The Last Gun (52 page)

27
. “Police Believe Neo-Nazi killed 4, himself in Ariz.,”
Salt Lake Tribune
, May 5, 2012.

28
. Ibid.

29
. Speech by National Rifle association First Vice President Charlton Heston.

30
. “Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., Presidential Candidate, Delivers Remarks at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting Celebration of American Values Leadership Forum.”

31
. Violence Policy Center,
Lessons Unlearned: The Gun Lobby and the Siren Song of Anti-Government Rhetoric
(Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2010), 8,
www.vpc.org/studies/lessonsunlearned.pdf
.

32
. “Call to Arms.”

33
. Becky Bowers, “In Context: Ted Nugent Saying If Obama Wins, ‘I Will Either Be Dead or in Jail,'” PolitiFact, Apr. 19, 2012,
www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/apr/19/context-ted-nugent-saying-if-obama-wins-i-will-be
.

34
. “Romney Goes on Offensive on Guns at NRA Gathering; Likely GOP Nominee: Obama Waiting for Second Term to Act,”
Baltimore Sun
, Apr. 14, 2012.

35
. “Biography—William J. Clinton,” William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum,
www.clintonlibrary.gov/_previous/bios-WJC.htm
.

36
.
NRA Action
(periodical of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action), Sept. 1992,
www.saf.org/pub/rkba/wais/data_fles/aphrodite/nraction0992
(accessed June 20, 2003); “Call to arms”; brief item, associated Press, Oct. 15, 1982.

37
. “At Election Time, Political Mouths Open,” Associated Press, Oct. 25, 1982; brief item, Associated Press, Oct. 15, 1982.

38
.
NRA Action
, Sept. 1992.

39
. “Call to arms”;
NRA Action
, Sept. 1992.

40
. “The NRA works with gun owners and lawmakers to enact preemption laws in the few states that still permit local ordinances more restrictive than state law. To ensure uniform firearm laws throughout your state and to guarantee equal rights for all, support statewide firearms preemption.” National Rifle association, “Firearms Preemption Laws,” NRA-ILA Fact sheet, Dec. 16, 2006,
www.nraila.org/news-issues/fact-sheets/2006/frearms-preemption-laws.aspx
. Clinton alluded to the NRA campaign in 1991, saying the issue wasn't one of gun control, but local government control, and was being pressed by the NRA. “They have a chart up on the wall in their Washington office with a check after the states that pass this,” he said. “showdown
Brews as Clinton, NRA Duel over Gun Bill,”
Memphis Commercial Appeal
, Feb. 2, 1991.

41
. “Clinton Vetoes Bill to Ban Local Laws on Gun Control,”
Memphis Commercial Appeal
, Mar. 30, 1991.

42
.
NRA Action
, Sept. 1992.

43
. “Clinton Looking into System to Check Histories of Gun Buyers,”
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
, May 14, 1991.

44
. For an overview of the rise and regulation of semiautomatic assault weapons, see Tom Diaz,
Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America
(New York: The New Press, 1999), 120–34.

45
. “Clinton Vetoes Firearms Bill: He Calls It ‘Unwise Encroachment' on Local Governments,”
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
, Mar. 22, 1989.

46
. “Governors Want More Road Money,”
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
, Feb. 6, 1991.

47
. “Schaefer Lobbies Governors for U.S. Ban on Assault Weapons,”
Washington Post,
Aug. 17, 1991.

48
. Ibid.

49
. See, e.g., “Assault Weapons Ban OKd—by the Narrowest of Margins; House Vote Is Stunning Victory for Clinton,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, May 6, 1994; and “Brandishing a Loaded Symbol: Clinton Uses Police Officer's Death to Push Assault Weapon Ban,”
Washington Post
, May 3, 1994.

50
. “The Great Gun Divide,”
National Journal
, July 22, 2000.

51
. Paul Waldman, “The Myth of NRA Dominance Part I: The NRA's Ineffective Spending,”
Think Progress
, Feb. 9, 2012,
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/02/09/421893/the-myth-of-nra-dominance-part-i-the-nras-ineffective-spending
.

