A n 9 1 n 0 9 iv th 2 er 3 sa -2 r 0 y 1 Res earc her 3 Published by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. CQ www.cqresearcher.com Gun Control Should lawmakers tighten firearm restrictions?

he debate over gun control has been inescapable since last December, when Adam Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elemen - T 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 The parents of Ana Márquez-Greene, one of the 20 to include private gun purchases, although support is weaker first-graders killed last December at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., attend a local news conference on Jan. 14. The shootings and more polarized for a ban on assault-style weapons and have triggered a flurry of debates over federal and state gun laws. large-capacity ammunition magazines. Yet momentum may be fading in Congress for passage of any new gun-control legislation I as members grapple with the federal government’s looming debt N THIS REPORT S limit and this month’s automatic budget cuts. THE ISSUES ...... 235 I BACKGROUND ...... 242 D CHRONOLOGY ...... 243 E CURRENT SITUATION ...... 247 CQ Researcher • March 8, 2013 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ...... 249 Volume 23, Number 10 • Pages 233-256 OUTLOOK ...... 250 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 254 EXCELLENCE N AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ...... 255 GUN CONTROL CQ Re search er March 8, 2013 THE ISSUES OUTLOOK Volume 23, Number 10 MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Billitteri • Would a ban on assault Political Reality [email protected] 235 250 Congress is not expected to weapons reduce gun vio - ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch lence? ban assault weapons. [email protected] • Would mandatory back - SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: ground checks of all gun Thomas J. Colin buyers keep guns away SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS [email protected] from dangerous people? Concealed-Carry Laws ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost • Do state laws allowing 236 Sweep Nation STAFF WRITER: Marcia Clemmitt citizens to carry concealed Forty-nine states allow con - weapons make communities cealed firearms. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sarah Glazer, safer? Peter Katel , Reed Karaim, Robert Kiener, Barbara Mantel, Tom Price, Jennifer Weeks Anatomy of an AR-15 Rifle BACKGROUND 237 Features can include threaded SENIOR PROJECT EDITOR: Olu B. Davis barrels for mounting silencers ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa Early Gun Culture or flash suppressors. 242 The colonies imposed FACT CHECKER: Michelle Harris restrictions on gun Types of Firearms EDITORIAL INTERN: Ethan McLeod ownership. 239 Descriptions of semiautomatic, automatic and assault firearms. Federal Gun Control 244 A Prohibition-era crime 240 Public Backs Most Gun- wave prompted the first Control Proposals federal regulation of guns. Background checks for gun- An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. show and private gun sales VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, have wide support. Gun Debate HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP: 246 Michele Sordi The decade of the ’60s Chronology was a turning point in the 243 SENIOR DIRECTOR, ONLINE LIBRARY AND Key events since 1926. REFERENCE PUBLISHING: cultural war over guns. Todd Baldwin Background-Check System 244 Has Serious Gaps Copyright © 2013 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Pub - CURRENT SITUATION Crucial mental-health and lications, Inc. SAGE reserves all copyright and other drug-abuse records are not rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. New York Is First included in the database. No part of this publication may be reproduced 247 A new law beefs up the electronically or otherwise, without prior written state’s already-strict gun At Issue: permission. Un au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis- regulations. 249 Should all gun sales be reg - sion of SAGE copy right ed material is a violation of istered in a national data - federal law car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. More State Action base? CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional 248 By early March, state law - Quarterly Inc. makers had introduced FOR FURTHER RESEARCH CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- 1,159 firearms-related bills, free paper. Pub lished weekly, except: (March wk. 5) about 308 more than dur - For More Information (May wk. 4) (July wk. 1) (Aug. wks. 3, 4) (Nov. wk. ing that period in 2012. 253 Organizations to contact. 4) and (Dec. wks. 3, 4). Published by SAGE Publica - tions, Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Nullification Bibliography Annual full-service subscriptions start at $1,054. For 250 Two dozen states have 254 Selected sources used. pricing, call 1-800-818-7243. To purchase a CQ Re - proposed nullifying federal searcher report in print or electronic format (PDF), gun-control laws. The Next Step visit www.cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single 255 Additional articles . reports start at $15. Bulk purchase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are also available. Periodicals 255 Citing CQ Researcher postage paid at Thousand Oaks, California, and at Sample bibliography formats. additional mailing offices . POST MAST ER: Send ad dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Cover: AFP/Getty Images/Don Emmert Wash ing ton, DC 20037.

234 CQ Researcher Gun Control BY BARBARA MANTEL

“That wasn’t just a killing. THE ISSUES That was a massacre,” said Neil Heslin, who lost his 6-year- he debate over gun old son, Jesse Lewis. Heslin control has been in - told lawmakers that private T escapable since last citizens have no need for as - December, when Adam Lanza sault weapons like the one used a so-called assault rifle * Lanza used to kill his son. 2 to kill 20 first-graders and six But an impassioned Hen - adults at Sandy Hook Ele - son Ong, a Waterbury, Conn., mentary School in Newtown, resident, said that if Korean shop Conn., before taking his own owners had not armed them - life in one of the most hor - selves with semiautomatic rific mass shootings in the weapons with large-capacity nation’s history. magazines during the 1992 y

The fallout from the mas - t

t riots in Los Angeles, many of o

sacre has been widespread c s their stores would have been i P and relentless: marches and burned to the ground. “Their’s c r

protests, fiery advertisements, a stood because they stood their M /

celebrity endorsements, con - s ground,” said Ong, who told e g

tentious congressional and a lawmakers he was an immi - m I

state hearings, proposed fed - grant and an American by y t

t 3

eral and state legislation and e choice. a tough, new gun-control law G Fresh memories of the Colorado supporters of gun ownership, including in New York state. Theresa White of Estes Park, demonstrate at the state Newtown shootings formed But whether the shooting Capitol in Denver on Jan. 9, 2013. The nation’s state the backdrop for the public will spur Congress to pass lawmakers are divided on new gun legislation. Many hearing. Lanza, a withdrawn stricter nationwide controls favor tougher background checks, but others oppose 20-year-old, shot his way into remains a toss-up — some limits on assault weapons and high-capacity the school wearing combat magazines. The public strongly favors expanding support exists, even among background checks to private gun sales, but reinstating gear and armed with two conservatives, for expanding a federal ban on assault weapons seems unlikely. semiautomatic pistols, a Bush - background checks to include master AR-15 semiautomatic private firearm sales, but a rifle and numerous large- federal ban on assault weapons seems revived and often rancorous discus - capacity ammunition magazines, each to be a nonstarter. Meanwhile, more sion of gun violence, gun-rights ad - holding 30 rounds. ( See glossary, p. 239 , than 1,000 firearm-related bills have been vocates sported round yellow stick - and diagram, p. 237. ) Lanza used the introduced in state legislatures, but only ers reading “Another Responsible Gun rifle to shoot his victims, all of them New York has passed one to date. Owner,” while gun-control support - multiple times, in under 10 minutes. In late January, more than 2,000 ers wore green ribbons in remem - The guns were legally owned by his people descended on Connecticut’s brance of Newtown. 1 mother, Nancy, whom Lanza had shot statehouse in Hartford for a packed Advocacy groups on both sides tes - dead earlier in the day. public hearing that ran more than tified, along with gun industry repre - “We’re going to have to come to - 17 hours. In a visual symbol of the sentatives, gun-violence victims and gether and take meaningful action to private citizens. Parents of children prevent more tragedies like this, re - killed at Sandy Hook, though joined gardless of the politics,” President * Federal and state laws banning semiauto - in mourning, were not always united 4 matic weapons with detachable magazines Obama said that afternoon. and military-style features use the term “as - in their testimony. After a week-long silence, Wayne sault weapon” to describe such firearms. But “I believe in a few simple gun laws. LaPierre, executive vice president of gun-rights advocates say only fully automatic I think we have more than enough the National Rifle Association of Amer - firearms, such as machine guns, are true as - on the books,” said Mark Mattioli, whose ica (NRA), the country’s leading gun- sault weapons. son James, 6, was killed. rights organization, headquartered in

www.cqresearcher.com March 8, 2013 235 GUN CONTROL

Fairfax, Va., blamed “vicious, violent Concealed-Carry Laws Sweep Nation video games” and lax law enforcement 5 Forty-nine states now allow gun owners to carry concealed for violent crime. firearms, compared with 31 in 1981. Thirty-five states — up from “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a two in 1981 — have adopted “shall issue” laws, which require gun,” said LaPierre. He called for plac - concealed-carry permits to be granted to gun owners who meet ing armed security officers — whether minimum qualifications. Meanwhile, the number of states with police or trained volunteers — at every “may issue” laws, which allow officials to deny concealed-carry public school in the nation. 6 But ac - permits at their discretion, has declined by more than half. cording to the Justice Department, near - Concealed-Weapon Laws by State, 1981 and 2013* ly half of the nation’s public schools already had assigned police officers even before the Newtown massacre. Wash. N.D. N.H. Mont. Minn. Few reliable studies have been done Vt. 7 Maine on their effectiveness. S.D. Wis. Ore. Idaho Unlike other recent mass shootings, Wyo. Mich. N.Y. Mass. Iowa which spurred outrage but no feder - Neb. R.I. Pa. Ill. Ind. Ohio Conn. al legislation, Newtown is different, Nev. Utah Colo. Kan. Mo. W.Va. N.J. say gun-control advocates. “People are Ky. Va. Calif. Del. really feeling like they have had enough Okla. Tenn. N.C. Ariz. Ark. Md. of this violence and these deaths,” says N.M. S.C. D.C. Miss. Laura Cutilletta, a senior staff attorney Ala. Ga. Texas La. with the San Francisco-based advoca - Fla. cy group Law Center to Prevent Gun Alaska No carry Violence. May issue Several members of Congress with Hawaii 1981 Shall issue “A” ratings from the NRA have re-eval - No permit uated their positions on gun control. required Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told a radio host that “everything is on the 8 Wash. Mont. N.D. N.H. table.” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said, Minn. Vt. Maine “there’s got to be a way that we can S.D. Wis. 9 Ore. Idaho do a bit more.” Wyo. Mich. N.Y. Mass. Iowa Meanwhile, the NRA continues to Neb. R.I. Pa. Ill. Ind. Ohio Conn. oppose all gun-control proposals. The Nev. Utah Colo. Kan. Mo. W.Va. N.J. debate has gotten only more heated Ky. Va. Calif. Del. since mid-January, when Obama un - Okla. Tenn. N.C. Ariz. Ark. Md. veiled sweeping recommendations from N.M. S.C. D.C. Miss. a gun-violence working group head - Ala. Ga. Texas La. ed by Vice President Joseph Biden. Fla. No-carry Obama called on Congress to man - Alaska law struck date universal background checks, ban down in December the sale of assault weapons and large- Hawaii 2013* capacity magazines and stiffen penal - ties for gun trafficking. Obama also announced 23 more modest executive * As of March 6, 2013 actions, including launching a nation - Sources: “Guns in Public Places: The Increasing Threat of Hidden Guns in America,” al safe and responsible gun owner - Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, August 2011, smartgunlaws.org/guns-in-public - ship campaign and improving mental- places-the-increasing-threat-of-hidden-guns-in-america/; “State Concealed Weapons health care. 10 Permitting,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, January 2012, smartgunlaws.org/ Gun-control advocates uniformly category/state-concealed-weapons-permitting/ praised Obama’s proposals. “It’s really

