Control (23 page)

PART ONE: THE TRUTH ABOUT GUNS

“
depicting intense gun violence in movies
” “Hollywood A-Listers Called Hypocrites on Issue of Gun Violence in ‘Demand a Plan’ Response Video,”
foxnews.com
, January 2, 2013,
http://fxn.ws/11hfM8W
.

IT’S TIME FOR AMERICA TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT GUNS.

“ ‘
before all those kids in Connecticut died today
’ ” Rep. Carolyn McCarthy,
Rachel Maddow Show
, MSNBC, December 14, 2012,
http://on.today.com/11hdtmk
. • “ ‘
we’re going to have a national conversation on the subject
’ ” Cindy Handler, “How to Talk About Gun Violence,”
The Blog
blog at
huffingtonpost.com
, January 11, 2013,
http://huff.to/WF4bk4
.

WE SHOULD START DRAFTING A BILL TO ENSURE NEWTOWN NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.

“ ‘
It’ll be ready on the first day
’ ” Sen. Diane Feinstein, interview by David Gregory,
Meet the Press
, NBC, December 16, 2012,
http://nbcnews.to/161qJ1i
.

GUNS ARE LETHAL.

“ ‘
not with knives, but with automatic weapons
’ ” Nicholas Kristof, interview by Piers Morgan,
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 8, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11heICb
. • “
When [a .223-caliber round] hits a human body, the effects are devastating
” Gen. Stanley McChrystal, “Gen. McChrystal: Assault Rifles Are for Battlefields, Not Schools,”
Morning Joe
, MSNBC, January 8, 2013,
http://on.msnbc.com/11hfE9t
. • “
as fertilizer (ammonium nitrate), a common cleaning solvent (liquid nitromethane), and diesel fuel
”
Jo Thomas, “For First Time, Woman Says McVeigh Told of Bomb Plan,”
New York Times
, April 30, 1997,
http://nyti.ms/11hfjns
, See also: Jon Ronson, “Conspirators,”
Guardian,
May 4, 2001. • “
was carried out with a bomb
” Pete Winn, “The Worst School Massacre in American History Was ‘Gun Free,’ ”
cnsnews.com
, September 12, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11hfizM
.

