The Politics of Gun Control 8th Edition

Robert J Spitzer
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Praise for the Eighth Edition

e latest edition of Robert Spitzer’s classic The Politics of Gun

Control continues to provide an authoritative assessment of the many
issues surrounding guns in America, and offers new commentary on
the growing empirical literature as well as on some of the latest
wrening spasms of gun violence that continue to plague this
country. Most Americans have strong views on guns without having
an equally strong understanding of the complex issues raised by the
increasingly more deadly arsenal of weaponry in the hands of
American civilians. Beer laws and policies would be in place if more
voters would read and learn from Spitzer’s measured and insightful
work.

— John Donahue, Stanford Law School

Robert Spitzer dely distil s decades of firearm policy-making, court

decisions, and interest-group mobilization into one readable volume.
As a veteran observer of the great gun debate, Spitzer brings an
expert knowledge and historical view that few other solars can
rival. is updated edition is a must-have for those interested not
only in the past but also in the future of gun politics in the United
States.

— Jacob D. Charles, Duke University School of Law

Praise for Previous Editions

First published in 1995 and frequently updated, Robert Spitzer’s

excellent work is my go-to book for gun control. It is the single best
primer available on gun control, and this new edition should be first
on any list of readings on the topic. Anyone with an interest in
firearms—for whatever reason—must read this book.

— Charles W. Smith, The Ohio State University

Bringing a classic book like this one up to date is always an important
event. In this new edition, Robert Spitzer moves seamlessly between
legal, social, and political perspectives to deliver a comprehensive
panorama touing all the significant and nuanced issues in the
current gun debate.

— Miael R. Weisser, Founder of Mike the Gun Guy: News and Notes
about Guns;

Author of Guns for Good Guys, Guns for Bad Guys

The Politics of Gun Control is a classic work in American politics and

policy. [It]

continues to capture students’ imaginations (and those of faculty as

well). Although arguments over gun control are frequently emotional,
Robert Spitzer does his customary excel ent job in providing a smart,
clear-headed approa to an explosive issue.

— Burdett Loomis, University of Kansas

is is the definitive book on gun politics, wrien by the dean of gun
politics solars.

— Kristin A. Goss, Duke University

Robert Spitzer’s The Politics of Gun Control remains the source for in-
depth, thorough, and fair information and analysis for the politics of
firearms in the United States. In the crisp and thoroughly readable
narrative of this new edition, Spitzer takes his audience from the
Founding Era to the time of Trump, providing valuable and thought-
provoking insight at every stop along the way. A very important piece
of work.

— Mark D. Brewer, University of Maine

Robert Spitzer has wrien the classic work on the gun control
problem: His analysis is comprehensive, penetrating, and
dispassionate. With essential information and perspective on the
United States’ weak gun laws, this new edition of The Politics of Gun
Control should be the primary resource for al researers, engaged
citizens, and public officials.

— Raymond Tatalovi, Loyola University Chicago

e new edition of The Politics of Gun Control demonstrates that

Robert Spitzer remains the preeminent solar of firearm policy. He
continues to deepen and refine his approa to the gun issue,
providing a sober treatment of the persistence of gun violence and its
relevance for making regulatory social policy. Spitzer’s detailed
analysis and crystal-clear writing make this volume valuable for
students at all levels, for public policy researers, and for the
general public.

— Glenn H. Utter, Lamar University

The Politics of Gun Control is wel -researed and comprehensive,

and—most importantly—accessible for modern students of public
policy. rough the lens of gun policy, Robert Spitzer superbly
captures the nuances, absurdities, and relative certainties of
American public policy.

— Zaary L. Wilhide, Old Dominion University

e Politics of Gun Control

Since its initial publication, this book has become the classic work on
every

important element of the tumultuous national gun debate in America.

is

new eighth edition brings together the latest developments and

resear in

gun politics, policy, law, history, and criminology to provide a

comprehensive and accessible source widely used by solars,
journalists,

and in classrooms. In this era of polarized politics, this book provides

a unique window into how and why that polarization drives our
politics.

Among the new topics covered in this edition are the Second
Amendment

sanctuary movement, recent studies on the connection between the

concealed gun carry movement and crime, the cascading troubles

beseing

the National Rifle Association coupled with a surging gun safety

movement,

the bump sto controversy, and the rise of red flag laws.

Robert J. Spitzer is Distinguished Service Professor of political science

at the State University of New York, College at Cortland. He is the
author of 15

books and over 700 articles, essays, papers, and op-eds.

e Politics of Gun Control

Eighth Edition

Robert J. Spitzer

State University of New York Col ege at Cortland

Eighth edition published 2021

by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa

business

© 2021 Taylor & Francis

e right of Robert J. Spitzer to be identified as author of this work

has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Al rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or

reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, meanical,
or other means, now known or hereaer invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or

registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.