236 CQ Researcher unprecedented in its scope and com - plexity,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder Anatomy of an AR-15 Rifle of Third Way, a centrist think tank in Gun-control advocates say firearms such as the Rock River Arms 11 Washington. But many Republicans AR-15 rifle in this photo illustration have features that make them were highly critical of the proposals, “assault weapons.” Such features can include a threaded barrel for including Senate Minority Leader Mitch mounting a silencer or flash suppressor, which reduces the visible McConnell, R-Ky., who sent a record - ed message to gun owners across his flash that emanates from the muzzle when the gun is fired; a pistol state: “Their efforts to restrict your rights, grip that gives the shooter added control, and a detatchable maga - invading your personal privacy and zine. This rifle is similar in style to the Bushmaster AR-15 used by overstepping their bounds with exec - Adam Lanza in his deadly attack on schoolchildren at Sandy Hook utive orders, is just plain wrong.” 12 Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012. However, The NRA sponsored attack advertise - assault-style weapons account for only a small fraction of gun ments against the administration’s pro - crimes, experts say. posals, including one warning of a middle class left defenseless against “mad - men, drug cartels and home-invading Barrel shroud killers.” to protect Detachable, shooter’s hand Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary folding or Committee is preparing gun-control telescoping legislation, and lawmakers in several stock states 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 to Threaded barrel and block enforcement of any forthcom - flash guard, which ing federal gun control within their reduces visible flash borders. Mass shootings such as Newtown garner national headlines but account Detachable for a small fraction of gun violence, ammunition much of which is concentrated among Pistol grip magazine inner-city minorities. “In 2012, for the first time, there will probably be more Source: Photo illustration by Getty Images/Joe Raedle firearm-related homicides and suicides than motor vehicle traffic fatalities,” About two-thirds of murders are com - he says, citing data from the Univer - said Garen Wintemute, director of the mitted with firearms — mostly hand - sity of Chicago’s General Social Sur - Violence Prevention Research Program guns — and the gun-related homicide vey (GSS). Egan attributes the trend at the University of California Davis rate has dropped as well. Researchers to increasing urbanization; an increase Medical Center. 13 say possible reasons include violence- in households headed by single Nevertheless, the homicide rate in prevention programs, a decline in the women, who are less likely to own America, while dramatically higher than crack-cocaine market, the nation’s aging guns than men; and a resulting de - in many other Western democracies, population and the use of communi - cline in the number of children who is falling. 14 “We are at a 45-year his - ty policing, among others. Suicides by inherit the habit of gun ownership toric low in terms of our murder rate,” gun account for more than half of from parents. says political scientist Patrick Egan of firearm-related deaths, and that rate While fewer individuals own guns New York University. Since reaching also has fallen. 16 today, more guns are in circulation, a a peak of 10.2 reported murders per In addition, individual gun owner - trend that accelerated after Newtown, as 100,000 people in 1980, the rate ship is at or near all-time lows, says gun buyers flocked to retailers and gun steadily declined during the next 20 Egan. “Back in the 1970s, about one shows in expectation of future restric - years, plateaued through 2007, then in two households kept a gun, and tions. “Our best guess is that fewer peo - dropped to 4.7 in 2011. 15 these days it’s more like one in three,” ple are owning more guns,” says Egan.

www.cqresearcher.com March 8, 2013 237 GUN CONTROL

Americans own about 300 million “None of the funds made available for wasn’t a wakeup call that these guns today, up from just under 200 injury prevention and control at the weapons of war don’t belong on our million 20 years ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Pre - streets, I don’t know what is,” she said. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms vention may be used to advocate or A press release from her office claimed and Explosives (ATF). 17 promote gun control.” 19 that a previous ban, the Federal As - Data on gun violence, ownership The CDC stopped funding research sault Weapons Ban of 1994 in effect and sales have been used to marshal on gun violence, and other sources until 2004, “was effective at reducing arguments on all sides of the debate. have not picked up the slack. As one crime and getting these military-style However, such data are often “unreli - of his executive actions, Obama has di - weapons off our streets.” 23 able” and “inadequate,” and the lack rected the CDC to resume research into The NRA’s LaPierre has called Fein - of dependable information severely causes and prevention of gun violence, stein’s proposal “a phony piece of legis - hampers research, according to a Na - saying it is not “advocacy,” and has asked lation” that is “built on lies” and said tional Academy of Sciences report. 18 Congress for $10 million in funding. the previous ban had no impact on For instance, how many U.S. house - Against this backdrop, here are some lowering crime. 24 holds own guns? While the GSS says of the questions researchers, gun- Both Feinstein and LaPierre were about one-third, other surveys put it rights and gun-control advocates, selectively quoting from a Department higher. How many guns are in circula - elected officials and law enforcement of Justice analysis of the 1994 law, tion? Because no national gun registry are asking: which banned the manufacture, trans - exists, the ATF’s 300 million number is fer and possession of 18 specific mod - only an estimate. Would a ban on assault weapons els by name and all other semiauto - How about the number of stolen reduce gun violence? matic firearms that fell under its general guns? “We really don’t know,” says The semiautomatic rifle that Lanza definition of assault weapons: those that economist David Hemenway, director used is one of the most popular rifles could accept a detachable magazine of the Boston-based Harvard Injury Con - in America. But the gun — a civilian and had at least two specified military- trol Research Center. If the aggregate version of the military’s fully automatic style features, such as a bayonet mount, figure is unknown, researchers certain - M-16 rifle — also has been the folding rifle stock and a threaded bar - ly can’t know “the who, what, when, weapon of choice in several other re - rel for attaching silencers . 25 (See dia - where and how,” he says. Since 2004, cent rampages. Jacob Tyler Roberts, gram, p. 237. ) Congress has restricted the ATF from 22, used one to kill two people and While the ban was in effect, “the releasing information from its Firearms wound another before taking his own percentage of crime guns that were Tracing System database. The restric - life in an Oregon shopping mall in assault weapons went down by a third tion is known as the “Tiahrt Amend - December. 20 James Holmes, 24, is ac - or more,” says Christopher Koper, the ment,” after its principal sponsor, for - cused of using one, along with a 12- report’s principal investigator and a mer Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan. gauge shotgun, to open fire in a Col - professor of criminology at George Even FBI crime data can be in - orado movie theater last July, killing 12 Mason University in Fairfax, Va. How - complete because local, county, state, and wounding 58. 21 ever, prior to the ban assault weapons tribal and federal law enforcement agen - So-called long guns — shotguns and had been used in only a small fraction cies provide it voluntarily. rifles — are not the only firearms used of gun crimes — about 2 percent — The lack of extensive gun-violence in mass shootings, defined by the FBI his study showed. research dates to the early 1990s. After as incidents in which four or more The law also prohibited large-capacity two studies funded by the Centers for victims are killed. Forty-year-old Wade magazines holding more than 10 rounds Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Michael Page, for example, used a of ammunition. Many non-banned semi - showed that a gun in the home is as - semiautomatic handgun equipped with automatics accept such magazines, and sociated with increased risks of homi - a 19-round magazine last August to such guns represented up to 26 per - cide and suicide in the home, the NRA kill six people and wound three at a cent of crime guns prior to the ban. pressed a Republican-controlled Con - Sikh temple in Wisconsin. 22 A newspaper’s analysis of Virginia gress in 1996 to strip the CDC of the In January, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, data found a reduction in the num - $2.6 million funding for such research. D-Calif., introduced a ban on assault ber of large-capacity magazines seized It then succeeded in casting the CDC’s weapons and large-capacity magazines by police during the ban. 26 But more gun research as motivated by support that hold more than 10 rounds of am - generally, “we found that it was in - for gun restrictions, getting the fol - munition. conclusive whether the use of large- lowing sentence into 1997 legislation: “If 20 dead children in Newtown capacity magazines declined in any

238 CQ Researcher real way,” says Koper. “That, of course, has to be linked to the grandfather - Types of Firearms ing provision in the law.” Indeed, the law had a huge loop - Semiautomatic: Each pull of the trigger results in a complete hole. Any banned magazine or assault firing cycle, from discharge through reloading. Most guns sold in the weapon manufactured before the law United States, including handguns, are semiautomatic. took effect remained legal to own or Loads, discharges and reloads as long as the trigger sell. There were nearly 1.5 million as - Automatic: sault weapons privately owned in the remains depressed. Machine guns, for example, are automatic. United States at the time, along with Assault weapon: Gun-rights advocates say only automatic nearly 25 million guns equipped with firearms are assault weapons. Others say the definition also includes large-capacity magazines. 27 Did the ban reduce gun crime? “We semiautomatic firearms with detachable magazines and at least one didn’t really expect to see a reduc - military-style feature, such as a bayonet mount or threaded barrel tion in the rate of gun crime overall,” for attaching a silencer.

Koper says. “People could substitute AFP/Getty Images/Joe Klamar other guns for the ones that were banned. But by forcing that substitu - “We are very supportive of the bill,” ly impact of any ban, pointing to a tion, we thought it could reduce the says Cutilletta of the Law Center to study in Jersey City, N.J., that found number of gunshots and the number Prevent Gun Violence. “The hope is 10 or more rounds were fired in fewer of victims.” that even the grandfathered weapons than 5 percent of gun incidents. Still, But, there was no evidence that it and magazines will at least be regu - the center said, “We have decided to did, Koper says. “However, if the law lated and their potential damage will regulate the design of numerous con - had been in place longer and we had be curtailed.” sumer products, such as cribs and small, had a drop in the use of large-capacity But gun-rights groups say Fein - high-powered magnets, in order to pre - magazines, would you then see more stein’s bill wouldn’t reduce gun vio - vent far fewer deaths than could be of an impact on gun deaths and gun lence. “There would be instant weapon prevented with a ban of [large-capacity injuries?” he asks. substitution,” says Alan Gottlieb, exec - magazines].” 29 Feinstein’s proposed legislation tries utive vice president of the Second But gun-rights advocates say Fein - to correct what gun-control advocates Amendment Foundation, a legal-action stein’s law would contradict a 2008 believe were the expired law’s weak - group in Bellevue, Wash., that pro - ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in nesses. It would ban 157 specific motes gun rights. “A shotgun can do District of Columbia v. Heller , in which weapons by name. And it would re - as much damage as a so-called assault the court struck down the District’s duce the number of military-style fea - weapon.” handgun ban. 30 “The Heller case said tures that define a semiautomatic Gottlieb says the ban on large- that guns that are in common use by weapon as an assault weapon from capacity magazines wouldn’t reduce law-abiding people are protected by two to one, making it more difficult gun violence either because someone the Second Amendment,” says Virginia for gun manufacturers to make cos - intent on inflicting mass damage could attorney Stephen Halbrook, who has metic changes to elude the ban, as use many smaller magazines. “It takes successfully argued gun-rights cases they did under the expired law. As a whopping three seconds to change before the court. “And the kinds of before, large-capacity magazines hold - a magazine,” says Gottlieb. guns that are being banned are very ing more than 10 rounds of ammuni - Koper offers this assessment. “In the much in common use.” tion would be prohibited. long run, the bill, if passed, would “That’s a reasonable interpretation of While the law would exempt assault probably not affect the overall rate of the Heller case,” says Adam Winkler, a weapons lawfully possessed at the gun crime. But it could result in a constitutional law professor at UCLA date of enactment, it would require small reduction in shootings because School of Law, “yet I think the coun - purchasers of such weapons to un - you are forcing offenders to substitute terargument is that the Supreme Court dergo a background check, and it less-lethal weapons and magazines. By might interpret the common-use re - would prohibit the sale or transfer of small, I don’t mean trivial.” quirement to only apply when needed grandfathered large-capacity magazines. The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun for self-defense.” The firearms banned In addition, the law would not auto - Policy and Research also warned of under Feinstein’s bill are not self-defense matically expire. 28 the need to be realistic about the like - weapons, says Winkler.