NO ONE WANTS TO TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY

“ ‘
No one is saying that people’s guns should be taken away
’ ” Don Lemon, “Aurora and the Politics of Guns,”
CNN Newsroom
, CNN, July 22, 2012,
http://bit.ly/101bCkj
. • “ ‘
Nobody questions the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms
’ ” “Dannel Malloy, Michael Bloomberg, Dianne Feinstein, Bill Bennett, David Brooks, Randi Weingarten, Tom Ridge, Michael Eric Dyson, Pete Williams,”
Meet the Press
, NBC, December 16, 2012,
http://nbcnews.to/11hffE0
. • “ ‘
I want to get rid of these killing machine assault weapons off the street
’ ” Piers Morgan, “Guns in America,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 7, 2013,
http://bit.ly/10jLcfY
. • “ ‘
No serious person, including Obama, is even proposing taking away owned guns
’ ” Touré, “ ‘Gun grabber’ is a mythical boogeyman. No serious person, including Obama, is even proposing taking away owned guns. #StopFear mongering,” February 16, 2013, 6:22AM, Twitter post,
https://twitter.com/Toure/status/302784941337501696
. • “
74 percent of Americans oppose a ban on the possession of handguns
” “Guns,”
gallup.com
, accessed March 5, 2013,
http://bit.ly/LLI5U0
. • “ ‘
an outright ban, picking up every one of them
’ ” Warner Todd Huston, “ ‘Turn ’em All In’ Feinstein Said She Wanted All Guns Banned,”
breitbart.com
, January 1, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11hfajU
. • “ ‘
What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns
’ ” “Eric Holder: Gun Owners Should ‘Cower’ in Shame Like Smokers,”
newsbusters.org
, January 10, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11hf6AF
. • “
really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way
” “Eric Holder: Gun Owners Should ‘Cower’ in Shame Like Smokers,”
news busters.org
, January 10, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11hf6AF
. • “ ‘
not hunt elementary school children
’ ” Katherine Fung, “Don Lemon: ‘We Need to Get Guns and Bullets and Automatic Weapons Off the Streets’ (Video),”
huffingtonpost.com
, December 17, 2012,
http://huff.to/11heSJA
. • “ ‘
We don’t need guns. We have 10,000 murders a year
’ ” “America’s Assault Weapons; Attorneys for Alleged Rape Victim in Ohio and Her Alleged Rapist Argue Their Sides as Case Stirs Controversy Across Social Media,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 8, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11heICb
. • “ ‘
the United States should ban private gun ownership entirely, or almost entirely
’ ” Jeff McMahan, “Why Gun ‘Control’ Is Not Enough,”
Opinionator
blog at
nytimes.com
, December 19, 2012,
http://nyti.ms/11heQS7
. • “ ‘
aggressive efforts to reduce the supply of existing weapons, no one can be safer
’ ” “Taming the Monster: Get Rid of the Guns: More Firearms Won’t Make America Safer—They Will Only Accelerate and Intensify the Heartache and Bloodshed,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 28, 1993,
http://lat.ms/11hf4bK
. • “
banning all guns—is not going to happen
.” Lexington, “The Gun Control that Works: No Guns,”
The Economist
, 15 December 2012,
http://econ.st/11heY42
. • “ ‘
I totally respect and admire the Constitution and the Second Amendment
’ ” Piers Morgan, “California School Shooting; America and Assault Rifles,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 10, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11heHOG
. • “ ‘
in an ideal world, I’d have all guns gone
’ ” Piers Morgan, “California School Shooting; America and Assault Rifles,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 10, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11heHOG
. • “
Morgan had this exchange on his show
” “America’s Assault Weapons; Attorneys for Alleged Rape Victim in Ohio and Her Alleged Rapist Argue Their Sides as Case Stirs Controversy Across Social Media,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 8, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11heICb
. • “
Here’s a brief summary of how their gun ban came to be
” “Britain’s Changing Firearms Laws,”
BBC
News
, 12 November 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7056245.stm
. • “
This expired after two years
” Clayton Cramer, “Gun Control: Political Fears Trump Crime Control,”
Maine Law Review 61,
no.1 (2009): 58–81,
http://bit.ly/16Jjlc5
. • “ ‘
the ownership of firearms ceased to be a right of Englishmen, and instead became a privilege
’ ” Clayton Cramer, “Gun Control: Political Fears Trump Crime Control,”
Maine Law Review 61,
no.1 (2009): 58–81,
http://bit.ly/16Jjlc5
. • “
An update to the Firearms Act is passed that raises the minimum age to buy a gun, gives police more power to regulate licenses
” “Firearms Act, 1937,” Page 1,
http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/fa1937.pdf
• “
The home secretary also rules that self-defense is no longer a valid reason to be granted a gun certificate
” Malcolm, Joyce Lee,
Guns and Violence: The English Experience
, 2002, Page 160,
http://bit.ly/16JeuaU
. • “
show good reason for carrying ammunition and guns
” “Prohibited Weapons Defined by section 5 Firearms Act 1968 as Amended,”
The Crown Prosecution Service: Legal Resources
,
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/firearms/#a14
.

WELL, CAN’T WE AT LEAST CLARIFY THE SECOND AMENDMENT?

“
Is there an argument for the Second Amendment to be repealed and to be clarified and be redrafted
” Piers Morgan, “Remembering Olivia Engel; Gun Control in America; Interview with Carolyn McCarthy, Ron Barber,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, December 18, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11hag6q
.

THAT MAY BE, BUT EVEN THOMAS JEFFERSON WANTED THE SECOND AMENDMENT TO EXPIRE.