First edition published by Chatham House Publishers 1995

Seventh edition published by Routledge 2018

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Spitzer, Robert J., 1953– author.

Title: e politics of gun control / Robert J Spitzer, State University of
New York College at Cortland.

Description: Eighth edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. |

Revised edition of the author’s e politics of gun control, [2018] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020018536 | ISBN 9780367502843 (paperba) |

ISBN 9780367502867 (hardba) | ISBN 9781003049371 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Gun control—United States.

Classification: LCC HV7436 .S68 2021 | DDC 363.330973—dc23

LC record available at hps://lccn.loc.gov/2020018536

ISBN: 978-0-367-50286-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-04937-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Minion

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

To the memories of Ted Lowi (1931–2017), mentor, friend, bon

vivant; Bil Spitzer (1921–1996);

Ed Artinian (1936–1997);

and to my wonderful Tess

Contents

Preface

New to this Edition

Acknowledgments
About the Author

Introduction

1. Policy Definition and Gun Control

Regulation, Public Order, and Public Policy

Guns and Regulation

e Gun Controversy

e Gun Culture

Policy Gridlo

Social Regulatory Policy Analysis

2. e Second Amendment: Meaning, Intent, Interpretation, and

Consequences

Historic Roots

e Constitution

e Bil of Rights

e Militia Transformed

Supreme Court Rulings

Other Court Rulings

Bad History Makes Bad Law

Conclusion

3. e Criminological Consequences of Guns

America and Violence

Choice of Weapons

Homicide and Malicious Injury

Suicide

Accidents

Self-Defense

Guns and Sool Violence

Gun Carrying on Col ege Campuses?

“Stand Your Ground” Laws: Extending the “Castle Doctrine” to

America’s Streets

Conclusion

4. Political Fury: Gun Politics

Single-Issue Gun Groups: e NRA

Explaining the NRA’s Effectiveness

e Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

e Mil ion Mom Mar

New Gun Control Groups Enter the Fray

e Gun Control Movement’s Strategic Blunders and Newfound

Strength

e Political Balance and the Invincibility Myth

Public Opinion

Political Parties and Guns

Conclusion

5. Institutions, Policymaking, and Guns

Early Legislative Efforts

e Gun Control Act of 1968

e Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986

e Tide Turns: e Assault Weapons Ban

e Brady Bil

e Post-Columbine Reaction

Lawsuit Protection for Gun Manufacturers

Sandy Hook

e Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives

e Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Conclusion: Furious Politics, Marginal Policy

6. Gun Policy: A New Framework

Federalism: e Great Regulation Dilemma

Gun Policy Alternatives

e Barriers to Gun Control

e Security Dilemma
e Security Dilemma and the Gun Debate

Nonproliferation and Arms Control

Index

Preface

T HE COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that circled the globe in 2020

posed a

fundamental threat to the social order and economies of nations,

including the United States, where the virus hit with particular force.
Yet unlike other nations, some Americans sought protection and
solace not only

from face masks, rubber gloves, and social distancing, but from—wait
for it—

guns. e FBI reported conducting a record number of firearm

baground

es in February and Mar of 2020 as the infection rate soared.

Similarly,

ammunition sales shot up as frenzied buyers stoed up, not unlike

the

panic-driven run on toilet paper, whi disappeared from supermarket

shelves during this same period. To be sure, firearms are ineffective

against a

virus, but they are highly effective against human beings, and the
uniquely

American response to panic and insecurity has, in recent years, found

expression in gun purases.

erein lies the paradox. e impulse of some to rea for a gun, or

lots of

guns, in anticipation of some kind of societal apocalypse is founded in

a desire for greater safety and security. But it also opens the door to
unwanted

gun mayhem at a time when the ief public health recommendation

was

that Americans stay home. Combined with the closing of sools and

businesses, families experienced increased stress, including the

specter of a

rise in domestic violence, and the heightened prospect of an increase

in gun

suicides, accidents, and within-home homicides (one beneficial effect

of

stay-at-home directives was a drop in crime outside of the home).

If other Americans, or citizens of other nations, cannot fathom the

rush to

guns by some of their fel ow citizens and the oen deliberate efforts
by gun

activists to fan the flames of insecurity and fear precisely to

encourage more gun sales, then I am happy to recommend this book
to them.

***

Every now and then, the name of a location or a hitherto anonymous

person’s name becomes famous, whether for good reasons or bad. In
the

case of gun policy, sudden fame or infamy is readily identifiable to

most.

