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 Russ
ia 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.
THE UNITED STATES IS UNIQUE IN SUFFERING FROM GUN MASSACRES.
“ ‘And we’ve just got to stop this’ ” Lynn Sweet, “Bloomberg on Only in America: We Kill People,” Lynn Sweet: The Scoop from Washington blog at suntimes.com, December 16, 2012, http://bit.ly/11hedYG. • “ ‘the problem that America has with gun massacres’ ” Rachel Maddow, Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, January 11, 2011, http://nbcnews.to/11he9It. • “he murdered 69 people” “Norwegian Youth Party to Host Summer Camp, Two Years After Anders Breivik,” Telegraph, January 30, 2013, http://bit.ly/100vMuX. • “on November 26, 2008, 164 people were killed” Harmeet Sha Singh, “India Remembers Mumbai Dead,” cnn.com, November 26, 2010, http://bit.ly/11he5bA. • “sixteen kindergartners and their teacher were killed” John Lott, “Think Tough Gun Laws Keep Europeans Safe? Think again . . . ,” foxnews.com, June 10, 2010, http://fxn.ws/ZXBTRa. • “Two nine-month-old babies and one day-care worker were killed” Bruno Waterfield and John Bingham, “Belgium ‘Joker’ Creche Killer Snorted with Laughter in Police Interrogation,” Telegraph, January 24, 2009, http://bit.ly/11hdUgF. • “He murdered eight children and seriously wounded thirteen other kids, along with two teachers” “Japan Mourns School Victims,” cnn.com, June 10, 2001, http://bit.ly/100vUur. • “China has suppressed and censored much of the news” Edward Wong, “Fifth Deadly Attack on a School Haunts China,” New York Times, May 12, 2010, http://nyti.ms/11hdYNo. • “Eight were reported to be killed” “China Executes Killer of Eight School Children,” BBC News, April 28, 2010, http://bbc.in/aJDhN6. • “stabbed sixteen students and a teacher in an elementary school” Jaime FlorCruz, “Execution Does Not Stop Chinese Knife Attack,” cnn.com, May 3, 2010, http://bit.ly/100vZy2. • “stabbed twenty-eight students, two teachers, and one security guard in a kindergarten” Jaime FlorCruz, “Execution Does Not Stop Chinese Knife Attack,” cnn.com, May 3, 2010, http://bit.ly/100vZy2. • “armed with a hammer attacked children in a preschool” Jaime FlorCruz, “Execution Does Not Stop Chinese Knife Attack,” cnn.com, May 3, 2010, http://bit.ly/100vZy2. • “murdered seven children and two adults and injured eleven others” Christopher Bodeen, “9 Killed in Latest Attack at China School,” Associated Press, May 12, 2010, http://bit.ly/11hdKWp. • “killing three children and one teacher” “Man Held Over Fatal Knife Attack at China Kindergarten,” BBC News, August 4, 2010, http://bbc.in/aTu1Zi. • “slashed eight children” “Eight Children Hurt in China School Attack,” BBC News, August 29, 2011, http://bbc.in/oP5EKx. • “murdered a one-year-old and a four-year-old and four adults” Haolan Hong and Jaime FlorCruz, “6 Die in China Ax Attack,” cnn.com, September 14, 2011, http://bit.ly/11hdSFv. • “stabbed an elderly woman and twenty-three children at an elementary school” An Baijie, “Suspect in School Knife Attack ‘Feared End of the World,’ ” China Daily, December 18, 2012, http://bit.ly/161rlnB. • “with fingers and ears cut off” “22 Stabbed Students Receive Treatment in Central China,” news.xinhuanet.com, December 15, 2012, http://bit.ly/11hdIxT. • “stabbed to death nine people and wounded four others with a knife” Associated Foreign Press, “Teen Kills Nine in Stabbing Frenzy,” Herald Sun, August 2, 2012, http://bit.ly/100wjx1. • “Mass shootings happen with appalling regularity in Mexico, a place with restrictive gun control laws” Cave, Damien,“At a Nation’s Only Gun Shop, Looking North in Disbelief,” New York Times, 24 July 2012. http://nyti.ms/100wlVA. • “one in February when thirteen people were killed at a party” “Juarez Police Seek Motive in Mass Shooting,” United Press International, February 1, 2010, http://nyti.ms/100wlVA. • “in September, when eight were killed inside a bar” CNN Staff Writer,“Bar Shooting in Juarez Leaves 8 Dead,” CNN, 17 September 2010, http://bit.ly/11hD.C.9p. • “El Paso, Texas, which was recently named the “safest large city in America” Borunda, Daniel, “El Paso Ranked Safest Large City in U.S. for 3rd Straight Year,” El Paso Times, February, 6, 2013, http://bit.ly/11hdDtY.