“ ‘
said that it should be revisited every 20 years to see if it is still appropriate
’ ” Christopher Kennedy Lawford, “Guns in America,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 7, 2013,
http://bit.ly/10jLcfY
. • “
a man who is a self-described ‘author, activist and actor
’ ” Christopher Kennedy Lawford, “Home,”
christopher kennedylawford.com
, accessed March 3, 2013,
http://christopherkennedylawford.com
. • “ ‘
it is an act of force and not of right
’ ” Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, September 6, 1789,
http://bit.ly/11heACz
.

THE UNITED STATES HAS THE HIGHEST GUN MURDER RATE IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD.

“ ‘
murder and gun crime of any of the civilized countries of this world
’ ” Piers Morgan, “Remembering Olivia Engel; Gun Control in America; Interview with Carolyn McCarthy, Ron Barber,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, December 18, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11hag6p
. • “
the U.S. murder rate was 4.7 per 100,000
” William J. Krouse, Gun Control Legislation, report prepared for Members and Committees of Congress, 12 Cong., 2d sess., 2012, Committee Print, 10,
http://bit.ly/wvkslu
. • “
the gun murder rate was 3.2
” William J. Krouse, Gun Control Legislation, report prepared for Members and Committees of Congress, 12 Cong., 2d sess., 2012, Committee Print, 10,
http://bit.ly/wvkslu
. • “
homicide rates in Russia and Brazil have averaged about four to five times higher than ours
” “Intentional Homicide, Count and Rate per 100,000 Population (1995–2011),” 2011 Global Study on Homicide: Trends/Contexts/Data (Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2011),
http://bit.ly/16JjRqx
. • “
the United States is somewhere near the mid-range
” Olga Khazan, “Here’s How U.S. Gun Violence Compares with the Rest of the World,”
Washington Post
, December 14, 2012,
http://wapo.st/16JjY5t
. • “
higher rates of gun ownership correlate with fewer deaths
” Simon Rogers, “Gun Homicides and Gun Ownership Listed by Country,”
Datablog
blog at
guardian.co.uk
, July 22, 2012,
http://bit.ly/16Jk64R
.

OKAY, BUT THE OVERALL U.S. MURDER RATE IS MUCH HIGHER THAN OTHER WEALTHY COUNTRIES.

“ ‘
tougher laws controlling private ownership of guns
’ ” “In Other Countries, Laws Are Strict and Work,”
New York Times
, December 17, 2012,
http://nyti.ms/16JkfW9
. • “
The U.S. homicide rate in 2011 was 4.7
” William J. Krouse,
Gun Control Legislation
, report prepared for Members and Committees of Congress, 12 Cong., 2d sess., 2012, Committee Print, 10,
http://bit.ly/wvkslu
. • “
the United Nations data on homicide rates for the 20 “wealthiest” countries
” Simon Rogers, “Gun Homicides and Gun Ownership Listed by Country,”
Datablog
at
guardian.co.uk
, July 22, 2012,
http://bit.ly/16Jk64R
. • “
have rates between 0.7 and 2.5
” Simon Rogers, “Gun Homicides and Gun Ownership Listed by Country,”
Datablog
at
guardian.co.uk
, July 22, 2012,
http://bit.ly/16Jk64R
.

BUT OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE STRICT GUN CONTROL AND VERY FEW MURDERS.