Like the last, this new edition of The Politics of Gun Control was
motivated

in part by the sudden notoriety of several su names: a formerly

anonymous elementary sool in Connecticut cal ed Sandy Hook; a

nondescript office building in San Bernardino, California; a typical

shopping

mal movie theater in Aurora, Colorado; the Pulse Nightclub in

Orlando,

Florida; and most horrendously, a mass shooting of unprecedented

proportions in Las Vegas that included a device virtually no one had

heard

of: bump stos. Two relatively new terms also entered the gun
policy

lexicon, and therefore the analysis found in this book: red flag laws
and Second Amendment sanctuaries.

But this study of gun policy in America is more than a collection of

stories about horrifying tragedies or tragic mistakes. Policy analysis

means,

in part, careful analysis of cases, trends, and policy ange to discern

meaning and insight.
is project began in classic academic style. Over three decades ago
a

col eague contacted me to inquire about my interest in writing a

apter for

a policy issues book. I was offered a oice of topics and seled on

gun control, in large part because I knew lile about the topic aside
from what I

read in the occasional newspaper article. One of the joys of academic

life is

the opportunity to examine and resear subjects for the sheer

pleasure of

exploration. So it was with gun control. Since that time, I have

continued to

accumulate materials, write, and reflect on the singular nature of the

gun debate as wel as the continuing need for analytical writing on
this subject.

One interesting phenomenon I observed through the resear

process was

a few writers’ almost frantic yet very conscious penant to embrace,

or run

away from, ideological labels on the gun issue. e polemical under-

growth of the gun issue is certainly one reason for su
proclamations, as is the penant for ad hominem rather than
substantive arguments; yet su

proclamations are unusual in solarly literature, and I was trained to

let arguments and facts speak for themselves. Some lawyers and
writers’
statements declaring that they were good liberals or not members of
various

gun associations seemed anxious and diversionary efforts to protest

too

mu. Nevertheless, in the spirit of su personal declarations, let me

state

for the record that I am, as of this writing, a member both of the
National

Rifle Association (NRA) and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun

Violence

(formerly Handgun Control, Inc., also known as the Brady Campaign).

ese

memberships have helped provide a keener view of the gun issue

from the

trenes on ea side.

New to this Edition

T HIS NEW EDITION INCLUDES data updates on gun ownership and

use, whi

reveals several divergent trends related to guns. For example, while

gun

sales and numbers of baground es by the government

continue to

increase (largely because existing gun owners are buying ever-more

guns),
the proportion of Americans who actually own guns continues to
decline.

As more conservative, “red” states push to roll ba even modest

existing gun laws, more liberal “blue” states move in the opposite
direction to

strengthen gun laws. And as new resear reveals, these anges

make a

difference in both gun habits and gun harm. is new edition also
reports on

the pivotal 2018 elections. Just two years earlier, Donald Trump won
the presidency with the early and enthusiastic baing of the National
Rifle

Association. Both were riding high. Yet the 2018 midterm elections
saw

three counter-trends: a take-over of the House of Representatives by

the Democrats, the ascendance of support for stronger gun laws as a
key issue in

congressional and other races around the country, and the implosion
of the

NRA as it confronted an array of financial, legal, and organizational

problems. Overwhelming bipartisan support saw a sweep of new gun

regulations, cal ed “red flag” laws, win passage in nearly twenty

states, including some traditional y gun-friendly states. New resear
on the

history of American gun laws reveals that, contrary to the

assumptions of
most, gun regulations were not only prolific but as old as the country
itself.

In fact, in many respects, guns were regulated more strictly in the

country’s

first 300 years—dating ba to the colonial era—than in the last 30

years.

Developments in the push to allow civilian gun carrying on college

campuses, the controversy over so-cal ed gun-free zones, the rise of

the

“Second Amendment sanctuary” movement, and an important

ange in government funding for gun resear al receive detailed
treatment. e

indisputably tumultuous nature of gun politics continues to be both

revealing and instructive as a barometer of our politics, culture, and

life.

Acknowledgments

I WISH TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE advice, assistance, and thoughtful

comments of

several SUNY Cortland col eagues and friends, including Seth

Asumah,

Bruce Atkins, Erik Bierbaum, Frank Burdi, Gregg Lee Carter,

James

Clark, Deb Dintino, Herb Haines, Hubert Keen, Bruce Maingly, Carol

McPhee, Peg Murphy, Lorea Padavona, Tom Pasquarello, Len

Ralston, Tim
Shannon, Judson Taylor, and Don Wright. Two Cortland colleagues
read

significant portions of the original manuscript. My particular thanks

go to

Craig Lile and Jerry O’Cal aghan. John Mearsheimer of the

University of

Chicago also offered crucial suggestions and advice. I also wish to

thank Kathleen Burke and Mark Prus, both highly skilled economists
at SUNY

Cortland, for their expertise. Additional y, the following people offered

many useful suggestions in their reviews of this or a past edition:

Mark D.

