New YorkCity, www.nycrimecommission.org/initiative1-shootings.php.22 Ibid.23 “Feinstein Introduces Bill on Assault Weapons,High-Capacity Magazines,” The Office of Sen-ator Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senate, Jan. 24, 2013,www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=5dffbf07-d8e5-42aa-9f22-0743368dd754.24 Eric Lichtblau, “N.R.A. Leaders Stand FirmAgainst Gun Restrictions,” The New York Times,Dec. 23, 2012, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/n-r-a-leaders-defiant-in-television-appearances; “Wayne LaPierre Testi-mony Before the U.S. Senate Committee,” Na-tional Rifle Association, Jan. 31, 2013, http://home.nra.org/classic.aspx/blog/350.25 Christopher S. Koper, “An Updated Assess-ment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Im-pacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003,” U.S. Department of Justice, June 2004,p. 1, www.sas.upenn.edu/jerrylee/research/aw_final2004.pdf.26 David S. Fallis and James V. Grimaldi, “InVirginia, high-yield clip seizures rise,” The Wash-ington Post, Jan. 23, 2011, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/22/AR2011012204046.html.

27 Koper, op. cit.28 “Assault Weapons Ban of 2013,” The Officeof Senator Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senate, Jan. 24,2013, www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/assault-weapons-ban-summary.29 Daniel W. Webster, et al., “The Case for GunPolicy Reforms in America,” Johns HopkinsCenter for Gun Policy and Research, October2012, p. 10, www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research/publications/WhitePaper102512_CGPR.pdf.30 For background see Kenneth Jost, “GunRights Debates,” CQ Researcher, Oct. 31, 2008,pp. 889-912; updated July 22, 2010.31 Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, “Guns inAmerica: Results of a Comprehensive Nation-al Survey on Firearms Ownership and Use,”Police Foundation, 1996, p. 27, www.policefoundation.org/content/guns-america.32 “Keystone of Obama gun control plan gainssteam as Dem, GOP senators seek back-ground check pact,” The Associated Press(The Washington Post), Feb. 8, 2013.33 Daniel W. Webster, et al., “Preventing theDiversion of Guns to Criminals through Ef-fective Firearm Sales Laws,” Reducing GunViolence in America: Informing Policy withEvidence and Analysis (2013), p. 110.34 “Wayne LaPierre Testimony Before the U.S.Senate Committee,” op. cit.35 Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, “The Lim-ited Impact of the Brady Act: Evaluation andImplications,” Reducing Gun Violence in Amer-ica: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analy-sis (2013), pp. 22-25.36 Wintemute, op. cit., p. 398.37 “Attorney General’s Concealed Carry ReportShows Record Number of Licenses Issued in2012,” press release, Office of Ohio AttorneyGeneral, Feb. 27, 2013, www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/News-Releases/February-2013/Attorney-General’s-Concealed-Carry-Report-Shows-Re.

38 “Guns in Public Places: The Increasing Threatof Hidden Guns in America,” Law Center toPrevent Gun Violence,” July 1, 2011, http://smartgunlaws.org/guns-in-public-places-the-increasing-threat-of-hidden-guns-in-america.39 “NRA EVP and CEO Wayne LaPierre —Speech to CPAC 2011,” YouTube, Feb. 10, 2011,www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg_uy9_2a1U.40 “Gun Control: States’ Laws and Require-ments for Concealed Carry Permits Vary acrossthe Nation,” U.S. Government AccountabilityOffice, July 2012, pp. 75-76, www.gao.gov/assets/600/592552.pdf.41 “Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review,”op. cit.42 Abhay Aneja, John J. Donohue III andAlexandria Zhang, “The Impact of Right-To-Carry Laws and the NRC Report: Lessons forthe Empirical Evaluation of Law and Policy,”Social Sciences Research Network, June 29,2010, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1632599.43 Ian Ayres and John J. Donohue III, “Shoot-ing Down the ‘More Guns, Less Crime’ Hy-pothesis,” Stanford Law Review, April 2003,pp. 1204-1205, http://islandia.law.yale.edu/ayers/Ayres_Donohue_article.pdf.44 “Gun Control: States’ Laws and Require-ments for Concealed Carry Permits Vary acrossthe Nation,” op. cit., p. 19.45 Craig R. Whitney, Living with Guns: A Lib-eral’s Case for the Second Amendment (2012),pp. 45-47.46 Adam Winkler, Gun Fight: The Battle Over theRight to Bear Arms in America (2011), p. 116.47 Ibid.48 Saul Cornell, A Well Regulated Militia: TheFounding Fathers and the Origins of GunControl in America (2006), p. 4.49 Clayton E. Cramer, Concealed Weapon Lawsof the Early Republic: Dueling, Southern Vio-lence, and Moral Reform (1999), pp. 2-3.50 Ibid., pp. 6-7.51 Cornell, op. cit., p. 4.52 Ibid., pp. 142-143.53 “A Brief History of the NRA,” www.nrahq.org/history.asp.54 Winkler, op. cit., pp. 208-209.55 Sam B. Warner, “The Uniform Pistol Act,”Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology,November-December 1938, p. 530.56 Winkler, op. cit., pp. 203-204.57 “Hearings Before the Committee on Ways andMeans,” House of Representatives, Seventy-thirdCongress, on H.R. 9066, April and May 1934,p. 53, www.keepandbeararms.com/nra/nfa.htm#KarlT.

