The Last Gun (41 page)

54
. “State Closes Gouldsboro Gun Range Where Terrorists Trained,”
Pocono Record
, May 11, 2010; “6 Men Arrested in a Terror Plot Against Ft. Dix,”
New York Times
, May 9, 2007 (plotters of terrorist attack on Fort Dix, NJ, trained at PA gun range); “Security Questions at Shooting Ranges,”
New York Times
, Oct. 5, 2003 (members of group that became al Qaeda practiced at New York shooting range).

55
. “Police Say Ohio Gunman Practiced at Firing Range,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, Aug. 20, 2011; “Ft. Hood Suspect Sought Best Gun, Salesman Says,”
Los Angeles Times
, Oct. 22, 2010; “Sirhan's Notes Go Up for Sale: Papers Suggest the Assassin Carefully Calculated His Plan to Kill Robert Kennedy,”
Los Angeles Times
, Apr. 8, 2011 (Sirhan Sirhan practiced at shooting range night before he assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy); “LAX Shooter Motivated by Personal Woes, Probe Finds,”
Los
Angeles Times
, Sept. 5, 2002 (man who shot two to death at El Al counter practiced at shooting range).

56
. “Beginning the Next 50 Years: NSSF Remains Dedicated to Ranges and the Shooting Sports,” National Shooting Sports Foundation,
Range Report
, Winter 2012, 26.

57
. Stephen L. Sanetti,
The National Shooting Sports Foundation: A History 1961 to 2011
(Newtown, CT: National Shooting Sports Foundation, 2011), 7.

58
. “‘Ricochet' Goes Behind Scenes of Gun Lobby,” National Public Radio, Nov. 15, 2007.

59
. Ibid.

60
. “Wayne LaPierre Said That Violent Crime in Jurisdictions That Recognize the ‘Right to Carry' Is Lower Than in Areas That Prevent It,”
St. Petersburg Times
, Feb. 16, 2011.

61
. This excerpt is from the NRAs online version of “Obama's Secret Plan to Destroy the Second Amendment by 2016,”
America's 1st Freedom
,
www.nrapublications.org/index.php/11920/obamas-secret-plan-to-destroy-the-second-amendment-by-2016
. A longer and slightly different version appears as the cover story in the February 2012 print edition
of America's 1st Freedom
. The italicized emphasis is in the original.

62
. “NRAs Ad Exaggerates Intent of Obama Vote,”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, Oct. 30, 2008 (NRA “ad is misleading because it stretches the truth”); “National Rifle Association Endorses McCain,” Associated Press Online, Oct. 9, 2008; “State Target of Gun Lobbyists: Union Claims NRA Tried to Persuade Miners to Criticize Obama During a Filming Last Week,”
Charleston Daily Mail
, Sept. 24, 2008 (NRA “announced it is spending $15 million to campaign against Obama.” Union leaders say “NRA representatives tried to mislead miners about Sen. Barack Obama's stance on guns and tricked them into criticizing the Illinois senator on camera.”).

63
. “Focused NRA a Force in U.S. Politics,”
Washington Post
, Dec. 15, 2010.

64
. Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA executive director, “Gun Owners Score Wins in Spending Bill,”
Political Report
, Jan. 23, 2012,
www.nrapublications.org/index.php/12330/political-report-22
, also published in the February 2012 print edition of the NRAs magazine,
America's 1st Freedom
.

65
. “Form Won't Deter Drug Cartels,”
USA Today
, Aug. 9, 2011.

66
. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” Matthew 7:3–5, The Holy Bible, New International Version, 1984,
http://niv.scripturetext.eom/matthew/7.htm
.

67
. Massachusetts Historical Society, “Adams Quotations,”
www.masshist.org/adams/quotes.cfm
.

68
. E.G. Krug et al., “Firearm-Related Deaths in the United States and 35 Other High- and Upper-Middle-Income Countries,”
International Journal of Epidemiology
27 (1998): 214, 218–19.

69
. E.G. Richardson and David Hemenway, “Homicide, Suicide, and Unintentional Firearm Fatality: Comparing the United States with Other High-Income Countries, 2003,”
Journal of Trauma, Injury, Infection, and Critical Care
70, no. 1 (Jan. 2011): 238, 241.