Brewer, University of Maine; Donald Davison, Rol ins College; Burde

Loomis, University of Kansas; Melissa Buis Miaux, Wil amee

University;

Patri Pierce, Saint Mary’s College; Charles W. Smith, e Ohio State

University; and Zaary Wilhide, Old Dominion University. I also thank

Jennifer Knerr and Jacqueline Dorsey at Routledge.

I also wish to anowledge Gail Spitzer, Jason Popa, Mellissa and

Aaron

Mitel , Olivia Mitel , Shannon Ful er, Alexis Long, Luke Fuller,

Cassandra Ful er, and Skye Wilson—who enjoys seeing her name in
print,

and who is also the een of Everything. And as always, I thank and
anowledge my late mother Jinny Spitzer (1925–2011) and my
wonderful

wife, Teresa.

About the Author

Robert J. Spitzer (PhD, Cornel University, 1980) is Distinguished

Service

Professor of political science at the State University of New York

College at

Cortland.

Spitzer’s books include The Presidency and Public Policy (1983), The
Right

to Life Movement and Third Party Politics (1987), The Presidential

Veto

(1988), The Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution (1990), Media and

Public Policy (1993), President and Congress (1993), Politics and
Constitutionalism

(2000), The Right to Bear Arms (2001), The Presidency and the
Constitution

(coauthored, 2005), Saving the Constitution from Lawyers (2008),

Gun

Control: A Documentary and Reference Guide (2009), We the People:

Essentials Edition (coauthored; 13th ed. 2021), Encyclopedia of Gun

Control

and Gun Rights (coauthored, 3rd ed. 2017), and Guns across America
(2015).
He has contributed more than seven hundred articles to a variety of

journals, books, and other publications and is oen interviewed and

quoted

in national and international media on gun control and other subjects.

He is

also series editor for the Book Series on American Constitutionalism

for SUNY Press, and for the Book Series of Presidential Briefing Books
for

Routledge.

In the 1980s, Spitzer served as a member of the New York State

Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. He served

as

president of the Presidency Resear Group of the American Political

Science Association from 2001 to 2003 and is a recipient of the SUNY

Chancel or’s Award for Excel ence in Solarship. He has testified

before

Congress on several occasions and been cited in federal court cases.

Introduction

T HE MYSTERY OF THE MOTIVE for 64-YEAR-OLD STEPHEN

Paddo’s mass shooting

spree, directed at the over 22,000 aendees of an outdoor country

music

concert held during the evening of October 1, 2017, in Las Vegas,

Nevada,
was exceeded only by the jaw-dropping firepower he utilized to kill 58

people and injure over 850. (Roughly half of these were injured from

gunshot wounds, the rest from non-gunshot injuries.)

A former accountant and high-stakes video poker player, Paddo

eed

into the Mandalay Bay Resort hotel on September 25. By the day of
the shooting, he had managed to bring into his thirty-second-floor
suite,

unnoticed, massive firepower: twenty-four assault weapons, fourteen

of

whi were fied with bump stos—frame-like add-on devices that

fit onto

the sto end of semi-automatic guns to mimic ful y automatic fire.

In the

space of eleven minutes, he fired 1,049 rounds down on the crowd

from a

distance of about 400–500 yards. By the time law enforcement broke

into his

room, he was dead from a self-inflicted wound. Investigators turned

up

another twenty-five guns in his two homes. No clear motive was ever

established.1

at a person could amass su a vast arsenal undetected was less of
a
mystery, given the absence of any su record-keeping, than the role
of

bump stos. Lile known to the public, or to most gun owners, the
devices

were relatively inexpensive (around $200 or more ea) and

unregulated.

Estimates suggested that as many as a half mil ion were in civilian

hands.

Cal s for a ban on the devices swelled aer the shooting. In fact, in
2011 the

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) had

examined

the imposition of a regulation under 1934 and 1986 laws that

restricted

civilian possession of ful y automatic weapons (see Chapter 5), but

determined that the law did not apply. Yet in a surprising and
contrary move, President Donald Trump directed the ATF to
reexamine the maer,

and it issued a rule making it il egal to buy, own, or sell the devices.
(A court

al enge to the rule was turned aside.) e irony of the Trump

administration’s action is that Donald Trump was elected with the

early and

enthusiastic support of the National Rifle Association, whi poured

over
$30 mil ion into his 2016 campaign (see Chapter 4). During his
administration, Trump at times voiced support for limited new gun