www.cqresearcher.com March 8, 2013 239 GUN CONTROL

violence an opportunity to buy guns Public Backs Most Gun-Control Proposals without any background check,” says Ladd Everitt, director of communica - A majority of Americans support requiring background checks for tions for the Washington-based advo - gun-show and private gun sales, establishing a federal database to cacy group Coalition to Stop Gun Vi - track gun sales, barring people who are mentally ill from purchasing olence. “It makes no sense.” guns and putting police in more schools. However, most oppose A survey of state prison inmates con - arming more teachers. victed of crimes committed with a hand - gun found that nearly 80 percent said 100% Public Support for Gun Policy Proposals, January-February 2013 they got their guns from private sources 80 — either friends or families or from street or black-market suppliers. Anoth - 60 er 10 percent said they stole their gun;

40 one in 10 said they purchased a gun from a licensed dealer. 33 20 The NRA is opposed to expanding background checks. “Let’s be honest, 0 Back- Prevent Federal Armed Ban on Ban on Ban on Ban on Give more background checks will never be ‘uni - ground the database security semi- assault- high- online teachers checks mentally to track guards/ automatic style capacity sale of and versal’ because criminals will never 34 for ill gun police weapons weapons ammu- ammu- school submit to them,” said LaPierre. private from sales in more nition nition officials Everitt calls that response the anar - and purchasing schools clips guns gun guns chy argument: “They say that criminals show don’t obey laws, so why should we sales have laws?” But that misses the point, he says. “There still would be ways for Source: “Gun Control: Key Data Points From Pew Research,” Pew Favor Research Center, February 2013, www.pewresearch.org/2013/02/ criminals to get around background Oppose 07/gun-control-key-data-points-from-pew-research/ checks, but the people who sold them the gun would be held accountable. Would mandatory background The proposal to expand background Now they are not.” checks of all gun buyers keep checks to include private firearms sales The NRA argument also assumes guns away from criminals and — a less controversial idea than ban - that criminals are smart, determined other dangerous people? ning assault weapons or large-capacity and informed, says Philip Cook, a pro - Federal law prohibits possession of magazines — is gathering bipartisan fessor of economics and sociology at firearms by — among others — felons, momentum, at least in the Senate. Ju - Duke University in Durham, N.C. “A fugitives, certain categories of domes - diciary Committee Chairman Patrick large percentage of criminals are youth - tic-violence offenders, drug addicts Leahy, D-Vt., is a strong supporter, and ful, not very well educated and very and those found mentally incompe - a diverse group of four senators — in - impatient, and even if you put small tent or a danger to themselves or oth - cluding Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer obstacles in their path that might dis - ers because of mental illness or who of New York, a liberal, Republican Sen. courage them from getting guns, it have been involuntarily committed to Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, an NRA would help.” a mental institution. The 1994 Brady member and strong conservative, and Gun-control advocates say the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act re - moderate GOP Sen. Mark Kirk of Illi - Act, even with the private-sales ex - quires gun buyers to submit to back - nois — has been meeting privately to emption, has been effective. “By block - ground checks — usually taking just work out a compromise. “We’ll get ing 2 million attempts to purchase [since a few minutes — but only if pur - something, I hope. I’m praying for it,” 1994], we have placed a barrier,” says chasing through a federally licensed said Sen. Manchin of West Virginia, one Becca Knox, director of research at the gun dealer. Private sales — at gun of the participants . 32 Sen. Coburn’s re - Washington-based Brady Campaign to shows, online or person-to person — sistance to requiring private sellers to Prevent Gun Violence. “The estimate is are exempt, yet they may account for keep a record of transactions is ap - that half of those denials are to felons.” 30 to 40 percent of firearms sales, ac - parently holding up the compromise. But a study of the law’s first five cording to 1994 survey data, the most “Until you close this loophole, you’re years, conducted by Cook and Jens recent available. 31 giving people with a propensity for Ludwig, director of the University of

240 CQ Researcher Chicago Crime Lab, a research insti - meanors, such as misdemeanor assault cealed weapons in public, often ex - tute, found “no evidence of a reduc - and battery, which are generally pun - cept in parks, schools, government of - tion in the homicide rate that could ishable with jail time of up to one year. fices, bars and places of worship. ( See be attributed to Brady.” The re - “The Brady Campaign is in favor of that maps, p. 236. ) For example: searchers compared homicide rates in expansion,” says Knox. • Nineteen states prohibited con - 32 states directly affected by the Brady The gap in records that states vol - cealed carry in 1981; today none do. Act with the 18 states that already had untarily submit to the FBI’s National (Washington, D.C. does ban it.) In De - their own similar laws on the books. Instant Criminal Background Check cember, the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court Homicide rates were dropping System, particularly mental health of Appeals in Chicago told Illinois its nationwide before the act was passed, records, also prevents the Brady Act ban was unconstitutional and gave it due in part, experts say, to the end from having a more measurable im - until early June to draft a concealed- of the crack cocaine epidemic, pact on homicide rates. As a result of carry law. changes in policing and increased im - that gap, buyers who should be dis - • In 1981, 28 states had “may-issue” prisonment rates. The trends were re - qualified slip through the system, peo - permit laws, which allow officials to markably similar in both groups of ple on all sides of the gun debate grant or deny a concealed-carry per - states, and the researchers found the agree. ( See sidebar, p. 244. ) mit; today 10 states have such laws. trends in homicide rates remained re - California, Rhode Island and New • In 1981, two states had “shall-issue” markably similar after the Brady Act York have completely closed the back - permit legislation, which require officials was passed. 35 ground-check loophole, requiring such to issue a concealed-carry permit to any - So how do the researchers recon - checks for every gun purchase. (New one meeting minimum qualifications; cile the Brady Act’s lack of a detectable York just did so in January). Yet Cook today, 35 states have such laws. impact on homicide rates with the mil - says researchers don’t know how effec - • In 1981, only Vermont did not lions of people denied handguns tive those laws been in stemming gun require a gun owner to have a per - through background checks since the violence. “There is no money for these mit to carry a concealed firearm; today act became law? “We did some back- evaluations,” says Cook. Alaska, Arizona, Vermont and Wyoming of-the-envelope calculations using what In any case, it’s not easy to con - require no permit. 38 we know about the people who at - duct such evaluations because guns Gun-rights advocates say right-to- tempt to buy a gun from a dealer even flow from states with lax laws to states carry laws, especially “shall-issue” though they are disqualified — how with strict laws. At gun shows in Reno, laws, reduce crime. “The presence of likely they are to go commit homi - Nev., “a third of the cars in the park - a gun in the hands of good person cide,” says Cook. Using data from Cal - ing lot are from California,” said gun makes us all safer. It’s true. History ifornia and extrapolating nationwide, violence expert Wintemute. 36 proves it,” said the NRA’s LaPierre. 39 he estimates that the 60,000 annual He and others argue that not only can denials in the five years he studied Do state laws allowing citizens gun-carrying individuals ward off at - would have prevented roughly 40 homi - to carry concealed weapons tackers, but criminals are deterred be - cides — or about eight per year. make communities safer? cause they don’t know who does or Cook blames “the private-sale loop - More than 76,000 Ohio residents re - does not carry a concealed weapon. hole” primarily for the Brady Act’s lack ceived licenses to carry concealed In most states, the percentage of adults of detectable impact on homicide weapons last year, the highest num - with active concealed-carry permits is rates. “And we can close that,” he says. ber since the state began licensing in in the single digits. For example, in In addition, a majority of adults who 2004, according to Ohio Attorney Gen - Ohio the figure is 3.2 percent. 40 end up committing a crime with a gun eral Mike DeWine. Six out of seven Gun-control advocates could not dis - did not fall into any of the categories were new licenses and the rest re - agree more. “Carrying guns in public that would have disqualified them from newals. “As a strong supporter of the puts American families and commu - buying the gun, says Cook. “In Cook Second Amendment, I am pleased to nities at risk of more gun deaths and County [Ill.] data, only 40 percent of de - see more Ohioans than ever before injuries, as opposed to providing greater fendants in murder cases were disqual - are exercising their rights under Ohio’s protection,” says Knox of the Brady ified by having a felony conviction.” concealed carry law,” DeWine said. 37 Campaign, which opposes shall-issue That’s why many criminologists want Over the past 30 years, states have permit laws. Congress to expand the list of people drastically loosened their “right-to-carry” It’s a fierce debate that was turbo charged ineligible to possess a gun to include laws, which allow citizens who can in 1997, when economist John Lott those convicted of violent misde - legally own firearms to carry con - concluded, based on his analysis of

www.cqresearcher.com March 8, 2013 241 GUN CONTROL

nationwide county data, that right-to- that gives citizens the right to carry After the Revolution, the Founding carry laws deter violent crime. The concealed weapons. Fathers addressed gun rights in the NRA and state legislatures have used “It’s something that we absolutely Second Amendment, part of the Bill Lott’s research to justify right-to-carry oppose,” says Knox. “This would be a of Rights attached to the U.S. Consti - legislation. race to the bottom. The state with the tution in 1791. The amendment reads: Lott’s work triggered a tremendous loosest regulations would be driving “A well regulated Militia being neces - number of followup studies. “There have who could carry.” sary to the security of a free State, the been more than two dozen, each claim - right of the people to keep and bear ing to be somewhat superior to the Arms shall not be infringed.” Various others,” says Harvard’s Hemenway. Some states drafted constitutions with simi - researchers lined up with Lott while BACKGROUND lar provisions. Their intended mean - many others found serious problems ing became the subject of debate in with the data and analysis. The Na - the early 19th century as states en - tional Academy of Sciences’ 2004 re - acted “the first comprehensive laws port found “no credible evidence that Early Gun Culture prohibiting handguns and other con - the passage of right-to-carry laws de - cealed weapons,” according to histo - creases or increases violent crime.” 41 un-control and gun-rights regu - rian Saul Cornell. 48 One persistent Lott critic, John Dono - G lations share a long history in In 1813, Kentucky and Louisiana be - hue of Stanford Law School, revisited the United States. Adult white men in came the first states to ban the carrying the issue in 2010 and concluded, the American colonies had the right of concealed weapons. Indiana did so again, that right-to-carry laws do not to own firearms for hunting and self- in 1820, followed over the next two deter crime. In fact, he said, “aggra - defense and, in fact, were required to decades by Georgia, Tennessee, Vir - vated assault rises when [such] laws use them in the service of local mili - ginia and Alabama. 49 The Southern are adopted.” 42 tias, often in battles with Native Amer - states were responding to the extra - “Screening is very weak, and you icans. But the colonies also placed re - ordinary violence in the region, where have people getting these permits who strictions on gun ownership. an honor culture meant “that insults have some type of criminal record, who In 1637 about 100 Massachusetts could not be safely ignored,” wrote have mental health history, a history of Bay colonists were ordered to surren - historian Clayton Cramer. “If someone drug abuse or a history of domestic der their “guns, pistols, swords, pow - insulted you publicly, or cast doubts violence,” says Everitt of the Coalition der, shot & match” on suspicion of about your honor, you challenged them to Stop Gun Violence. In addition, “The being heretics, wrote journalist Craig to a duel” or pulled out a gun or presence of a gun can turn something Whitney. 45 Maryland barred Roman Bowie knife to “settle the matter right that should have been a fistfight into Catholics from possessing firearms, and on the spot.” 50 something far more lethal.” Pennsylvania disarmed Loyalists during These early gun-control laws spawned Donohue and fellow researcher Ian the Revolutionary War. These were not legal challenges asserting constitutional Ayres of Yale Law School have said “criminals or traitors who took up arms rights to bear arms for individual self- that arming citizens could encourage on behalf of the British” but “ordinary defense. Most courts disagreed and up - an “arms race” in which criminals “re - citizens exercising their fundamental held the laws, interpreting the right to spond to shall-issue laws by packing right to freedom of conscience,” wrote bear arms as a community duty and more heat and shooting quicker.” And UCLA’s Winkler. 46 not an individual right. However, “a few with as many as one million or more Colonies also forbade slaves, free courts embraced the new ideology of guns stolen each year, “putting more blacks and people of mixed race — gun rights,” wrote Cornell. 51 guns in the hands of the law-abiding who in some states far outnumbered While some states were tightening population necessarily means that more whites — from owning firearms, fearing gun regulations, “others, such as Mis - guns will end up in the hands of crim - they might revolt. Combine their num - sissippi and Connecticut, were writing inals,” they wrote. 43 bers with the up to 40 percent of the into their constitutions more robust state - The majority of shall-issue states rec - population who were Loyalists, and the ments affirming the right of individu - ognize permits from other states, but colonies “were perfectly willing to con - als to have weapons for self-defense,” most states with may-issue permit laws fiscate weapons from anyone deemed he wrote. At the same time, “Other do not. 44 The U.S. House of Repre - untrustworthy — a category so broad - states rejected the new language and sentatives passed a bill in 2011 that ly defined that it included a majority of reaffirmed the traditional civic model would create reciprocity in every state the people,” wrote Winkler. 47 Continued on p. 244