“ ‘
They have two or three murders a year. You have 11,000 to 12,000
’ ” Piers Morgan, “Gun Control in America; Aurora Families Speak Out,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, December 17, 2012,
http://bit.ly/YZGT8r
. • “
reported just two gun murders and five armed robberies
” Joyce Lee Malcolm, Guns and Violence: The English Experience (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002) 209–16. • “ ‘
self-defense was never a good reason for a permit
’ ” Joyce Lee Malcolm, “Joyce Lee Malcolm: Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 26, 2012,
http://on.wsj.com/16Jf20rl
. • “
Semi-automatic rifles were banned and shotguns were regulated like handguns
” Joyce Lee Malcolm, “Joyce Lee Malcolm: Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 26, 2012,
http://on.wsj.com/16Jf20r
. • “
forcing lawful owners to turn them in or face ten years in prison
” Joyce Lee Malcolm, “Joyce Lee Malcolm: Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 26, 2012,
http://on.wsj.com/16Jf20r
. • “ ‘
killing 12 people and injuring 11 more before killing himself
’ ” Joyce Lee Malcolm, “Joyce Lee Malcolm: Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control,”
Wall Street Journal,
December 26, 2012,
http://on.wsj.com/16Jf20r
. • “
from 1.1 homicides per 100,000 people in 1996 to 1.8 in 2003
” Kevin Smith ed. Sarah Osborne, Ivy Lau, and Andrew Britton, “Homicides Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2010/11: Supplementary Volume 2 to Crime in England and Wales 2010/11,”
Home Office Statistical Bulletin
, January 2012,
http://bit.ly/16Jkss9
. • “
the police force was expanded by 16 percent between 2001 and 2005
” Simon Bullock and Natalie Gunning, “Police Service Strength,” Home Office Statistical Bulletin, July 26, 2007,
http://bit.ly/16Jf88n
, See also: Amardeep Dhani, “Police Service Strength,”
Home Office Statistical Bulletin
, July 26, 2012,
http://bit.ly/16Jfgoh
. • “
crime generally remained higher than before the Firearms Act
” Cal Flyn, “Graphic: How the Murder Rate Has Fallen,”
Telegraph
, July 19, 2012,
http://bit.ly/16JfqMn
. • “
after the laws were passed many of these same people continued to own guns
” “Australian Guns,”
snopes.com
, accessed March 6, 2013,
http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp
. • “
the country averaged only about 550 gun-related deaths per year
” Jenny Mouzos and Catherine Rushforth, “Firearm Related Deaths in Australia, 1991–2001,” Australian Institute of Criminology,
Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice,
no. 269 (November 2003), 261–80,
http://bit.ly/16JfyM0
. • “
More than 650,000 guns were turned in or confiscated from 1996 to 1997 as a result of this buy-back
” Daniel Burdon, “US Would Benefit from a Gun Buyback: Labor MP,”
Sunshine Coast Daily
, December 17, 2012,
http://bit.ly/100vC6G
. • “
bought more single-shot guns, bringing the total back to 3.2 million after about fourteen years
” Nick Ralston, “Australia Reloads as Gun Amnesties Fail to Cut Arms,”
Sydney Morning Herald
, January 14, 2013,
http://bit.ly/16Jkxwe
. • “
averaged 82 per year from 1991 to 1996, and 58 per year from 1997 to 2001
”
Jenny Mouzos and Catherine Rushforth, “Firearm Related Deaths in Australia, 1991–2001,” Australian Institute of Criminology,
Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice,
no. 269 (November 2003), 261–80,
http://bit.ly/16JfyM0
. • “
increased to about 255 per year from 1997 to 2001
” Jeanine Baker and Samara McPhedran, “Gun Laws and Sudden Death,”
British Journal of Criminology
47, no. 3 (October 2006), 455–69,
http://bit.ly/11heta1
. • “
those who would’ve used a gun instead use something else, like a knife
” Australian Institute of Criminology, “Homicide Weapon Statistics,” accessed March 6, 2013,
http://bit.ly/TDJ7WU
. • “ ‘
NFA [the 1996–97 National Firearms Agreement] did not have any large effects on reducing firearm homicide or suicide rates
’ ” Wang-Sheng Lee and Sandy Suardi, “The Australian Firearms Buyback and Its Effect on Gun Deaths,”
Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series
, Working Paper, no. 17/08 (August 2008),
http://bit.ly/100vFQ5
. • “ ‘
gun buy-back and restrictive legislative changes had no influence on firearm homicide
’ ” Jeanine Baker and Samara McPhedran, “Gun Laws and Sudden Death,”
British Journal of Criminology
47, no. 3 (October 2006), 455–469,
http://bit.ly/11heta1
. • “
from about 6,000 in 1996 to around 10,000 between 1998 and 2001
” Australian Institute of Criminology, “Australian Crime: Robbery Statistics,” accessed March 18, 2013,
http://bit.ly/ZM6K2O
. • “
Japan has imposed strict gun control for centuries
” David Kopel, “Japanese Gun Control,” Asia Pacific Law Review 2 (1993), 26–52,
http://bit.ly/YpMghY
. • “
but handguns are banned
” Eric Talmadge, “Around World, Gun Rules, and Results, Vary Wildly,”
USA Today,
January 27, 2013,
http://usat.ly/11helHJ
. • “
Switzerland had a gun homicide rate of 0.5 per 100,000 people in 2010
” Helena Bachmann, “The Swiss Difference: A Gun Culture That Works,”
Time,
December 20, 2012,
http://ti.me/11h4LEN
. • “
Their overall homicide rate was 0.7
” “Intentional Homicide, Count and Rate per 100,000 Population (1995–2011),” 2011 Global Study on Homicide: Trends/Contexts/Data (Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2011),
http://bit.ly/16JkTTx
. • “
well below other gun-control havens like Australia (1.0), the UK (1.2) and Canada (1.6)
” “Intentional Homicide, Count and Rate per 100,000 Population (1995–2011),” 2011 Global Study on Homicide: Trends/Contexts/Data (Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2011),
http://bit.ly/16JkTTx
. • “
the lowest rates of gun ownership in Europe at 3.9 per capita
” Aaron Karp, “Completing the Count: Civilian Firearms,” Small Arms Survey 2007: Guns and the City (2007),
http://bit.ly/16Jg0tt
. • “
all have lower murder rates than The Netherlands—and far more guns per capita
” “Intentional Homicide, Count and Rate per 100,000 Population (1995–2011),” 2011 Global Study on Homicide: Trends/Contexts/Data (Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2011),
http://bit.ly/16JkTTx
. • “
D.C.’s handgun . . . went into effect in early 1977
” “A History of D.C. Gun Ban,”
Washington Post
, June 26, 2008,
http://wapo.st/16JgcJj
. • “
D.C.’s murder rate ranked in top four among the fifty largest U.S. cities
” John R. Lott, Jr., More Guns, Less Crime, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 306–307. • “
suddenly stopped falling and instead rose slightly to 23 in the five years afterward
” “D.C.’s Flawed Reasoning,”
Washington Times
, September 7, 2007,
http://bit.ly/16JgK1X
. • “
Chicago’s murder rate fell from being 8.1 times greater than its neighbors in 1977 to 5.5 times in 1982, and then went way up to 12 times greater in 1987
” “D.C.’s Flawed Reasoning,”
Washington Times
, September 7, 2007,
http://bit.ly/16JgK1X
. • “
there were 1.5 million active licenses in 1998 and only 200,000 four years later
” Associated Press, “State Gun Licenses Plung,”
Cape Cod Times
, August 20, 2002,
http://bit.ly/16JgSOO
. • “
gunshot injuries are up, according to FBI and state data
” MacQuarrie, Brian, “Gun Crimes Increase in Massachusetts Despite Tough Gun Laws,”
Boston Globe
, February 3, 2013,
http://bo.st/16JgWOK
. • “ ‘
a striking increase from the 65 in 1998
’ ” Brian MacQuarrie, “Gun Crimes Increase in Massachusetts Despite Tough Gun Laws,”
Boston Globe
, February 3, 2013,
http://bo.st/16JgWOK
. • “
from aggravated assault (up 26.7 percent) to armed robbery (up 20.7 percent)—also increased
” Brian MacQuarrie, “Gun Crimes Increase in Massachusetts Despite Tough Gun Laws,”
Boston Globe
, February 3, 2013,
http://bo.st/16JgWOK
. • “
the state’s lowest per capita homicide rate occurred in 1997
” “Massachusetts Crime Rates 1960–2011,”
disastercenter.com
, accessed March 6, 2013,
http://bit.ly/MPCJLO
. • “
the homicide rate over that same time period was down 31 percent
” “United States Crime Rates 1960–2011,”
disastercenter.com
, accessed March 6, 2013,
http://bit.ly/Vhgor
.