measures, but always batraed, with this one exception. Yet this
one new

gun regulation was the exception that proved the rule: Trump’s
support for

administrative action to enact the ban was quietly green-lighted by

the

NRA, whi favored an administrative rule rather than then-pending

congressional legislation. is indeed would be the only new gun

regulation

measure in Trump’s term. Roughly a dozen states enacted their own

bans. 2

***

On October 1, 2015, twenty-six-year-old Christopher Harper-Mercer

shot

and kil ed nine people, and wounded nine others, in an aa at

Umpqua

Community Col ege in Roseburg, Oregon. Wearing body armor,

Harper-

Mercer entered an English classroom—one in whi he had been

enrolled—

where he herded the students together, asking some of them if they

were Christians before shooting them, although he shot both
Christians and non-Christians. As police arrived at the scene, the man
was wounded by police
when he leaned out a window, whereupon he kil ed himself. Police

recovered six guns and considerable additional ammunition from the

scene:

five handguns and one long gun (it was not fired). Eight more guns
were found at the man’s apartment. In all, the shooter had fourteen
guns, all legal y obtained either by him or by family members within
the previous three years.

During the Umpqua shooting, student and military veteran John

Parker

was carrying his handgun as the mass shooting there unfolded

(concealed

carry is al owed on Oregon campuses, although not into buildings if

campuses so decide). Parker thought about intervening, but decided
against,

because he thought a SWAT team might confuse him with the

aaer.

As of the start of 2020, twelve states allow campus gun carrying by

civilians, including students, on their state-operated campuses,

despite the nearly unanimous objections of students, faculty, and
administrators. In fact,

terrible shootings on col ege campuses like the one at Umpqua are
rare, as is

most crime. Stil , gun violence is not unknown to campuses.

***

One of the worst gun massacres in modern American history began

on an
otherwise ordinary Monday morning in the middle of the spring
semester

on the campus of Virginia Polytenic Institute and State University,

also known as Virginia Te, in Blasburg, Virginia. At 7:15 a.m., two
students

were shot and kil ed in a campus dormitory. As local police traed a

possible suspect off campus, a disgruntled and mental y disturbed

student,

twenty-three-year-old English major Seung Hui Cho, le campus to

mail a

multimedia paage containing a rambling diatribe to NBC News in

New

York City; he then returned to campus and entered a classroom

building. At

about 9:15 a.m., armed with two handguns and numerous large-
capacity

bul et magazines, Cho moved methodically from classroom to

classroom,

shooting rapidly and randomly. When he was done, thirty-two

students and

faculty members lay dead; twenty-five others were wounded. Cho

reserved

a final bul et for himself as police closed in on him, becoming the

thirty-third and final fatality.

e April 16, 2007, massacre shoed the country and especial y

college
campuses. Largely immune to gun violence, virtually al campuses
maintain

strict no-gun policies. Apparently, that tactic worked until the Virginia
Te

shooting spree, as the last prior mass shooting on a col ege campus
occurred

in 1966, when Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the high tower
of the

University of Texas campus and killed sixteen people before police

shot him.

As has occurred throughout recent history in the aermath of gun

violence,

the Virginia Te shootings prompted a spate of questions related to

gun control.

e Virginia Te shooter’s oice of weapons—a 9mm Glo 19

pistol

and a .22-caliber Walther P22—were both semiautomatic handguns

purased legal y at local stores. Cho ordered the Walther over the
Internet

and had it sent to a Blasburg pawnshop, where he then completed

the

purase. He bought the Glo at Roanoke Firearms. He also

obtained large-

capacity bul et magazines for the guns that held about thirty bullets.
(e
assault weapons ban of 1994 barred su magazines, but when
Congress

failed to extend the measure in 2004, they again were legal.) e

only

acquisition obstacle he faced in a state with few gun restrictions was

a one-

handgun-purase-per-month rule (he bought the Glo just over a

month

before the shooting, and the Walther a month before that). Yet Cho
had a

long history of behavioral and emotional problems as a col ege

student, and

in 2005 a judge declared him mental y ill and a danger to himself.

is information should have been sufficient to disqualify him from
making a

handgun purase, but Virginia’s state criteria for disqualification

were

narrower than the federal standard. Even though he was ordered to

obtain

counsel ing, he was not institutionalized, whi under Virginia law at

the time kept his name from being placed on a state list barring him
from buying a gun. erefore, he was not flagged under the federal
Brady law

that does bar gun sales to those identified as mental y incompetent.

In fact,

data problems relating to mental competence existed in many states.

According to the FBI, only twenty-two states at the time submied
any

mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Baground

Che

System (NICS) to whi gun sales records are sent. 3

One important feature of gun laws in America is that relatively few

exist

at the national level; at the state level, they vary widely. us, the
gun purases Cho made easily in Virginia probably could not have
occurred in

a state with stricter gun laws, su as New York. In the Empire State
only

those with a valid, state-issued permit can purase handguns.