70
. David Hemenway,
Private Guns, Public Health
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006), 1.

71
. “Army Releases ID of Ariz. Soldier Who Died on Base,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, Aug. 4, 2011.

72
. Clynton Namuo, “Driver Shoots Self After Head-on Crash,”
New Hampshire Union-Leader
, Aug. 3, 2011,
www.unionleader.com/article/20110803/NEWS07/708039962
; “Police: Lee Crash May Have Been Suicide Attempt,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, Aug. 4, 2011.

73
. Matt Johnson, “Satterlee Was ‘On a Mission' When He Murdered Wife, Committed Suicide,”
Vernon County Broadcaster
, Aug. 3, 2011,
http://lacrossetribune.com/vernonbroadcaster/news/local/article_12a4aee0-be23-Ile0-a3ab-001cc4c03286.html
; “Sheriff's Deputy Was Told of Murder-Suicide Plan,”
Wisconsin State Journal
, Aug. 4, 2011.

74
. “Md. Mom Who Killed Son Agonized over School Costs,” Associated Press, Aug. 8, 2011; “Md. Doctor Kills Son, Self,”
Washington Post
, Aug. 4, 2011.

75
. See Violence Policy Center, “Gun Violence,”
www.vpc.org/gunviolence.htm
.

76
. Anne Leland and Mari-Jana “M-J” Oboroceanu, “U.S. Active Duty Military Deaths, 1980 Through 2008, Part II, Cause of Death,” Table 5 in
American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics
(Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2010), 8.

77
. “Pentagon vs. NRA: Will Gun-Rights Law Raise Risk of Soldier Suicides?”
Christian Science Monitor
, Nov. 4, 2011.

78
. Matthew Miller and David Hemenway, “Guns and Suicide in the United States,”
New England Journal of Medicine
, Sept. 4, 2008, 990.

79
. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, “The Third Rail: Guns and Suicide in the Army,” Battleland blog,
Time
, June 15, 2011,
http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/06/15/the-third-rail-guns-and-suicide-in-the-army/#ixzzlfOXOemVJ
.

80
. Dr. Margaret C. Harrell and Nancy Berglass,
Losing the Battle: The Challenge of Military Suicide
(Washington, DC: Center for a New American Security, 2011), 6.

81
. Ritchie, “Third Rail.”

82
. Data on gun deaths and injuries in this report is from the WISQARS database of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

83
. While injury estimates for the years 2009 (66, 769) and 2010 (73, 505) are available, it is impossible to assess the significance of this information without complete gun death data. Unfortunately, there is usually a two- to three-year lag on the release of firearm-related fatality numbers, and therefore 2008 was the latest year for which complete data was available at time of analysis.

84
. Leland and Oboroceanu, “U.S. Active Duty Military Deaths, 1980 Through 2008, Part I, Total Military Personnel,” Table 4 in
American War and Military Operations Casualties, 7
.

85
. Leland and Oboroceanu, “U.S. Active Duty Military Deaths, 1980 Through 2008, Part II, Cause of Death,” 8.

86
. Anthony R. Harris et al., “Murder and Medicine: The Lethality of Criminal Assault 1960–1999,”
Homicide Studies
6, no. 2 (May 2002): 128–66, 130.

87
. “Medical Advances Help Keep Murder Rate Down,”
Dayton Daily News
, Apr. 24, 2011.

88
. “Survival Soars for Victims of Violence: Rapid Transport, New Technology and Advances in Surgical Protocol Have Helped More Survive,”
Birmingham News
, May 25, 2008.

89
. “Survival Rate Up for Gun Victims: Doctor's Report Is a Mixed Bag,”
Boston Globe
, May 18, 2006.

90
. Federico C. Vinas, “Penetrating Head Trauma,”
Medscape Reference
—
Drugs, Diseases & Procedures
,
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/247664-overview
.

91
. National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, “Spinal Cord Injury Facts and Figures at a Glance, February 2011,”
www.nscisc.uab.edu
.