GUN CONTROL

About the AuthorBarbara Mantel is a freelance writer in New York City. Sheis a 2012 Kiplinger Fellow and has won several journalismawards, including the National Press Club’s Best ConsumerJournalism Award and the Front Page Award from the News-women’s Club of New York for her Nov. 1, 2009, CQ GlobalResearcher report “Terrorism and the Internet.” She holds aB.A. in history and economics from the University of Virginiaand an M.A. in economics from Northwestern University.


58 Osha Gray Davidson, Under Fire: the NRA &the Battle for Gun Control (1993), p. 29.59 Whitney, op. cit., p. 3.60 Ibid., pp. 5-6.61 Davidson, op. cit., p. 30.62 Ibid., pp. 30-31, 36.63 Winkler, op. cit., pp. 71-72.64 “Personal Guns and the Second Amend-ment,” The New York Times, Dec. 17, 2012,www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/opinion/the-gun-challenge-second-amendment.html.65 Thomas Kaplan, “Sweeping Limits on GunsBecome Law in New York,” The New YorkTimes, Jan. 15, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/nyregion/tougher-gun-law-in-new-york.html.66 Ibid.67 “Documenting County and Town resolutionson the NY SAFE act,” NY SAFE Resolutions,www.nysaferesolutions.com.68 Fredric U. Dicker, “Hit us with your bestshot, Andy!” New York Post, Jan. 21, 2013, www.nypost.com/p/news/local/hit_us_with_your_best_shot_andy_5rxZg0gYBJJhkLBtiTPMfJ.69 “Private Sales Policy Summary,” Law Centerto Prevent Gun Violence, http://smartgunlaws.org/private-sales-policy-summary; “Licensingof Gun Owners and Purchasers Policy Summa-ry,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, http://smartgunlaws.org/licensing-of-gun-owners-purchasers-policy-summary; “Summary of StateAssault Weapon Laws,” Law Center to Pre-vent Gun Violence, http://smartgunlaws.org/assault-weapons-policy-summary; “Large Ca-pacity Ammunition Magazines Policy Sum-mary,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence,http://smartgunlaws.org/large-capacity-ammunition-magazines-policy-summary.70 For background, see Kathy Koch, “ZeroTolerance,” CQ Researcher, March 10, 2000,pp. 185-208. Also see Kathy Koch, “SchoolViolence,” CQ Researcher, Oct. 9, 1998, pp.881-904.71 Amanda Paulson, “Gun-control bills passColorado House: Was Aurora a tipping point?”The Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 20, 2013,www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0220/Gun-control-bills-pass-Colorado-House-Was-Aurora-a-tipping-point-video.72 Laura Nahmias, “Malloy Charts New Courseon Gun Laws,” The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 21,2013, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324048904578316573460812236.html.73 “2nd Amendment Preservation Act: 2013Legislation,” Tenth Amendment Center, http://tracking.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2ndamendment.

74 John Hancock and Brad Cooper, “Legisla-tors in Missouri, Kansas and elsewhere lookto nullify federal laws,” The Kansas City Star,Jan. 23, 2013, http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/states-looking-to-nullify-the-feds.75 Michael Cooper and Mary Williams Walsh,“Buying a Gun? States Consider Insurance Rule,”The New York Times, Feb. 21, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/us/in-gun-debate-a-bigger-role-seen-for-insurers.html.76 Ibid.77 “Gun Control: Key Data Points from PewResearch,” Pew Research Center, Feb. 7, 2013,

www.pewresearch.org/2013/02/07/gun-control-key-data-points-from-pew-research.78 Peter Grier, “Which gun control measuresare gaining momentum in Congress?” TheChristian Science Monitor, Feb. 19, 2013, www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2013/0219/Which-gun-control-measures-are-gaining-momentum-in-Congress-video.79 Alexander Bolton, “Senate Dems face gun-control dilemma,” The Hill, Feb. 6, 2013, http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/281343-senate-democrats-face-gun-dilemma.80 Grier, op. cit.

FOR MORE INFORMATIONBrady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 1225 Eye St., N.W., Suite 1100,Washington, DC 20005; 202-289-7319; www.bradycampaign.org. Education and ad-vocacy group that works to pass federal and state laws to reduce gun violence.