242 CQ Researcher Chronology

mentally ill from buying guns, rais - 2003 1920s-1930s es the age to purchase guns from Congress passes Tiahrt Amendment States and Congress pass gun- a federally licensed dealer to 21 prohibiting law enforcement from control legislation. and expands dealer licensing re - releasing data showing where quirements. criminals bought their firearms. 1926 American Bar Association commis - 1986 2004 sion, with National Rifle Associa - Reagan signs Firearm Owners’ Pro - “Assault weapons” ban expires. tion (NRA) support, adopts model tection Act limiting the Bureau of state legislation regulating the con - Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms 2005 cealed carry and sale of handguns; from inspecting licensed gun deal - President George W. Bush signs Pro - Pennsylvania is among the first to ers more than once a year and tection of Lawful Commerce in Arms adopt it. forbidding the government from Act granting gun manufacturers im - creating a national registry of gun munity from civil lawsuits involving 1934 owners. crimes committed with guns. National Firearms Act of 1934 — first federal gun-control law — 1990 2008 levies $200 tax on the manufac - Gun-Free School Zones Act makes Supreme Court holds that Americans ture or sale of machine guns and it a federal crime to knowingly have an individual right under the “sawed-off” shotguns; owners must bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a Second Amendment to posses register them with the U.S. Treasury school or fire a gun within that firearms for self-defense within the Department. zone. In 1995 the U.S. Supreme home. Court rules that punishment of 1938 gun possession or use near 2012 National Firearms Act of 1938 re - schools is a state matter. Federal appeals court rules that quires interstate gun dealers to be Illinois’ ban on concealed carry of licensed and to record sales; pro - 1993 firearms is unconstitutional and gives hibits gun sales to convicted President Bill Clinton signs Brady the state until early June to draft a felons. . . . Carrying concealed Handgun Violence Act requiring concealed carry law (Dec. 11) . . . . handguns is either prohibited or licensed gun dealers to conduct Adam Lanza kills 20 children and permitted only with a license in background checks of buyers; un - six adults at Sandy Hook Elemen - every state but two. licensed private sellers are exempt. tary in Newtown, Conn., sparking national outrage and renewing • 1994 gun-control debate (Dec. 14). Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (often 2013 1960s-1990s called the “assault weapons ban”) President Obama proposes sweep - Democratic administrations prohibits the manufacture and sale ing gun-control legislation. . . . sign major gun-control legisla - of semiautomatic assault weapons Congress begins gun-control hear - tion into law. Republican Pres - for 10 years; it also bans ammuni - ings. . . . Sen. Dianne Feinstein, ident Ronald Reagan promotes tion magazines holding more than D-Calif., introduces legislation to gun rights. 10 rounds. ban assault weapons and large- capacity ammunition magazines. . . . 1968 • New York legislature passes one Af ter the assassinations of President of the nation’s strictest gun-control John F. Kennedy, Democratic presi - laws. Thirty-four of 62 New York dential candidate Sen. Robert F. 2000s Gun-control counties pass resolutions demand - Kennedy and the Rev. Martin advocates face defeats in Con - ing that lawmakers repeal the act; Luther King Jr, President Lyndon B. gress and Supreme Court, but a state court has agreed to review Johnson signs the Gun Control Act massacre of 20 children in whether the new law was rushed of 1968; it prohibits convicted Newtown, Conn., in December through the legislature in violation felons, drug users and the seriously reignites gun-control debate. of the state constitution.

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

he nation’s system for checking the background of gun Connecticut and Georgia required agencies to share relevant buyers is supposed to help keep firearms out of the mental-health records with NCIS. After the shootings, 19 addi - T hands of felons, fugitives, drug abusers, people legally tional states — including Virginia — adopted such laws. 2 determined to be dangerous or incompetent to manage their The federal government also increased funding to help states affairs due to mental illness or those who have been commit - with record keeping and reporting after the Virginia Tech shootings. ted to a mental institution, among others. Licensed firearms Since then, the gap has narrowed. From 2004 to 2011, states dealers call or email the National Instant Criminal Background increased the number of mental-health records available to NICS Check System (NICS) and usually receive an immediate answer for background checks by 500 percent. However, according to about whether to deny or allow a sale. the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal watch - But the NICS database has serious gaps. Crucial mental- dog agency, “this progress largely reflects the efforts of 12 states.” health and drug-abuse records are missing because states are Most states, the GAO said, “have made little or no progress in not required to share them with NICS. They do so voluntari - providing these records.” 3 ly. “Unfortunately, as long as these gaps remain, they are going “Many states are still performing poorly,” says Feinblatt. For to be fatal,” says John Feinblatt, chairman of New York-based instance, 23 have reported fewer than 100 mental-health records Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 800 mayors that is - to the federal background-check database since its creation in sued a recent report on gaps in the background system. 1999, and 44 states have submitted fewer than 10 records about The report points to two mass killers who eluded the back - drug abuse. As a result, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has con - ground check system: cluded that millions of records identifying drug abusers and peo - • Seung Hui Cho passed several background checks to pur - ple with serious mental illness are absent from the system . 4 chase the guns he used to kill 32 people and himself at Vir - But even if the background check system worked perfect - ginia Tech University in 2007, despite a judge’s earlier deter - ly, it would have only a marginal impact on gun violence, says mination that he was mentally ill. Virginia had never entered Jeffrey Swanson, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University his mental-health records in the NCIS system. and a leading expert in the causes and control of violence. “It • Jared Loughner had a history of drug abuse, according would probably reduce overall gun violence against others by to media accounts, that was never reported to NCIS before he 4 or 5 percent,” says Swanson, because the mentally ill account passed background checks to purchase guns he used to kill for a very small fraction of violent crime. six people and critically wound 13 others — including Rep. While the mentally ill are responsible for close to 20 percent Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., in Tucson in 2011. 1 of mass shootings, said Michael Stone, a New York forensic Before the Virginia Tech shootings, only Alabama, Colorado, psychiatrist, “most mass murders are done by working-class men

Continued from p. 242 goal would be to “promote and en - mostly to handguns. It recommended of the right to bear arms.” For exam - courage rifle shooting on a scientific that states require individuals to apply 53 ple, Maine’s constitution, adopted in basis,” according to Church. for a license to carry a concealed gun 1820, declared that “every citizen has The NRA held target-shooting com - in public and that states issue such li - a right to keep and bear arms for the petitions and sponsored gun clubs and censes with discretion. Handgun sell - common defense.” 52 shooting ranges. Membership swelled ers had to be licensed, keep sales between World War I (1914-1918) and records and forward them to law en - World War II (1939-1945), when the forcement officials and refrain from Federal Gun Control U.S. military gave more than 200,000 selling guns to those convicted of vi - surplus rifles to NRA members for free olent crimes. 54 he NRA was not initially a gun- or at government cost. The NRA promoted this model leg - T rights organization. “Dismayed by The NRA also helped write model islation nationwide, and numerous the lack of marksmanship shown by state gun-control legislation containing states adopted it in whole or in part. their troops [during the Civil War], some provisions similar to those ve - In fact, a 1938 scholarly article con - Union veterans Col. William C. Church hemently opposed by the association cluded: “Today the carrying of con - and Gen. George Wingate formed the today. The Uniform Firearms Act, pro - cealed pistols is either prohibited ab - National Rifle Association in 1871,” duced by an American Bar Associa - solutely or permitted only with a license 55 reads the NRA website. Its primary tion commission in 1926, applied in every state but two.”

244 CQ Researcher who’ve been jilted, fired or otherwise humiliated — and who Appelbaum, director of law, ethics and psychiatry at New York’s then undergo a crisis of rage and get out one of the 300 million Columbia University Medical Center. 9 guns in our country and do their thing.” 5 Some experts say it’s debatable whether mental-health pro - In an article earlier this year, Swanson and his colleagues fessionals will take the reporting requirement seriously, because detailed other flaws in assumptions underlying the background- the law does not hold them liable if the decision to report or check system. 6 For example, the small fraction of the mental - not to report a patient to authorities is made — in the statute’s ly ill who are dangerous often don’t seek treatment before wording — “reasonably and in good faith.” 10 doing something harmful, so they would not show up in a background-check database. And even when they do seek help, — Barbara Mantel doctors often can’t identify them as dangerous, according to studies. “Psychiatrists are just not very good at predicting who 1 “Fatal Gaps,” Mayors Against Illegal Guns, November 2011, p. 2, www.mayors is going to be violent or not,” says Swanson. “It’s not much againstillegalguns.org/downloads/pdf/maig_mimeo_revb.pdf. 2 better than chance.” Ibid. , p. 14. 3 “Sharing Promising Practices and Assessing Incentives Could Better Posi - Despite that record, New York’s newest gun-control law re - tion Justice to Assist States in Providing Records for Background Checks,” quires a doctor, psychologist, registered nurse or licensed clin - Government Accountability Office, July 2012, p. 9, www.gao.gov/assets/600/ ical social worker who determines that a patient is a danger 592452.pdf. 4 to himself or others to report that patient to the government. “Fatal Gaps,” op. cit. , p. 3. 5 Benedict Carey and Anemona Hartocollis, “Warning Signs of Violent Acts Often The government may then decide to prevent the person from Unclear,” The New York Times , Jan. 15, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/01/ possessing a firearm or revoke an existing license. 7 Under cur - 16/health/breaking-link-of-violence-and-mental-illness.html?_r=0. rent professional guidelines, only involuntary hospitalizations 6 Jeffrey W. Swanson, et al. , “Preventing Gun Violence Involving People with Serious Mental Illness,” Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing and direct threats made by patients are required to be report - Policy with Evidence and Analysis (2013), p. 36. ed to state authorities, who then share the information with 7 “Program Bill #1,” New York Legislative Bill Drafting Commission, pp. 19-20, the federal background-check database, according to The New www.governor.ny.gov/assets/documents/GPB_1_GUNS_BILL_LBD_12007_03_3 . York Times. 8 pdf. 8 Many mental-health professionals oppose this new provi - Carey and Hartocollis, op. cit. 9 “Experts: Tougher N.Y. gun control law may discourage therapy,” The As - sion, fearing that people will avoid treatment or not reveal their sociated Press, Jan. 16, 2013, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/ true thoughts in therapy. “If people with suicidal or homicidal 01/15/ny-gun-law-therapy/1836323. impulses avoid treatment for fear of being reported in this way, 10 “Program Bill #1,” op. cit. , p. 20. they may be more likely to act on those impulses,” said Paul