52
. Christopher Kenny, Michael McBurnett, and David Bordua, “The Impact of Political Interests in the 1994 and 1996 Congressional Elections: The Role of the National Rifle Association,”
British Journal of Political Science
34 (2004): 331–44. “This article would not have been possible without the co-operation of Tanya Metaksa, former Director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Affairs [
sic
], and Paul Black-man, research director for the NRA. Ms. Metaksa made available the data on ratings, endorsements and membership numbers used in the analyses. The authors accept responsibility for interpretations made with these data” (331fn).

53
. Ibid., 332.

54
. Waldman, “Myth of NRA Dominance Part I.”

55
. Ibid.

56
. Kenny, McBurnett, and Bordua, “Impact of Political Interests,” 344.

57
. See “Swimming with Sharks,” Indiana Public Media,
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/swimming-with-sharks
(“If remoras could talk, they would calmly explain something called commensalism—a relationship where one species benefits from proximity to the other without harming or helping the other species. In this case, remoras benefit from riding on sharks without doing the sharks any harm”).

58
. Waldman, “Myth of NRA Dominance Part I.”

59
. Tom Rosenstiel, “Political Polling and the New Media Culture: A Case of More Being Less,”
Public Opinion Quarterly
69, no. 5 (special issue 2005): 699, 706.

60
. See, e.g., Christopher Preble, “Ike Reconsidered: How Conservatives Ignored, and Liberals Misconstrued, Eisenhower's Warnings About Military Spending,”
Washington Monthly
, Mar. 1, 2011 (“Whereas the Keynesians thought this a useful by-product of a large national security state, Eisenhower viewed it as a threat to the Republic. Later scholars would call it the Iron Triangle.”); and Shane Harris, “Own the Sky,”
Washingtonian
, Nov. 2010 (“The Air Force would get its planes. Members of Congress would score a win for their constituencies and American industry. And Boeing would be saved. The three points in the ‘iron triangle' of the defense business were all satisfied.”).

61
. Lawrence R. Jacobs and Robert Y. Shapiro, “Polling Politics, Media, and Election Campaigns,”
Public Opinion Quarterly
69, no. 5 (special issue 2005): 640. The “golden triangle” business is lucrative. A 1996 article in the
Chicago Tribune
, for example, detailed how Bill Clinton's “unpaid” political consultant Dick Morris, the pollsters Penn & Schoen, and the media firm of Squier Knapp & Ochs carved up commissions of $4.25 million from just one year's worth of “media buys.” Morris's share was an estimated $1.5 million. This amount did not include fees for other services, nor did it include more commissions from later media buys. “Clinton's ‘Unpaid' Political Whiz Is Really a Gun for Hire,”
Chicago Tribune
, Aug. 25, 1996.

62
. Rosenstiel, “Political Polling and the New Media Culture,” 701.

63
. Ibid., 701–3.

64
. Ibid., 707.

65
. Andrew Kohut, “But What Do the Polls Show?” Pew Research Center, Oct. 14, 2009,
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1379/polling-history-influence-policymaking-politics
.

66
. “Most of Fiske's Whitewater Legal Staff Won't Serve Under Starr,”
Washington Post
, Aug. 31, 1994;”Fiske Ousted in Whitewater Case: Move Is Surprise,”
Los Angeles Times
, Aug. 6, 1994.

67
. “Democrats Glum About Prospects as Elections Near,”
New York Times
, Sept. 4, 1994.

68
. “Shooting in the Dark,”
National Journal
, Feb. 12, 1994.

69
. “Experts Doubt Effectiveness of Crime Bill,”
New York Times
, Sept. 14, 1994.

70
. “Prevention Plans Seen as ‘Mush,'”
The Oregonian
, Aug. 16, 1994.

71
. “ ‘Pork' Attacked by GOP Predates Current Debate,”
Washington Post
, Aug. 18, 1994.

72
. Peter J. Boyer, “Whip Cracker,”
New Yorker
, Sept. 5, 1994, 38–39.

73
. “Crime Bill Fails on a House Vote, Stunning Clinton,”
New York Times
, Aug. 12, 1994.