Gun Owners of America, 800 Forbes Pl., Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151; 703-321-8585; http://gunowners.org. Lobbying organization that works to preserve Sec-ond Amendment rights of gun owners.

Harvard Injury Control Research Center, 677 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA02115; 617-432-8080; www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc. Academic research center thatstudies the causes of injury, as well as intervention strategies and policies.

Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, Bloomberg School ofPublic Health, 615 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD 21205; 410-955-6878; www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research.Academic research center that works to reduce gun-related injuries and deaths.

Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 268 Bush St., #555, San Francisco, CA94104; 415-433-2062; http://smartgunlaws.org. National law center that promotesgun-control legislation and policies.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Mayor of New York City, City Hall, 260 Broadway,New York, NY 10007; 212-788-2958; www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org. Coalition of800 mayors supporting policies and laws to keep guns away from criminals.

National Rifle Association of America, 11250 Waples Mill Rd., Fairfax, VA 22030;800-672-3888; http://nra.org. Membership organization that promotes gun owner-ship rights and trains firearm users.

National Shooting Sports Foundation, 11 Mile Hill Rd., Newtown, CT 06470;203-426-1320; www.nssf.org. Trade association whose members include firearmsmanufacturers, distributors, retailers, shooting ranges, clubs and publishers.

Second Amendment Foundation, 12500 N.E. 10th Pl., Bellevue, WA 98005; 425-454-7012; www.saf.org. Advocacy group that promotes gun ownership rights througheducation and legal action.

Tenth Amendment Center; www.tenthamendmentcenter.com. Think tank advo-cating states’ rights and the decentralization of federal government power.

Violence Policy Center, 1730 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Suite 1014, Washington, DC20036; 202-822-8200; www.vpc.org. Advocacy and research organization working toreduce gun violence.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

254 CQ Researcher

Selected Sources

BibliographyBooks

Cornell, Saul, A Well Regulated Militia: The Founding Fa-thers and the Origins of Gun Control in America, Ox-ford University Press, 2006.A constitutional historian examines the origins of the SecondAmendment and the ensuing constitutional debate.

Webster, Daniel W., and Jon S. Vernick, eds., ReducingGun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidenceand Analysis, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.Leading experts summarize relevant research and recom-mend policies to reduce gun violence, including expandingbackground checks to private firearms sales and prohibitingmore categories of criminals from possessing firearms.

Whitney, Craig R., Living with Guns: A Liberal’s Casefor the Second Amendment, PublicAffairs, 2012.A journalist explores the history behind today’s polarizeddebate about guns and concludes that both more guns andmore gun control would help reduce violence.

Winkler, Adam, Gun Fight: The Battle Over the Rightto Bear Arms in America, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 2011.An expert in constitutional law examines America’s four-centurypolitical battle over gun control and the right to bear arms.

Articles

Dicker, Fredric U., “Hit us with your best shot, Andy!”New York Post, Jan. 21, 2013, www.nypost.com/p/news/local/hit_us_with_your_best_shot_andy_5rxZg0gYBJJhkLBtiTPMfJ.Gun-rights advocates and gun dealers are organizing aboycott of New York’s new gun-control law.

Gerth, Joseph, “Mitch McConnell vows to block PresidentObama’s gun control initiatives,” The Courier-Journal,Jan. 20, 2013, www.courier-journal.com/article/20130119/NEWS010605/301190088/Mitch-McConnell-vows-block-President-Obama-s-gun-control-initiatives?nclick_check=1.In a taped call to Kentucky gun owners, the Senate mi-nority leader promises to block the president’s gun-controlproposals.

Grier, Peter, “Which gun control measures are gainingmomentum in Congress?” The Christian Science Monitor,Feb. 19, 2013, www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2013/0219/Which-gun-control-measures-are-gaining-momentum-in-Congress-video.Support in the Senate is growing for expanded backgroundchecks, but backing for the more controversial ban on as-sault weapons is slim.

Redden, Molly, “Meet John Lott, the Man Who Wants toArm America’s Teachers,” The New Republic, Dec. 19, 2012,p. 1, www.newrepublic.com/blog/plank/111263/meet-john-lott-the-man-who-wants-teachers-carry-guns.Economist John Lott argues that carrying concealedweapons makes communities safer.

Roth, Zachary, “Blackout: How the NRA suppressed gunviolence research,”MSNBC, Jan. 14, 2013, http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/14/blackout-how-the-nra-suppressed-gun-violence-research.In the 1990s, the National Rifle Association helped insertlanguage into federal legislation restricting government-sponsoredresearch on gun violence.

Reports & Studies

“Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review,” National Re-search Council of the National Academies, December 2004,www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10881&page=2.A prominent research council finds that reliable data andresearch on gun violence and gun control are lacking.