Congress came later to gun control. guns had to register them with the U.S. The NRA supported the law be - The federal government’s first major Treasury Department. While no one ex - cause it was an “indirect” approach to attempt occurred in the 1930s as pected criminals to comply, their failure controlling gun violence. “I think that Prohibition-era gangsters with com - to do so meant that if caught with such under the Constitution the United States pact machine guns outgunned city po - a gun, a criminal could be jailed for tax has no jurisdiction to legislate in a po - lice, and notorious criminals such as evasion or non-registration, and “the lice sense with respect to firearms,” John Dillinger, Bonnie Parker and Clyde government wouldn’t have to prove NRA president Karl T. Frederick testi - Barrow, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, that the person had killed anyone,” fied at a 1934 congressional hearing Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd and Kate wrote Winkler. 56 before the law was passed. “I think “Ma” Barker used guns and cars for The Roosevelt administration initially that is exclusively a matter for state crime sprees across state lines. wanted to include handguns in the regulation, and I think that the only The National Firearms Act of 1934, law, a provision the NRA opposed be - possible way in which the United States signed into law by President Franklin cause it said it would make it difficult can legislate is through its taxing power, D. Roosevelt, imposed a $200 tax on for ordinary citizens to defend them - which is an indirect method of ap - the manufacture, sale or transfer of selves against criminals. After a mas - proach, through its control over inter - machine guns and “sawed-off” shot - sive NRA-organized letter writing cam - state commerce, which was perfectly guns and rifles with barrels less than paign, Congress dropped the handgun proper, and through control over im - 18 inches long. Anyone possessing such provision. portations.” 57

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Four years later, Congress expand - — displayed their guns in public to bans all interstate sales of handguns; ed the federal government’s reach, re - attract media attention. And after the lists categories of people to whom quiring gun sellers to obtain a license assassinations of civil rights leader Dr. firearms may not be sold, including from the Internal Revenue Service and Martin Luther King Jr. and Democrat - convicted felons and the seriously prohibiting the sale of guns and am - ic senator and presidential candidate mentally ill; and requires dealers to munition to felons — provisions the Robert F. Kennedy two months apart maintain records of gun sales. NRA supported. Franklin Orth, NRA ex - “After this flurry of ecutive vice president — activity, Congress and the seat of power at the the NRA went back to organization — testified their respective corners before Congress in favor and more or less left of the law. “We do not each other alone,” think any sane American, wrote journalist Osha who calls himself an Amer - Gray Davidson. The ican, can object to plac - NRA’s “lobbying wing ing into this bill the in - remained incidental to strument which killed the the organization’s pri - president of the United mary mission of serv - States,” he said. ing hunters and target But a growing number shooters.” 58 of NRA members were fu - rious at Orth. “Their ob - jections didn’t so much Gun Debate stem from opposition to any specific sections of the hat changed dra - legislation; it was the con - n o

matically three s cept of gun control itself l

T i

decades later. “The W that they disliked, even

k 61 1960s were the turning r hated,” wrote Davidson. a M

point for the cultural / The 1968 dispute was s e

war over guns as we g “the opening volley in what a

know it,” wrote Whit - m was to become an all-out I

y t

ney. Rising crime, racial t war, one that would split e

tensions and a loss of G the gun group wide open public confidence in the Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle over the next decade,” police “led millions of Association (NRA), has criticized proposed gun-control legislation, wrote Davidson. The divi - although a January Pew Research Center poll shows 85 percent of Americans to buy gun owners support making private gun sales subject to sion pitted mostly older weapons for personal background checks. Only 43 percent of gun owners, however, members who believed the protection,” he wrote. said they support a ban on assault-style weapons. NRA should focus on Despite more guns teaching gun safety and and more homicides, Congress was “re - in 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson organizing shooting competitions and luctant to pass gun laws that would be pleaded with Congress to pass gun- hunting clinics against younger mem - taken as a threat to the lawful use of control legislation “in the name of san - bers who wanted the NRA to focus on weapons by ordinary Americans,” said ity, in the name of safety and in the blocking any and all gun-control mea - Whitney . 59 name of an aroused nation.” 60 In Oc - sures as violations of the Second Amend - Congress took no action on guns tober, he signed into law the Gun Con - ment. At the organization’s 1976 an - after the assassination of President John trol Act of 1968. nual meeting in Cincinnati, the young F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. But pub - The statute requires all persons “hard-liners” took control, using par - lic opinion shifted a few years later, manufacturing, importing or selling liamentary procedure to shift power as race riots engulfed the nation’s cities firearms as a business to be federal - from officials to the membership, and members of the revolutionary Black ly licensed; prohibits the interstate which then voted out the old guard Panther Party openly — and legally sale of firearms through the mail; and voted in the new.

246 CQ Researcher “The Cincinnati Revolt (as the episode the court made i t clear that its opin - The legislation won praise from became known) changed forever the ion did not “cast doubt” on a wide gun-control advocates, including New face of the NRA,” according to David - variety of gun-control laws that regu - York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, son. It “became more than a rifle club. lated who could possess firearms, who said it “protects the Second It became the Gun Lobby.” 62 where they could be carried and how Amendment rights of people, and at In 1986, the NRA scored a victory they could be sold. The court also the same time it makes all New York - when President Ronald Reagan signed recognized limitations on “dangerous ers safer.” 66 into law the Firearm Owners’ Protec - and unusual” weapons but did not But 34 of 62 New York counties tion Act. It prohibits civilian transfer or define them. 64 have passed resolutions demanding possession of machine guns but legal - “The court went out of its way to that lawmakers repeal the act. 67 And izes shipments of ammunition through make clear that the right to bear arms a state court has agreed to review whether the mail; allows gun owners to trans - can co-exist with gun control,” says the new law was rushed through the port firearms through states where they Winkler. legislature in violation of the state con - are banned; prohibits the federal gov - stitution. “To have Cuomo dictate to the ernment from maintaining a registry of honest gun owners of New York be - guns and their owners; and mandates cause of the few criminals is criminal that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco CURRENT in itself,” says Harold “Budd” Schroeder, and Firearms (ATF) inspect licensed gun chairman of the Shooters Committee on dealers for compliance with the 1968 Political Education (SCOPE), a volunteer law no more than once a year. The SITUATION gun-rights organization with 12 chapters NRA had complained that ATF agents across the state. had been harassing dealers. In addition, “the law is unworkable,” The pendulum swung the other New York Is First says Schroeder. While Feinstein dropped way under President Bill Clinton. In from her proposed federal assault- December 1993 he signed the Brady ew York has become the first — weapons ban a requirement that own - Handgun Violence Prevention Act in - N and so far only — state to pass ers of grandfathered weapons register stituting background checks for gun gun-control legislation since the New - their guns, New York state’s law kept purchases through licensed dealers. town shootings. “I’m proud to be a a registration provision. “If you don’t The law was named after Reagan Press New Yorker because New York is doing require registration, someone could say Secretary James Brady, who was seri - something — because we are fighting that they had the gun when the ban ously wounded in an assassination at - back,” Democratic Gov. Andrew M. went into effect, and there is no way tempt on Reagan in 1981. And in 1994 Cuomo said in mid-January as he signed to prove that they didn’t. It’s an en - Clinton signed a measure banning what the New York Secure Ammunition and forcement tool,” says Cutilletta of the it defined as assault weapons and large- Firearms Enforcement Act, or SAFE Law Center to Prevent Violence. capacity ammunition magazines. The Act, into law. 65 Schroeder, like the NRA, calls reg - NRA vehemently opposed both laws. The act makes the state’s already- istration the first step toward firearms After the Brady Act was passed, the strict gun regulations some of the na - confiscation. However, seven states and NRA told its members that rogue gov - tion’s toughest. It broadens the defi - Washington, D.C., require registration ernment agents will start to “go house nition of banned assault weapons; of some or all firearms and “no guns to house, kicking in the law-abiding requires owners of existing assault have been confiscated,” says Cutilletta. gun owners’ doors.” 63 weapons, grandfathered under the law, “It’s either paranoia or it’s a political Congress has passed no major to register them with the New York argument to try to scare people.” gun-control legislation since then. In State Police; reduces the limit on Nevertheless, a civil disobedience 2008, t he Supreme Court surprised gun- magazine capacity from 10 rounds of movement is brewing. “The sense I control advocates in its District of Co - ammunition to seven; requires back - get from all the gun owners I have lumbia v. Heller ruling, which nulli - ground checks of not only gun pur - been talking to is that the [New York] fied Washington, D.C.’s ban on chasers but also ammunition buyers; law says register your long guns — handgun ownership by declaring that expands background checks to pri - and that is not going to happen,” says individuals have a Second Amend - vate sales, except between immediate Schroeder. According to the New York ment right to possess firearms “for family members; and establishe s Post , gun-club leaders, gun dealers and traditionally lawful purposes, such as tougher penalties for the use of ille - Second Amendment advocacy groups self-defense within the home.” But gal guns. are organizing a registration boycott.

www.cqresearcher.com March 8, 2013 247 GUN CONTROL

While the boycott’s size won’t be State Gun Laws Vary Widely known until the registration deadline Since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, state legisla - of April 15, 2014, the state expects tures have been debating various proposals for changing gun laws, “widespread violations,” an unnamed but so far only New York’s has acted. It joins California, Rhode Cuomo- administration source told the newspaper. “Many of these assault-rifle Island and the District of Columbia in adopting some of the nation’s owners aren’t going to register; we re - toughest gun measures, including requiring “universal” background alize that,” the source said. Failing to checks on all gun purchases, some of which are now exempt under register is a class-A misdemeanor, pun - the federal Brady Act. ishable by up to a year in prison. 68 Key State Gun Laws* More State Action Universal Background Checks (Checks required for sales by both licensed dealers and private sellers) urrently, few states have strict gun- • California, New York, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., require C control measures on the books. universal background checks on sales of all classes of firearms. Six states and Washington, D.C., re - • Maryland requires universal background checks on purchases of quire universal background checks — handguns and assault weapons. for private firearm sales and sales • Connecticut and Pennsylvania require universal background checks through licensed dealers — but in some on all handgun sales. states the requirements don’t apply to all types of guns. Four states require Licenses and Permits licenses for anyone buying or owning • Anyone buying or owning a gun in Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts or any firearm, while seven states require New Jersey must get a license or permit. only handgun buyers and owners to • California, Connecticut, Iowa, Michigan, New York, North Carolina be licensed. Seven states and Wash - and Rhode Island require a license or permit for handguns only. ington, D.C., ban variously defined as - Safety Training and Exams sault weapons, while six of those states also ban large-capacity ammu - • Massachusetts requires gun buyers to take a firearms safety course nition magazines. 69 before buying a gun. But by the first week of March, • California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Michigan and Rhode Island also require 1,159 firearms-related bills had been gun-safety training, but only for handgun purchasers or owners. introduced in state legislatures, 308 Assault Weapons more than during the same period • Although the definitions of “assault weapon” vary, the following states in 2012, according to Cutilletta. Slight - ban sales of assault weapons: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, ly more than half of this year’s pro - New Jersey, New York and the District of Columbia. posals would expand gun controls. • Hawaii and Maryland ban assault pistols. Some would for the first time ban as - • Maryland, Minnesota and Virginia regulate the sale and use of assault sault weapons or limit magazine size, weapons. such as proposals in Vermont, South Carolina and Virginia; others would Large-Capacity Ammunition Magazines tighten existing bans, as New York • New York has banned magazines holding more than seven rounds. did. Several would require background • California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia ban checks on private firearms sales, magazines holding more than 10 rounds. New Jersey bans magazines such as a measure introduced in holding more than 15 rounds. New Mexico. • Maryland bans magazines holding more than 20 rounds. “Regulating ammunition sales is also popular,” says Cutilletta, “like banning * includes the District of Columbia Internet sales or mail-order sales of am - munition or requiring a background Source: “Search Gun Laws By Policy,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 2013, smartgunlaws.org/search-gun-law-by-gun-policy/ check before buying ammunition — Continued on p. 250

248 CQ Researcher At Issue:

Shoyes uld all gun sales be registered in a national database?