Applicants

can only obtain that permit aer being fingerprinted, paying several
fees, undergoing an extensive baground e that includes police
interviews

with acquaintances, and successful y persuading a local judge that

they have a good reason for wanting to own a handgun. It is highly
unlikely that Cho

would have met these standards in New York; indeed, most who
came in

contact with him reported that he seemed deeply troubled. Although

this

might have caused him to purase a long gun—a rifle or shotgun—

instead,
that too might have anged the outcome. Cho was able to easily
conceal

the two handguns he carried as he traveled around the large Virginia

Te

campus on foot. Had he been carrying one or more long guns, he

would

have been far easier to spot—and perhaps stop—before the

shootings

occurred. Cho’s preference for handguns also mimics national gun

crime

trends: although there are twice as many long guns in America as

handguns

and long guns are easier to obtain in most places, 80 percent of all
gun crimes are commied with handguns.

In addition, Cho used large-capacity bul et magazines during his

shooting

rampage. A Glo handgun can accommodate one that holds up to

thirty-

three bul ets. Yet a federal law enacted in 1994, known as the assault
weapons ban (see Chapter 5), barred new bul et magazines holding
more than ten bul ets. Congress al owed the ban to lapse in 2004,
making the possession of su items again legal. e larger capacity
meant that Cho

needed to reload less oen, thus diminishing the possibility that

someone could have jumped him during reloading. In al , he fired
nearly two hundred

bul ets in roughly ten minutes.4

In the aermath of the mass homicide, many called for new, stricter
gun

laws. Gun rights activists argued against new restrictions. Some

argued that

there were already enough gun laws on the books or that existing
gun laws

should be weakened to al ow citizens to legal y carry guns on

campuses for

self-protection. is proposal met with lile favor from most of the
law enforcement and higher education communities, who feared
more gun

violence with legal campus gun carrying, including shootings arising

from

accident, rage, suicide, and gun thes. Others argued for a measure
to close

the “gun show loophole,” a reference to a gap in federal law that

excludes

private gun sales (those not involving federal y licensed dealers) from
any

baground es. Su sales account for about a quarter of all gun
purases.

***

On the morning of January 8, 2011, Arizona Democratic

Representative

Gabriel e Giffords convened a “Congress on Your Corner” constituent

meet-
and-greet in front of a local supermarket in Tucson. As she was
speaking with constituents, a twenty-two-year-old man with a recent
history of

mental disorders walked up to Giffords aer weaving his way

through the

crowd of people around her, pointed a 9mm Glo 19 handgun a

couple of

feet from her head, and pul ed the trigger. e bullet passed through
her head, but, miraculously, she not only survived but also showed
immediate

and dramatic improvement in the days and weeks that followed.

Aer

shooting Rep. Giffords, Jared Lee Loughner proceeded to empty the

thirty-

three-bul et magazine, kil ing six people and wounding thirteen

others.

When he stopped to insert a new bul et magazine, a diminutive sixty-

one-

year-old woman snated another bul et-filled magazine he had

dropped on

the floor from his grasp, and several bystanders proceeded to restrain
the man. Among those kil ed were a federal judge who had stopped
by aer

ur to speak with Giffords, a nine-year-old girl interested in

visiting with

her congressional representative, and a Giffords staff member. As the

shooting unfolded, an armed bystander, Joe Zamudio, heard the
commotion

and ran to the scene. “I had my gun in my hand,” he said later. e

first person Zamudio encountered was holding a gun, but it turned
out that that

person wasn’t the shooter, but the man who had disarmed the
shooter.

ankful y, Zamudio didn’t shoot the heroic bystander. In fact,

although

Zamudio’s hand was around his gun, he wound up keeping his own
gun in

its holster because, in the confusion of those few seconds, he “didn’t

want to

be confused as a second gunman.” In testimony before Congress in

2013,

Giffords’s husband, Mark Kel y, a career military man and former

astronaut,

testified that if the shooter had been limited to ten-round bul et

magazines,

fewer people would have been shot, including a nine-year-old girl

killed at

the scene with the thirteenth bul et he fired, because he was stopped
when he anged magazines aer emptying the thirty-three-round
magazine he

had obtained legal y.5

Many of the circumstances of this shooting resembled those of
Virginia

Te. Loughner had exhibited increasingly erratic and threatening

behavior

in the years before the aa. For example, in 2010 the local
community col ege where he had been enrolled suspended him for
bizarre and

threatening behavior, including multiple classroom disruptions that

unnerved those in class who witnessed his behavior. His readmission

was

made dependent on psyological counselling. He was also rejected

for

military service, in part because he had flunked a drug screening test.