“Gun Control: States’ Laws and Requirements for ConcealedCarry Permits Vary Across the Nation,” U.S. Government Ac-countability Office, July 2012, pp. 75-76, www.gao.gov/assets/600/592552.pdf.An independent congressional agency evaluates states’concealed-carry laws.

“Guns in Public Places: The Increasing Threat of HiddenGuns in America,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence,July 1, 2011, http://smartgunlaws.org/guns-in-public-places-the-increasing-threat-of-hidden-guns-in-america.A gun-control advocacy group analyzes states’ concealed-carry laws and concludes they lead to increased violence.

Koper, Christopher S., “An Updated Assessment of theFederal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Marketsand Gun Violence, 1994-2003,” U.S. Department of Justice,June 2004, www.sas.upenn.edu/jerrylee/research/aw_final2004.pdf.A criminology professor finds that the federal ban on assaultweapons had a negligible impact on crime.

Webster, Daniel W., et al., “The Case for Gun Policy Reformsin America,” Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Re-search, October 2012, p. 10, www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research/publications/WhitePaper102512_CGPR.pdf.A group of academic researchers argues for gun-controllegislation.


Assault Weapons

Davis, Janel, “Facts Back Up Support for Ban,” AtlantaJournal-Constitution, Feb. 5, 2013, p. B1.A majority of Americans support President Obama’s planto ban the sale of assault weapons nationwide.

Goode, Erica, “Even Defining ‘Assault Rifles’ Is Compli-cated,”The New York Times, Jan. 17, 2013, p. A18, www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/us/even-defining-assault-weapons-is-complicated.html?_r=0.Gun-rights groups and politicians often disagree over whatconstitutes an assault weapon.

Grier, Peter, “Gun Debate 101: How Would This Assault-Weapons Ban Be Different?”The Christian Science Mon-itor, Jan. 16, 2013.President Obama wants a ban on assault weapons that istougher than the 1994 law, but many lawmakers don’t wantto bar a particular class of firearm.

Background Checks

Sargent, Greg, “Gabrielle Giffords’ Husband Smacks DownWayne LaPierre,” The Washington Post, Jan. 30, 2013,www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/30/gabrielle-giffords-husband-smacks-down-wayne-lapierre/.The husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — severelyinjured in a 2011 shooting — says universal backgroundchecks would prevent gun crime.

Winkler, Adam, “Who Gets a Gun?” Los Angeles Times,Feb. 15, 2013, p. A21, articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/15/opinion/la-oe-winkler-guns-background-check-20130215.Free universal background checks would help preventcriminals from obtaining guns, says a UCLA law professor.

Conceal-Carry Laws

Sharockman, Aaron, “Florida Leads in Weapons Permits,”Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, Aug. 20, 2012, p. B1, www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/politifact-florida-rick-scott-says-florida-is-no-1-in-concealed-permits/1246687.About one in 17 Florida residents has a concealed-weaponspermit, the nation’s highest rate.

Wartman, Scott, “Ky. Loosens Concealed Weapons Law,”Cincinnati Enquirer, June 11, 2012, p. C1, cincinnati.com/blogs/nkypolitics/2012/06/05/new-law-wont-require-license-for-concealed-weapon-in-home-business/.Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear of Kentucky has signed abill that allows homeowners to carry a concealed weaponon their property without a license.

Whaley, Sean, “Proposal to Allow Guns on Campus,” LasVegas Review-Journal, Feb. 19, 2013, p. A1, www.lvrj.com/news/bill-would-allow-guns-in-class-not-at-sporting-events-191715421.html?ref=421.A Republican assemblywoman in Nevada has proposed al-lowing holders of concealed-weapons permits to bring theirguns onto state college campuses.

National Rifle Association

Lichtblau, Eric, “N.R.A. Leader, Facing Challenge in Wakeof Shooting, Rarely Shies From Fight,” The New YorkTimes, Dec. 21, 2012, p. A29, www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/nyregion/in-wake-of-newtown-shootings-nra-leader-faces-big-challenge.html.NRA President David Keene is widely regarded as one ofthe most aggressive defenders of gun rights in the organi-zation’s history.

Schouten, Fredreka, “Democrats Ready to Challenge NRA’sClout in Gun Debate,” USA Today, Dec. 21, 2012, p. A5,usatoday30.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2012-12-21-NRA-Congress_ST_U.htm.Experts say the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootingscould pose one of the biggest challenges ever to the Na-tional Rifle Association’s clout in the gun debate.

Simkins, Chris, “NRA Flexes Political Muscle in GunControl Fight,” Voice of America News, Dec. 21, 2012,www.voanews.com/content/nra-flexes-political-muscle-to-fight-gun-control/1570011.html.The National Rifle Association’s wide membership base andits ability to raise money for political purposes have madethe organization a major political force.

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