GAREN WINTEMUTE STEPHEN P. HALBROOK BAKER -T ERET CHAIR IN VIOLENCE ATTORNEY ; AUTHOR , T HE FOUNDERS ’ PREVENTION , U NIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA , SECOND AMENDMENT DAVIS WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , MARCH 2013 WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , MARCH 2013

n estimated 478,422 firearm-related violent crimes oc - our papers are not in order!” It’s five years in curred in 2011, including 11,101 homicides. To help prison for not registering to exercise a constitu - a prevent such violence, federal statute prohibits felons “y tional right. Unthinkable for any other right, but and certain others from acquiring or possessing firearms. People not the “right” to keep and bear arms — just ig - who acquire firearms from licensed gun dealers and pawnbrokers nore the “shall not be infringed” part of the Second Amendment. must provide identification and undergo a background check to Attorney General Eric Holder proposed that punishment for not verify they can legally own them. The retailer keeps a permanent registering a firearm in the District of Columbia when he was U.S. record of the transaction. attorney there. Sen. Dianne Feinstein demands the registration of Our current system is plagued by two major shortcomings. millions of “assault weapons,” which means anything she wants it First, perhaps 40 percent of all firearm acquisitions, and at to mean. Right now, in the Southern Border States, anyone buying least 80 percent of those made with criminal intent, are made more than one semiautomatic rifle per week is reported to the from private parties. No identification need be shown, no Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. background check conducted, no record kept. New York City required registration of hunting rifles and Second, licensed retailers keep their records to themselves. other “long guns” in the 1960s. It later declared them “assault If a firearm iys used in a creime and an s effort is made to trace weapons” and nsent the police to o confiscate them. New York its chain of ownership, the trace ordinarily ends with the first state just passed a law saying countless ordinary rifles have retail purchaser. Yet 85 percent of the time, the criminal who “assault” traits needing registration. California even records used the firearm is someone else. Without an archive of trans - purchases of duck-hunting guns and single-shot rifles. actions, the firearm cannot be traced beyond its first purchaser. Criminals don’t register guns. That’s why, even where regis - Background checks and purchase denials are very effective, tration is required, the police don’t check registration records reducing by approximately 25 percent the risk of the buyer com - before responding to crime scenes. Canada just abolished its mitting new firearm-related or violent crimes. Six states already billion-dollar gun-registration system because it never solved a require all firearm transfers to be routed through licensed retailers, single crime. so background checks are completed and records are kept. Germany just implemented a central database of all lawful In California, handgun transaction records are archived by firearms, a European Union diktat. The German interior minis - the state’s Department of Justice; records for rifles and shotguns ter promised very high security for handling the data, while a will be added in January 2014. Comprehensive background-check skeptic said “everything that is registered can be taken away policies interfere with the criminal acquisition of firearms and by the government.” Sound familiar? A year before the Nazis disrupt firearm trafficking. In California, traces of a firearm seized power, Germany decreed gun registration, and the Inte - used in a crime end with the most recent purchaser, not the rior Minister warned at the time: “Precautions must be taken first. Cold cases become hot cases. that these lists not . . . fall into the hands of radical elements.” The United States should set a single, simple, equitable Hitler then used them first to disarm democratic “enemies of standard for firearm transfers. It should require all transfers the state” and then, in 1938, the Jews during the violent (with certain exceptions for those within a family) to include pogrom known as Kristallnacht. a background check and a permanent record. The policy In France, Prime Minister Pierre Laval decreed gun registration. should not be limited to acquisitions at gun shows, which ac - After France fell to Germany in 1940, Laval guided the French count for only a small proportion of private-party firearm police to collaborate with the Nazis, who executed anyone transfers. To make it easier for law enforcement to trace failing to surrender firearms in 24 hours. firearms used in crimes, retailers should report to the FBI the Americans were well aware of these events. Just before make, model, caliber and serial number of the firearms they Pearl Harbor, Congress forbade registration of guns used for sell; they shouldn’t have to report the purchasers, except for sport or self-defense. It did the same in the Firearms Owners’ the first. Law enforcement can then trace a firearm used in a Protection Act of 1986 and Brady Act of 1993. crime to its most recent transaction and obtain more information The purpose of registration is confiscation. Until then, the from tnho e retailer. records are fodder for exploitation by hackers and burglars.

www.cqresearcher.com March 8, 2013 249 GUN CONTROL

Continued from p. 248 panded background checks, lower that’s been introduced in California.” magazine limits and a broader defi - Liability Insurance Gun safety also is being addressed; nition of assault weapons — and laws that would regulate the way guns vowed to push his plan through the n at least six states legislators have are stored have been introduced in legislature. “I think it’s time to lay it I proposed bills requiring gun own - Montana, Nebraska, California, Missouri out on the table and get it done,” ers to purchase liability insurance. Back - and South Carolina. Malloy said . 72 ers hope insurers would reward safe Perhaps no state is being watched behavior — such as having a trigger more closely by both sides of the gun lock — with lower premiums, according debate than Colorado, a historically Nullification to The New York Times. “I believe that pro-gun state and home to two of the if we get the private sector and in - nation’s most notorious mass shoot - ust under half of the firearm-related surance companies involved in gun ings: the 1999 Columbine High School J measures introduced in states this safety, we can help prevent a number massacre and last year’s killing spree year would loosen gun controls. Some of gun tragedies every year,” said at an Aurora movie theater. 70 In late would allow guns to be carried in David P. Linsky, a Democratic state February, the state’s Democratic-controlled public schools, and others attempt to representative in Massachusetts. “In - House approved a package of bills nullify new, and in some cases ex - surance companies are very good at that would require background checks isting, federal gun-control laws. For evaluating risk factors and setting their for all gun transactions, paid for by instance, Alaska Republican state Rep. premiums appropriately.” the purchaser; ban ammunition mag - Michael Kelly has proposed the Alas - However, the insurance industry is azines with more than 15 rounds; and ka Firearm Freedom Act, which would wary of such proposals, according to allow colleges to ban concealed make it illegal for federal agents to the paper, especially if they require cov - weapons on campus. No Republicans enforce new gun-control legislation erage for damages resulting not just voted for the bills, and several Democrats on Alaskan soil. Similar legislation from negligence but also from “willful crossed party lines to vote against them. has been introduced in 23 other states. acts,” such as shooting an intruder, which “This is part of our heritage,” Demo - In two — Montana and Wyoming — are generally not covered . 75 cratic Rep. Ed Vigil said during the such bills have passed the House, “Insurance will cover you if your debate, explaining why he opposed and a nullification measure has passed home burns down in an electrical fire, the measures. “This is part of what it the Senate in Kentucky. 73 but it will not cover you if you burn took to settle this land. I cannot turn These bills are being promoted down your own house, and you can - my back on that.” The bills have moved by a national states’-rights group not insure yourself for arson,” said to the state Senate, where Democratic called the Tenth Amendment Cen - Robert P. Hartwig, president of the control is much slimmer. 71 ter, which argues that states do not New York-based Insurance Informa - Meanwhile, pressure is building on have to enforce laws they believe tion Institute. 76 Connecticut’s elected officials to are unconstitutional. * But the U.S. strengthen the state’s gun-control laws Supreme Court has repeatedly reject - in the wake of the Newtown shoot - ed state nullification laws. “The states ings. A bipartisan legislative task force can’t simply choose to defy and over - OUTLOOK has missed a self-imposed deadline ride a valid federal law,” said Allen to recommend consensus gun-control Rostron, a professor of constitutional measures, and a separate task force law at the University of Missouri- appointed by Democratic Gov. Dan - Kansas City. The U.S. Constitution Political Reality nel P. Malloy is not expected to pro - deems federal statutes “the supreme duce its recommendation until later law of the land,” he said. 74 road public support exists for this month. B certain gun-control measures, and “The public is demanding they act,” a sharp partisan divide separates the said Scott McLean, an analyst with the publ ic on others, according to a Pew Quinnipiac University Polling Institute * The 10th Amendment to the Constitution Research Center poll. Eighty-three per - in Hamden, Conn. In mid-February, states: “The powers not delegated to the Unit - cent of Americans support background 5,500 people rallied for gun control ed States by the Constitution, nor prohibited checks for private and gun-show sales, at the statehouse. Soon after, Malloy by it to the States, are reserved to the States a position for which there is biparti - announced his own proposals — ex - respectively, or to the people.” san agreement. But only slightly more

250 CQ Researcher than half of Americans support pro - ble for Democrats to get 60 votes,” 6 National Rifle Association press conference, posals to ban assault weapons and said Darrell West, director of gover - Dec. 21, 2012 , www.washingtonpost.com/ blogs/ high-capacity ammunition maga - nance studies at the Washington-based post-politics/wp/2012/12/21/nras-wayne-lapierre- zines, and those opinions break Brookings Institution. 79 (A filibuster put-armed-police-officers-in-every-school /. 7 along party lines. 77 is a procedure to delay or block a Barbara Raymond, “Assigning Police Officers Similar thinking is reflected in the vote by one or more senators speak - to School,” U.S. Department of Justice, April 2010, pp. 1, 7, www.cops.usdoj.gov/Publications/e0 Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate, ing on any topic for as long as they 41028272-assign-officers-to-schools.pdf . where the gun-control debate is cur - wish. It takes 60 Senators to agree to 8 “The Andrea Tantaros Show,” Jan. 14, 2013, rently centered. “I’m very optimistic end a filibuster.) www.trn1.com/tantaros-audio . about legislation on universal back - While Everitt favors a ban on assault 9 “Gun Rights Supporter Sen. Mark Warner Says ground checks, [because] you see even weapons, his highest priority is a re - Tighter Firearms Laws Needed,” “Newshour,” conservative politicians coming for - quirement for universal background PBS, Dec. 18, 2012, www.pbs.org/newshour/ ward and supporting it,” says Everitt of checks. “Universal background checks bb/politics/july-dec12/warner_12-18.html . the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. In are a staple of any civilized country’s 10 “Now is the Time: Gun Violence Reduction fact, Republican Sen. John McCain of gun laws, and one that we’ve never Executive Actions,” The White House, Jan. 26, Arizona told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on had on the books and should have 2013, www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/ Feb. 17, “I think most of us will be been done decades ago in this coun - docs/wh_now_is_the_time_actions.pdf . 11 Ruby Cramer, “Gun Control Advocates: able to support” bipartisan gun-control try,” he says. Obama’s Proposals ‘Unprecedented,’ ” Buzzfeed , legislation whose centerpiece is an ex - Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled Jan. 16, 2013, www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/ 78 pansion of background checks . House is waiting to see what the Sen - gun-control-advocates-obamas-proposals-un Support also is growing in the Sen - ate does before it takes up the issue of preced . ate for increased penalties for illegal gun violence. “They feel if we’re able to 12 Joseph Gerth, “Mitch McConnell vows to gun trafficking and “straw purchases,” do something, there might be a chance,” block President Obama’s gun control initiatives,” in which an individual buys a gun said Senate Judiciary Committee Chair - The Courier-Journal , Jan. 20, 2013, www.courier- through a licensed dealer and then man Leahy.” “If we’re unable, frankly, journal.com/article/20130119/NEWS010605/30 passes the gun to someone who typ - they’re not going to try anything at all. 1190088/Mitch-McConnell-vows-block-Presi ically would not pass a background I think that’s a political reality.” 80 dent-Obama-s-gun-control-initiatives?nclick_ check. The Senate Judiciary Commit - check=1 . 13 Garen J. Wintemute, “Tragedy’s Legacy,” tee was scheduled to consider bills The New England Journal of Medicine , Jan. 31, addressing those issues — plus school- Notes 2013, p. 397, www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/ safety measures, universal background NEJMp1215491 . checks and an assault-weapons ban 14 Letter, The University of Chicago Crime Lab , 1 — on March 7. Ray Rivera and Peter Applebome, “Sandy Hook Jan. 10, 2013, p. 1, http://crimelab.uchicago. But the chances of Congress ban - Parents’ Testimony to Legislature Reflects Divide edu/sites/crimelab.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/ ning assault weapons are close to zero, on Guns,” The New York Times , Jan. 28, 2013, Biden%20Commission%20letter_20130110_final. says Gottlieb of the Second Amend - www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/nyregion/conn pdf . ment Foundation. “This is not going ecticut-legislature-hearing-on-gun-violence.html . 15 “Crime in the United States 2011,” Table 1, 2 Mattioli and Heslin quotes are from ibid. to go anywhere,” he says. Many po - FBI, www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the- 3 “Gun Violence Prevention Testimony — Hen - litical analysts agree chances are u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-1 ; son,” YouTube, Feb. 27, 2013, www.youtube. “Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics Data Build - slim and doubt that the controver - com/watch?v=sJt-yrXKYG4&feature=endscreen . ing Tool,” FBI, www.ucrdatatool.gov/Search/ 4 sial ban would become part of any “President Obama Makes a Statement on Crime/State/TrendsInOneVar.cfm . gun-control legislation emerging from the Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut,” The 16 “WISQARS Injury Mortality Reports, 1981- the Senate Judiciary Committee. White House, Dec. 14, 2012, www.whitehouse. 199 1,” Centers for Disease Control and Pre - As an alternative, Feinstein could gov/photos-and-video/video/2012/12/14/presi vention, http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/ offer her legislation banning assault dent-obama-makes-statement-shooting-new mortrate9.html ; “WISQARS Injury Mortality Re - weapons and limiting large-capacity town-connecticut . ports, National and Regional, 1999-2010,” 5 magazines on the floor of the Senate For background, see Sarah Glazer, “Video Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as an amendment. However, “If it’s just Games,” CQ Researcher , Nov. 10, 2006, pp. http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate 937-960; updated, Sept. 23, 2011. For back - offered as a floor amendment it’s like - 10_us.html . ground on gun debates, see the following CQ 17 ly to fail, because it’s a stand-alone William Krouse, “Gun Control Legislation: Researchers : Kenneth Jost, “Gun Violence,” Executive Summary,” Congressional Research provision and Republicans will fili - May 25, 2007, pp. 457-480; Bob Adams, “Gun Service, Nov. 14, 2012, p. 8, www.fas.org/sgp/ buster and it will be almost impossi - Control Debate,” Nov. 12, 2004, pp. 949-972. crs/misc/RL32842.pdf .