He had had encounters with the police in the past, including an arrest
for possession of drug paraphernalia in 2007, and he had posted
extended

diatribes on YouTube that raised further concerns that he suffered

from

serious mental problems, including perhaps sizophrenia. Yet

because no

one ever took formal action to see that he be institutionalized or

receive mandatory counsel ing, no red flags were raised when he
legal y purased

his handgun the previous November. 6

Aside from the horrifying nature of this aa, some pointed fingers
at
the hyper-arged political atmospherics during and aer the 2010
midterm

elections when, for example, political opponents used gun-shooting

language and symbols against Giffords and other Democrats running

for

election. Giffords’s opponent publicized one campaign event this way:

“Get

on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords

from

office. Shoot a ful y automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.” Former Alaska

governor and Republican activist Sarah Palin was accused of inciting

violence against some Democrats during the 2010 elections through

ads that

depicted gun bul ’seye crosshair targets superimposed on maps of

selected

districts around the country where Democrats were “targeted” for

defeat,

urging fol owers to “reload” and “aim” to defeat them. 7 ough a

defender of gun rights, Giffords herself had criticized su gun-based
rhetoric during

the campaign. As for Loughner, no clear evidence supported the

arges of

some that his actions were the specific result of su gun-oriented
political rhetoric.

***
On July 20, 2012, twenty-four-year-old James Holmes entered a
shopping

mal movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, shortly aer the start of its

midnight showing of the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises.
In the

darkened movie theater, Holmes rapidly killed twelve and injured

fiy-eight.

Later, some in the audience said that they initially thought his actions
were

part of the movie before realizing that he was firing live rounds. He

possessed four legal y purased guns: an AR-15-type semiautomatic

assault

rifle with an aaable 100-round drum magazine; two .40-caliber

Glo

handguns, ea of whi can receive magazines holding more than

thirty

bul ets; and a Remington 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. In all,

Holmes

purased six thousand rounds of ammunition anonymously through

the

Internet. Federal law formerly barred ownership of the AR-15, along

with

the high-capacity magazines—that law lapsed in 2004. e previous

year,
Holmes suffered what some cal ed a “psyotic break” around the
time that

he dropped out of graduate sool. Reports at the time of his arrest

were that

Holmes’s mother said, “You have the right person” when first told of
the assault, although she later denied making that comment.
Holmes’s

significant emotional problems in the months before the aa

either

preceded or roughly coincided with his gun-buying binge. 8

e facts and consequences of these and other horrifying shootings

tou

on many of the most important questions pertaining to American gun

policy: the criminological appeal of handguns; unregulated gun

tenologies

that multiply harm; the Brady law’s baground e provision; the

problem of traing and categorizing those with mental deficiencies;

the

lapse of the assault-weapons ban; variations in state gun laws; gaps

in the

compilation of mental health data that might otherwise prevent those

with

significant mental problems from purasing guns; the role of guns in

homicide, suicide, and self-defense; and the political fal out from this
contentious issue. Al of these topics, and more, are the subject of
this book.

e furor over gun control has raged across the American landscape
for

decades, with a sustained intensity and intractability found among

few

other issues. Despite al that has been wrien on the subject, no

comprehensive political and policy analysis on gun control existed at

the time of this book’s initial publication, even though the gun debate
is

precisely a political dispute over the proper scope and consequences

of

government policy.

At its heart, the gun debate is about the citizen, the state’s power to
regulate, and the maintenance of public order. Al these relationships
come

together under the public policy umbrella and are thus amenable to a
policy

analysis that has as its central question: should gun possession and
use be

significantly regulated? e efficacy of regulatory alternatives

maers, of course, but the central question is the regulation
principle as it applies to the

gun issue. is is no esoteric exercise; every political dispute over

some new

effort to regulate guns invokes broader questions of government

regulation.
e regulatory question is given coherence and context within a
larger

framework of policy analysis. Far from being an idiosyncratic issue

that defies generalized analysis, the gun issue fits into a broader
policy paern,

label ed social regulatory policy, that provides considerable predictive

and explanatory power for the observed political trends.

is framework provides the organizational paern for the analysis in

this

book. Chapter 1 lays out primary traits of the gun controversy, its
social and cultural roots, and the social regulatory policy framework.
Chapter 2 is devoted exclusively to the meaning, interpretation, and
consequences of the

Second Amendment to the Constitution, the mu-cited yet lile

understood

right to bear arms. e talismanic quality of the Second Amendment

extends its importance beyond the narrow, arcane confines of

constitutional

and legal interpretation. e Constitution frames political rights, but

constitutional imagery and symbolism frame political discourse.