74
. See “About the Committee on Rules,” U.S. House of Representatives,
www.rules.house.gov/singlepages.aspx?NewsID=1&RSBD=4
.

75
. “When the resolution comes to the floor, members who oppose the bill in any form may seek to defeat the rule, to prevent its consideration. Defeat of the rule effectively returns it (and the issue of scheduling the underlying bill) to the Rules
Committee.” Charles J. Finocchiaro and David W. Rohde, “War for the Floor: Partisan Theory and Agenda Control in the U.S. House of Representatives,”
Legislative Studies Quarterly
33, no. 1 (Feb. 2008).

76
. “Crime Bill Fails on a House Vote, Stunning Clinton.”

77
. “A President Staggering,”
New York Times
, Aug. 12, 1994.

78
. See, e.g., “Decision in the Senate: The Overview; Crime Bill Approved, 61–38, but Senate Is Going Home Without Acting on Health,”
New York Times
, Aug. 26, 1994 (“Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Delaware Democrat who is the author of the bill and is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Mr. Clinton's insistence on keeping its ban on 19 types of assault weapons ‘was the ultimate leverage Joe Biden and George Mitchell had' in keeping the bill and that provision alive.”).

79
. “‘Pork' Attacked by GOP Predates Current Debate,”
Washington Post
, Aug. 18, 1994.

80
. “Crime Bill Fails on a House Vote, Stunning Clinton.”

81
. Boyer, “Whip Cracker,” 39.

82
. Ibid., 39–40.

83
. “Playing on the Public Pique: Consultant Taps Voter Anger to Help GOP,”
Washington Post
, Oct. 27, 1994.

84
. “Decision in the Senate.”

85
. “Crime Bill Is Signed with Flourish: With Few Republicans at Ceremony, Clinton Urges More Cooperation,”
Washington Post
, Sept. 14, 1994.

86
. Ibid.

87
. “GOP Offers a ‘Contract' to Revive Reagan Years,”
Washington Post
, Sept. 28, 1994.

88
. “Playing on the Public Pique.”

89
. “Republican Contract with America,” U.S. House of Representatives, in the files of the Violence Policy Center.

90
. See “Taking Back Our Streets Act,” U.S. House of Representatives, in the files of the Violence Policy Center.

91
. “NRA's Answer to Gun Control: An Arsenal of TV Ads,”
USA Today
, Nov. 3, 1994.

92
. “Gun Control Backers Are Tuesday's Targets: NRA Shelling Out Big Bucks Across U.S.,”
Washington Post
, Nov. 7, 1994.

93
. See Violence Prevention Campaign,
From the Gun War to the Culture War
.

94
. “A Historic Republican Triumph: GOP Captures Congress; Party Controls Both Houses for First Time Since '50s,”
Washington Post
, Nov. 9, 1994.

95
. “Tide of Anger Sweeps Out Foley: Speaker Personified Congress in a Year Voters Resented Capitol Hill,”
Washington Post
, Nov. 10, 1994.

96
. “Clinton Assumes Some Blame,” United Press International, Nov. 9, 1994.

97
. “Republican Gains and Obligations,”
New York Times
, Nov. 9, 1994.

98
. Ibid.

99
. “Voters Tell Why They Switched,”
Boston Globe
, Nov. 14, 1994.

100
. “The Harder They Fall: Tom Foley So Busy Speaking He Couldn't Hear the Message,”
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
Nov. 13, 1994.

101
. “Tide of Anger Sweeps Out Foley.”

102
. “House Republicans Target Crime-Prevention Programs Turnabout: GOP Expected to Go After Billions as Part of ‘Contract,'”
San Jose Mercury News
, Nov. 26, 1994 (“Some conservatives and the National Rifle Association have called on the new Congress to repeal two gun-control measures enacted in the last year—the crime bill's ban on assault weapons and the Brady law's five-day wait for the purchase of a handgun—but that's not likely”).

103
. “Republicans Earn NRA's Ire over Assault Weapons: Overturning Ban Isn't a Priority,”
Washington Times
, Jan. 19, 1995.