www.cqresearcher.com March 8, 2013 251 GUN CONTROL

18 “Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review,” 27 Koper, op. cit. 38 “Guns in Public Places: The Increasing Threat National Research Council of the National 28 “Assault Weapons Ban of 2013,” The Office of Hidden Guns in America,” Law Center to Academies, December 2004, p. 3, www.nap. of Senator Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senate, Jan. 24, Prevent Gun Violence,” July 1, 2011, http:// edu/openbook.php?record_id=10881&page=2 . 2013, www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index. smartgunlaws.org/guns-in-public-places-the- 19 Zachary Roth, “Blackout: How the NRA cfm/assault-weapons-ban-summary . increasing-threat-of-hidden-guns-in-america . suppressed gun violence research,” MSNBC, 29 Daniel W. Webster, et al. , “The Case for Gun 39 “NRA EVP and CEO Wayne LaPierre — Jan. 14, 2013, http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/14/ Policy Reforms in America,” Johns Hopkins Speech to CPAC 2011,” YouTube, Feb. 10, 2011, blackout-how-the-nra-suppressed-gun-violence- Center for Gun Policy and Research, October www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg_uy9_2a1U . research . 2012, p. 10, www.jhsph.edu/research/centers- 40 “Gun Control: States’ Laws and Require - 20 Jordan Yerman, “Jacob Tyler Roberts IDed and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun- ments for Concealed Carry Permits Vary across as Oregon mall shooter: Photos,” examiner. policy-and-research/publications/WhitePaper the Nation,” U.S. Government Accountability com, Dec. 12, 2012, www.examiner.com/ar 102512_CGPR.pdf . Office, July 2012, pp. 75-76, www.gao.gov/ ticle/jacob-tyler-roberts-ided-as-oregon-mall- 30 For background see Kenneth Jost, “Gun assets/600/592552.pdf . shooter-photos . Rights Debates,” CQ Researcher , Oct. 31, 2008, 41 “Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review,” 21 “Mass Shooting Incidents in America (1984- pp. 889-912; updated July 22, 2010. op. cit. 2012),” Citizens Crime Commission of New York 31 Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, “Guns in 42 Abhay Aneja, John J. Donohue III and City, www.nycrimecommission.org/initiative1- America: Results of a Comprehensive Nation - Alexandria Zhang, “The Impact of Right-To- shootings.php . al Survey on Firearms Ownership and Use,” Carry Laws and the NRC Report: Lessons for 22 Ibid. Police Foundation, 1996, p. 27, www.police the Empirical Evaluation of Law and Policy,” 23 “Feinstein Introduces Bill on Assault Weapons, foundation.org/content/guns-america . Social Sciences Research Network, June 29, High-Capacity Magazines,” The Office of Sen - 32 “Keystone of Obama gun control plan gains 2010, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers. ator Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senate, Jan. 24, 2013, steam as Dem, GOP senators seek back - cfm?abstract_id=1632599 . www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press- ground check pact,” The Associated Press 43 Ian Ayres and John J. Donohue III, “Shoot - releases?ID=5dffbf07-d8e5-42aa-9f22-0743368 (The Washington Post ), Feb. 8, 2013. ing Down the ‘More Guns, Less Crime’ Hy - dd754 . 33 Daniel W. Webster, et al. , “Preventing the pothesis,” Stanford Law Review , April 2003, 24 Eric Lichtblau, “N.R.A. Leaders Stand Firm Diversion of Guns to Criminals through Ef - pp. 1204-1205, http://islandia.law.yale.edu/ayers/ Against Gun Restrictions,” The New York Times , fective Firearm Sales Laws,” Reducing Gun Ayres_Donohue_article.pdf . Dec. 23, 2012, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes. Violence in America: Informing Policy with 44 “Gun Control: States’ Laws and Require - com/2012/12/23/n-r-a-leaders-defiant-in-tele Evidence and Analysis (2013), p. 110. ments for Concealed Carry Permits Vary across vision-appearances ; “Wayne LaPierre Testi - 34 “Wayne LaPierre Testimony Before the U.S. the Nation,” op. cit. , p. 19. mony Before the U.S. Senate Committee,” Na - Senate Committee,” op. cit. 45 Craig R. Whitney, Living with Guns: A Lib - tional Rifle Association, Jan. 31, 2013, http:// 35 Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, “The Lim - eral’s Case for the Second Amendment (2012), home.nra.org/classic.aspx/blog/350 . ited Impact of the Brady Act: Evaluation and pp. 45-47. 25 Christopher S. Koper, “An Updated Assess - Implications,” Reducing Gun Violence in Amer - 46 Adam Winkler, Gun Fight: The Battle Over the ment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Im - ica: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analy - Right to Bear Arms in America (2011), p. 116. pacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994- sis (2013), pp. 22-25. 47 Ibid. 2003,” U.S. Department of Justice, June 2004, 36 Wintemute, op. cit. , p. 398. 48 Saul Cornell, A Well Regulated Militia: The p. 1, www.sas.upenn.edu/jerrylee/research/aw_ 37 “Attorney General’s Concealed Carry Report Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun final2004.pdf . Shows Record Number of Licenses Issued in Control in America (2006), p. 4. 26 David S. Fallis and James V. Grimaldi, “In 2012,” press release, Office of Ohio Attorney 49 Clayton E. Cramer, Concealed Weapon Laws Virginia, high-yield clip seizures rise,” The Wash - General, Feb. 27, 2013, www.ohioattorney of the Early Republic: Dueling, Southern Vio - ington Post , Jan. 23, 2011, www.washington general.gov/Media/News-Releases/February- lence, and Moral Reform (1999), pp. 2-3. post.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/22/ 2013/Attorney-General’s-Concealed-Carry- 50 Ibid. , pp. 6-7. AR2011012204046.html . Report-Shows-Re . 51 Cornell, op. cit. , p. 4. 52 Ibid. , pp. 142-143. 53 “A Brief History of the NRA,” www.nrahq. About the Author org/history.asp . 54 Barbara Mantel is a freelance writer in New York City. She Winkler, op. cit. , pp. 208-209. 55 Sam B. Warner, “The Uniform Pistol Act,” is a 2012 Kiplinger Fellow and has won several journalism Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology , awards, including the National Press Club’s Best Consumer November-December 1938, p. 530. Journalism Award and the Front Page Award from the News - 56 Winkler, op. cit. , pp. 203-204. women’s Club of New York for her Nov. 1, 2009, CQ Global 57 “Hearings Before the Committee on Ways and Researcher report “Terrorism and the Internet.” She holds a Means,” House of Representatives, Seventy- third B.A. in history and economics from the University of Virginia Congress, on H.R. 9066, April and May 1934, and an M.A. in economics from Northwestern Uni versity. p. 53, www.keepandbeararms.com/nra/nfa. htm#KarlT .