92
. For a detailed discussion of this trend, see Violence Policy Center,
The Militarization of the U.S. Civilian Firearms Market
(Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2011),
www.vpc.org/studies/militarization.pdf

93
. “Critical Care: Shock Trauma Confuses Data on Killing Rate,”
Washington Times
, May 11, 2003.

94
. Harris et al., “Murder and Medicine,” 157.

1
. The day before, Wesley Neal Higdon, a twenty-five-year-old press-machine operator at a plastics plant in Henderson, Kentucky, went on a rampage with a 45 caliber handgun, shot five co-workers to death, seriously wounded another, and then committed suicide with his gun. “Angry Worker Kills 5, Himself in Henderson,”
Louisville Courier-Journal
, June 26, 2008.

2
. “Radio Missing, Man Shoots into the Air,”
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
, June 27, 2008.

3
. “2 Slain in City; Boy Killed by Car,”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, June 28, 2008.

4
. “Violence Between Repo Men, Car Owners on the Rise,”
Birmingham Times
, Mar. 5, 2009; “Man Shot Dead in Fracas over Repossessed Car,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, June 27, 2008.

5
. “Police: Shootings a Result of Suicide Attempt,”
Muskegon Chronicle
, June 27, 2008.

6
. “Elgin Man Formally Charged in Shooting,”
Chicago Daily Herald
, June 29, 2008.

7
. “Teen Accidentally Shoots Friend in the Arm,”
Tampa Tribune
, June 27, 2008.

8
. “Daughter was Abuse Victim, Mom Says,”
Harrisburg Patriot News
, June 28, 2008; “Couple Found Shot, Dead Inside Apartment,”
Harrisburg Patriot News
, June 27, 2008.

9
. “Killer's Brother Held in Threat; Guns Seized After Wife Goes to Police,”
Hartford Courant
, June 27, 2008; “A Push to Tighten Security: Lawyer Wounded in
Shooting Joins Call for Increased Safety Measures in Courts,”
Hartford Courant
, Feb. 7, 2007.

10
. “Man Who Allegedly Killed His Wife at YMCA Was Under Court Restraint,”
Newark Star-Ledger
, June 28, 2008; “Woman Killed in Apparent Domestic Dispute at Y,”
Bergen Record
, June 27, 2008.

11
. “Woman Held for Shooting at Crowd,”
Connecticut Post Online
, June 27, 2008.

12
. “Broward Girl, 3, Recovering from Gun Shot to Leg,”
Miami Herald
, June 29, 2008; “Girl, 3, Wounded in Gunfire,”
Miami Herald
, June 28, 2008.

13
. “3 Teens in Jail After Shooting and Car Chase,”
Rock Hill
(SC)
Herald
, June 28, 2008.

14
. “Deputies Investigate Shooting of Girl, 5, by Younger Brother,”
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
, July 1, 2008.

15
. “7 Wounded in Night's Gunfire: Police Have Made an Arrest in One of the Three Shootings Thursday,”
Omaha World-Herald
, June 27, 2008.

16
. “Two City Shootings, One a Homicide: Crimes Took Place Only Minutes Apart, but Were Not Related, Police Say,”
Hartford Courant
, June 28, 2008.

17
. “3 Found Dead, Including Woman Who Held Police at Bay for Hours,”
Arizona Daily Star
, June 28, 2008.

18
. “Couple's Death Ruled Murder-Suicide,”
Hattiesburg American
, July 1, 2008.

19
. See, e.g., “Supreme Court Strikes Down D.C. Gun Ban; Antiwar
MoveOn.org
Ad Uses Baby,”
Glenn Beck
, CNN, June 26, 2008 (“In one of the most anticipated decisions in recent memory. . .”); “Gun Ruling: History at the Court,”
ABC World News with Charles Gibson
, June 26, 2008 (“Today, for the first time ever, the Supreme Court defined those words”); and “What's Next After Supreme Court's Gun Decision?” McClatchy-Tribune News Service, June 26, 2008 (“The Supreme Court's landmark decision Thursday striking down the District of Columbia's gun ban will have wide-ranging legal, political and public safety consequences”).

20
.
District of Columbia v. Heller
, 554 U.S. 570 (2008).