Chapter 3 digests the wide-ranging arguments concerning the

criminological consequences of guns and gun control in society. Most
gun

analysis and debate concentrate on the links between guns and

crime, yet any su analysis is incomplete unless it incorporates
suicide, accident, and
self-defense questions as wel .

Chapter 4 turns to the political paerns that spring from and are
indeed typical of social regulatory policy. Needless to say, one giant
player, the National Rifle Association, has dominated gun politics. Yet
other, emergent

political forces have deprived the NRA of its monopoly control in

recent years, including a wel -organized opposition led by new gun
safety

organizations including Everytown for Gun Safety and Americans for

Responsible Solutions. Serving as baground for this struggle has

been a surprisingly constant public disposition favoring control and an
enduring, and widening, party split.

Chapter 5 focuses on the key national institutions—Congress, the

presidency, and the federal bureaucracy—that have been, at best,
unwilling

participants in the furious gun debate. Al three institutions have

behaved

contrary to conventional belief regarding this issue—something that

loses its

power to surprise when considered within the social regulatory

framework

of these institutions.

Chapter 6 brings together the separate policy strands of the other

apters to synthesize the policy dilemma and propose a new way to
approa the

gun issue, by drawing on international relations theory to assess the

arguments of gun control supporters and opponents. As international

relations theory suggests, political accommodation is possible despite

enduring hostility and mutual suspicion. e idea that political

accommodation can be reaed between hostile, intransigent

opponents

unwil ing to give ground, mu less negotiate, is a difficult and

unwieldy phenomenon in American politics but a commonplace one in
international

relations.

Only two elements of the gun debate receive less detailed aention
here:

gun policy at the state level and comparative analysis of gun policies
in other nations. Recent developments in both areas have required
the addition

of selected material on these subjects in subsequent editions, yet

neither

subject receives separate apter treatment here, as the focus of this

book continues to be American national gun policy.

Notes

1 Report from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s Force

Investigation Team on the shooting that occurred on October 1, 2017,
at 3901 S. Las Vegas Boulevard at the Route 91 Harvest music
festival, Joseph Lombardo, Sheriff Las Vegas Metropolitan Police
Department August 3, 2018. www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Documents/1-
October-FIT-Criminal-Investigative-Report-FINAL_080318.pdf.
2 Briany Croer and Ni Penzenstadler, “Bump Stos, Whi
Allow Rifles to Mimic Automatic Weapons, Are Now Il egal to Own,
Buy or Sell,” USA Today, Mar 26,

2019, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/26/bump-
sto-ban-where-to-turn-

in-knox-atf/3274917002/; Charlie Savage, “Trump Administration

Imposes Ban on Bump

Stos,”

New

York

Times,

December

18,

2018,

www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/politics/trump-bump-stos-
ban.html.

3 John M. Broder, “32 Shot Dead in Virginia: Worst US Gun

Rampage,” New York Times, April 17, 2007; Miael Luo, “Mental
Health and Guns: Do Baground Ches Do

Enough?” New York Times, April 19, 2007; Miael Luo, “Law
Overlooked in Handgun

Sale to Campus Kil er,” New York Times, April 21, 2007.

4 Miael Dreisser, “Law Didn’t Hamper Suspect’s Gun Buy,” Baltimore

Sun, April 18, 2007.
5 Wil iam Saletan, “Friendly Firearms,” Slate, January 11, 2011,

www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2011/01/f
riendly_firearms.ht

ml; “Senate Judiciary Commiee Hearing on Gun Violence,” January

30, 2013, hp://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-
30/politics/36628109_1_gun-violence-gabby-giffords-senator-
grassley.

6 Jo Beer et al., “Police Say ey Visited Tucson Suspect’s Home

Even Before Rampage,” New York Times, January 12, 2011; Marc
Lacey and Serge F. Kovaleski,

“‘Creepy,’ ‘Very Hostile,’ ‘Dark’: A Col ege Recorded Its Fears,” New
York Times, January 13, 2011.

7 Andrea Kel y and Rhonda Bodfield, “Her Plot Will Unfold at Council
Meetings,”

Arizona Daily Star, June 10, 2010.

8 Mahew Lysiak, “Aurora Shooting Suspect James Holmes Jailed in

Solitary,” New York Daily News, July 12, 2012; John Swartz,
“Colorado Gun Laws Remain Lax, Despite Some Changes,” New York
Times, July 20, 2012.

Chapter 1

Policy Definition and Gun Control

“We’re going to be very strong on baground es; very strong

emphasis on the mental health of somebody. … We’re going to come
up with a solution.”

— President Donald Trump at White House Meeting with gun violence

survivors after
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