252 CQ Researcher 58 Osha Gray Davidson, Under Fire: the NRA & the Battle for Gun Control (1993), p. 29. 59 Whitney, op. cit. , p. 3. FOR MORE INFORMATION 60 Ibid. , pp. 5-6. 61 Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence , 1225 Eye St., N.W., Suite 1100, Davidson, op. cit. , p. 30. Washington, DC 20005 ; 202-289-7319 ; www.bradycampaign.org . Education and ad - 62 Ibid. , pp. 30-31, 36. vocacy group that works to pass federal and state laws to reduce gun violence. 63 Winkler, op. cit. , pp. 71-72. 64 “Personal Guns and the Second Amend - Gun Owners of America , 800 Forbes Pl., Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151 ; 703- ment,” The New York Times , Dec. 17, 2012, 321-8585 ; http://gunowners.org . Lobbying organization that works to preserve Sec - www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/opinion/the-gun- ond Amendment rights of gun owners. challenge-second-amendment.html . 65 Thomas Kaplan, “Sweeping Limits on Guns Harvard Injury Control Research Center , 677 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA Become Law in New York,” The New York 02115 ; 617-432-8080 ; www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc . Academic research center that studies the causes of injury, as well as intervention strategies and policies. Times , Jan. 15, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/ 01/16/nyregion/tougher-gun-law-in-new-york. Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research , Bloomberg School of html . Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD 21205 ; 410-955-6878 ; www.jhsph.edu/ 66 Ibid. research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research . 67 “Documenting County and Town resolutions Academic research center that works to reduce gun-related injuries and deaths. on the NY SAFE act,” NY SAFE Resolutions , www.nysaferesolutions.com . Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence , 268 Bush St., #555, San Francisco, CA 68 Fredric U. Dicker, “Hit us with your best 94104 ; 415-433-2062 ; http://smartgunlaws.org . National law center that promotes shot, Andy!” New York Post , Jan. 21, 2013, www. gun-control legislation and policies. nypost.com/p/news/local/hit_us_with_your_ Mayors Against Illegal Guns , Mayor of New York City, City Hall, 260 Broadway, best_shot_andy_5rxZg0gYBJJhkLBtiTPMfJ. 69 New York, NY 10007 ; 212-788-2958 ; www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org . Coalition of “Private Sales Policy Summary,” Law Center 800 mayors supporting policies and laws to keep guns away from criminals. to Prevent Gun Violence, http://smartgunlaws. org/private-sales-policy-summary ; “Licensing National Rifle Association of America , 11250 Waples Mill Rd., Fairfax, VA 22030 ; of Gun Owners and Purchasers Policy Summa - 800-672-3888 ; http://nra.org . Membership organization that promotes gun owner - ry,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, http:// ship rights and trains firearm users. smartgunlaws.org/licensing-of-gun-owners- purchasers-policy-summary ; “Summary of State National Shooting Sports Foundation , 11 Mile Hill Rd., Newtown, CT 06470 ; Assault Weapon Laws,” Law Center to Pre - 203-426-1320 ; www.nssf.org . Trade association whose members include firearms vent Gun Violence, http://smartgunlaws.org/ manufacturers, distributors, retailers, shooting ranges, clubs and publishers. assault-weapons-policy-summary ; “Large Ca - Second Amendment Foundation , 12500 N.E. 10th Pl., Bellevue, WA 98005 ; 425- pacity Ammunition Magazines Policy Sum - 454-7012 ; www.saf.org . Advocacy group that promotes gun ownership rights through mary,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, education and legal action. http://smartgunlaws.org/large-capacity-ammu nition-magazines-policy-summary . Tenth Amendment Center ; www.tenthamendmentcenter.com . Think tank advo - 70 For background, see Kathy Koch, “Zero cating states’ rights and the decentralization of federal government power. Tolerance,” CQ Researcher , March 10, 2000, pp. 185-208. Also see Kathy Koch, “School Violence Policy Center , 1730 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Suite 1014, Washington, DC Violence,” CQ Researcher , Oct. 9, 1998, pp. 20036 ; 202-822-8200 ; www.vpc.org . Advocacy and research organization working to reduce gun violence. 881-904. 71 Amanda Paulson, “Gun-control bills pass Colorado House: Was Aurora a tipping point?” 74 John Hancock and Brad Cooper, “Legisla - www.pewresearch.org/2013/02/07/gun-con The Christian Science Monitor , Feb. 20, 2013, tors in Missouri, Kansas and elsewhere look trol-key-data-points-from-pew-research . www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0220/Gun-con to nullify federal laws,” The Kansas City Star , 78 Peter Grier, “Which gun control measures trol-bills-pass-Colorado-House-Was-Aurora-a- Jan. 23, 2013, http://midwestdemocracy.com/ are gaining momentum in Congress?” The tipping-point-video . articles/states-looking-to-nullify-the-feds . Christian Science Monitor , Feb. 19, 2013, www. 72 Laura Nahmias, “Malloy Charts New Course 75 Michael Cooper and Mary Williams Walsh, csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/ on Gun Laws,” The Wall Street Journal , Feb. 21, “Buying a Gun? States Consider Insurance Rule,” 2013/0219/Which-gun-control-measures-are- 2013, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 The New York Times , Feb. 21, 2013, www.ny gaining-momentum-in-Congress-video . 4127887324048904578316573460812236.html . times.com/2013/02/22/us/in-gun-debate-a- 79 Alexander Bolton, “Senate Dems face gun- 73 “2nd Amendment Preservation Act: 2013 bigger-role-seen-for-insurers.html . control dilemma,” The Hill , Feb. 6, 2013, http:// Legislation,” Tenth Amendment Center, http:// 76 Ibid. thehill.com/homenews/senate/281343-senate- tracking.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2ndamend 77 “Gun Control: Key Data Points from Pew democrats-face-gun-dilemma . ment . Research,” Pew Research Center, Feb. 7, 2013, 80 Grier, op. cit.

www.cqresearcher.com March 8, 2013 253 Bibliography Selected Sources

Books Redden , Molly , “Meet John Lott, the Man Who Wants to Arm America’s Teachers,” The New Republic , Dec. 19, 2012 , Cornell , Saul , A Well Regulated Militia: The Founding Fa - p. 1 , www.newrepublic.com/blog/plank/111263/meet-john- thers and the Origins of Gun Control in America , Ox - lott-the-man-who-wants-teachers-carry-guns . ford University Press , 2006 . Economist John Lott argues that carrying concealed A constitutional historian examines the origins of the Second weapons makes communities safer. Amendment and the ensuing constitutional debate. Roth , Zachary , “Blackout: How the NRA suppressed gun Webster , Daniel W. , and Jon S. Vernick , eds., Reducing violence research,” MSNBC , Jan. 14, 2013 , http://tv.msnbc. Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence com/2013/01/14/blackout-how-the-nra-suppressed-gun- and Analysis , The Johns Hopkins University Press , 2013 . violence-research . Leading experts summarize relevant research and recom - In the 1990s, the National Rifle Association helped insert mend policies to reduce gun violence, including expanding language into federal legislation restricting government-sponsored background checks to private firearms sales and prohibiting research on gun violence. more categories of criminals from possessing firearms. Reports & Studies Whitney , Craig R. , Living with Guns: A Liberal’s Case for the Second Amendment , PublicAffairs , 2012 . “Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review,” National Re - A journalist explores the history behind today’s polarized search Council of the National Academies , December 2004 , debate about guns and concludes that both more guns and www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10881&page=2 . more gun control would help reduce violence. A prominent research council finds that reliable data and research on gun violence and gun control are lacking. Winkler , Adam , Gun Fight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America , W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. , 2011 . “Gun Control: States’ Laws and Requirements for Concealed An expert in constitutional law examines America’s four-century Carry Permits Vary Across the Nation,” U.S. Government Ac - political battle over gun control and the right to bear arms. countability Office , July 2012 , pp. 75-76 , www.gao.gov/ assets/600/592552.pdf . Articles An independent congressional agency evaluates states’ concealed-carry laws. Dicker , Fredric U. , “Hit us with your best shot, Andy!” New York Post , Jan. 21, 2013 , www.nypost.com/p/news/ “Guns in Public Places: The Increasing Threat of Hidden local/hit_us_with_your_best_shot_andy_5rxZg0gYBJJhk Guns in America,” Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence , LBtiTPMfJ . July 1, 2011 , http://smartgunlaws.org/guns-in-public- Gun-rights advocates and gun dealers are organizing a places-the-increasing-threat-of-hidden-guns-in-america . boycott of New York’s new gun-control law. A gun-control advocacy group analyzes states’ concealed- carry laws and concludes they lead to increased violence. Gerth , Joseph , “Mitch McConnell vows to block President Obama’s gun control initiatives,” The Courier-Journal , Koper , Christopher S. , “An Updated Assessment of the Jan. 20, 2013 , www.courier-journal.com/article/2013 Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets 0119/NEWS010605/301190088/Mitch-McConnell-vows- and Gun Violence, 1994-2003,” U.S. Department of Justice , block-President-Obama-s-gun-control-initiatives?nclick_ June 2004 , www.sas.upenn.edu/jerrylee/research/aw_ check=1 . final2004.pdf . In a taped call to Kentucky gun owners, the Senate mi - A criminology professor finds that the federal ban on assault nority leader promises to block the president’s gun-control weapons had a negligible impact on crime. proposals. Webster , Daniel W. , et al. , “The Case for Gun Policy Reforms Grier , Peter , “Which gun control measures are gaining in America,” Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Re - momentum in Congress?” The Christian Science Monitor , search , October 2012 , p. 10 , www.jhsph.edu/research/cen Feb. 19, 2013 , www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/ ters-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and- Decoder-Wire/2013/0219/Which-gun-control-measures- research/publications/WhitePaper102512_CGPR.pdf . are-gaining-momentum-in-Congress-video . A group of academic researchers argues for gun-control Support in the Senate is growing for expanded background legislation. checks, but backing for the more controversial ban on as - sault weapons is slim.

254 CQ Researcher The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Assault Weapons Whaley , Sean , “Proposal to Allow Guns on Campus,” Las Vegas Review-Journal , Feb. 19, 2013 , p. A1 , www.lvrj. Davis , Janel , “Facts Back Up Support for Ban,” Atlanta com/news/bill-would-allow-guns-in-class-not-at-sporting- Journal-Constitution , Feb. 5, 2013 , p. B1 . events-191715421.html?ref=421 . A majority of Americans support President Obama’s plan A Republican assemblywoman in Nevada has proposed al - to ban the sale of assault weapons nationwide. lowing holders of concealed-weapons permits to bring their guns onto state college campuses. Goode , Erica , “Even Defining ‘Assault Rifles’ Is Compli - cated,” The New York Times , Jan. 17, 2013 , p. A18 , www.ny National Rifle Association times.com/2013/01/17/us/even-defining-assault-weapons- is-complicated.html?_r=0 . Lichtblau , Eric , “N.R.A. Leader, Facing Challenge in Wake Gun-rights groups and politicians often disagree over what of Shooting, Rarely Shies From Fight,” The New York constitutes an assault weapon. Times , Dec. 21, 2012 , p. A29 , www.nytimes.com/2012/ 12/21/nyregion/in-wake-of-newtown-shootings-nra-leader- Grier , Peter , “Gun Debate 101: How Would This Assault- faces-big-challenge.html . Weapons Ban Be Different?” The Christian Science Mon - NRA President David Keene is widely regarded as one of itor , Jan. 16, 2013 . the most aggressive defenders of gun rights in the organi - President Obama wants a ban on assault weapons that is zation’s history. tougher than the 1994 law, but many lawmakers don’t want to bar a particular class of firearm. Schouten , Fredreka , “Democrats Ready to Challenge NRA’s Clout in Gun Debate,” USA Today , Dec. 21, 2012 , p. A5 , Background Checks usatoday30.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2012-12-21- NRA-Congress_ST_U.htm . Sargent , Greg , “Gabrielle Giffords’ Husband Smacks Down Experts say the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings Wayne LaPierre,” The Washington Post , Jan. 30, 2013 , could pose one of the biggest challenges ever to the Na - www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/ tional Rifle Association’s clout in the gun debate. 01/30/gabrielle-giffords-husband-smacks-down-wayne- lapierre /. Simkins , Chris , “NRA Flexes Political Muscle in Gun The husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — severely Control Fight,” Voice of America News, Dec. 21, 2012 , injured in a 2011 shooting — says universal background www.voanews.com/content/nra-flexes-political-muscle-to- checks would prevent gun crime. fight-gun-control/1570011.html . The National Rifle Association’s wide membership base and Winkler , Adam , “Who Gets a Gun?” Los Angeles Times , its ability to raise money for political purposes have made Feb. 15, 2013 , p. A21 , articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/15/ the organization a major political force. opinion/la-oe-winkler-guns-background-check-20130215 . Free universal background checks would help prevent CITING CQ RESEARCHER criminals from obtaining guns, says a UCLA law professor. Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography Conceal-Carry Laws include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats vary, so please check with your instructor or professor. Sharockman , Aaron , “Florida Leads in Weapons Permits,” Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times , Aug. 20, 2012 , p. B1 , www.tampa MLA STYLE bay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/politifact-florida-rick- Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher 2 Sept. scott-says-florida-is-no-1-in-concealed-permits/1246687 . 2011: 701-732. About one in 17 Florida residents has a concealed-weapons permit, the nation’s highest rate. APA S TYLE Jost, K. (2011, September 2). Remembering 9/11. CQ Re - Wartman , Scott , “Ky. Loosens Concealed Weapons Law,” Cincinnati Enquirer , June 11, 2012 , p. C1 , cincinnati.com/ searcher, 9 , 701-732. blogs/nkypolitics/2012/06/05/new-law-wont-require- CHICAGO STYLE license-for-concealed-weapon-in-home-business /. Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear of Kentucky has signed a Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher , September bill that allows homeowners to carry a concealed weapon 2, 2011, 701-732. on their property without a license.

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