The Last Gun

by The Last Gun- How Changes in the Gun Industry Are Killing Americans

  3. Kathleen Folkerth, “Police Release Final Report on Copley Shooting,” West Side Leader, Oct. 13, 2011, http://akron.com/akron-ohio-community-news.asp?aID=13790.

  4. Sherri Bevan Walsh, Summit County Prosecuting Attorney, to Chief Michael Mier, Copley Police Department, “Investigation into the Use of Force Involving the Death of Michael Hance,” Sept. 20, 2011.

  5. Like virtually all U.S. police departments, the Akron Police Department uses a system of numbered codes in radio communications. These are not always uniform. In Akron, a “Code 43” signals a “disturbed person (mental case).” See “Radio Codes and Signals—Ohio,” www.bearcatl.com/radiooh.htm.

  6. Folkerth, “Police Release Final Report on Copley Shooting”; “Copley Shooter Bought Gun Five Days Before Killing Spree.”

  7. Marilyn Miller, “Copley Welcomes Back Students Today; Shooting Investigation Continues,” Akron Beacon Journal, Aug. 25, 2011, www.ohio.com/news/local/copley-welcomes-back-students-today-shooting-investigation-continues-1.231495; “Copley Shooter Bought Gun Five Days Before Killing Spree,” Akron Beacon Journal, Aug. 10, 2011.

  8. Walsh, “Investigation into the Use of Force Involving the Death of Michael Hance.” Walsh’s letter does not specify what type of “re-loaders” Hance used. There are two kinds of devices used to quickly reload handguns. The “speed-loader” is used to reload all of the chambers of a revolver cylinder at once. Hance could have used this type for his .357 Magnum revolver. A semiautomatic pistol’s magazine holds the gun’s ammunition, and can be quickly ejected and replaced. Hance could have used this type for his .45 pistol. Walsh’s cryptic statement could describe either or both types. For examples of both, see “Magazines & Clips,” Cabela’s, www.cabelas.com/magazines.shtml.

  9. “Police Say Ohio Gunman Practiced at Firing Range,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, Aug. 20, 2011.

  10. See “Handguns,” Hi-Point Firearms, www.hi-pointfirearms.com/handguns/handgun_main.html.

  11. “Seal Beach Salon to Reopen After Shooting Spree,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, Feb. 3, 2012 (“The wife of a slain salon owner says she plans to reopen the Seal Beach salon where a gunman went on a shooting spree that killed eight people”).

  12. “Giffords to Attend Vigil Marking One Year Since Shooting Rampage,” CNN Wire, Jan. 8, 2012 (“Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will attend events Sunday in Arizona to mark the anniversary of a shooting rampage that left six people dead and the congresswoman with a gunshot wound to the head”).

  13. “Texas Mass Shooting Strikes Chord in Covina,” San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Dec. 27, 2011.

  14. “IHOP Shooting: Will Police Ever Understand Gunman’s Motive?” Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 7, 2011 (“As police in Carson City, Nev., seek a motive in the IHOP shooting Tuesday, criminologists say thorough investigations can often turn up the reasons behind mass killings”).

  15. “Service Seeks Community Healing: 200 Gather to Discuss Mass Murder, Aftermath,” Grand Rapids Press, July 14, 2011 (“It was the worst mass murder the area has ever seen”).

  16. For a sardonic editorial comment describing this ritual, see Josh Sugarmann, “Yet Another Mass Shooting,” Washington Post, Apr. 19, 2009.

  17. For example, “Breaking News: Five Dead in Yuma, Arizona, School Shooting,” Canwest News Service, June 2, 2011 (“Yuma police say five people have been killed in a shooting that has forced authorities to close schools and the courthouse”). This was actually a case of murder-suicide, not a school shooting. The shooter killed his ex-wife, her lawyer, and three of her friends; wounded another of her friends; and then shot himself to death. “Friend Says Ex-Wife Described Dyess as Controlling, Violent,” Yuma Sun, June 9, 2011. Another example: “Breaking News: Mass Shooting on Fort Hood, Texas; 7 Dead, 30 Wounded,” Arkansas Tonight, Nov. 5, 2009 (“At least two shooters have opened fire on Fort Hood near Waco, Texas, leaving seven individuals dead and 30 wounded, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison tells MSNBC, citing a general she had spoken with on the post”). There was only one shooter. He was U.S. Army Major Nidal M. Hasan, who shot thirteen victims to death and wounded thirty-two others. “Rampage Was ‘the Worst Horror Movie,’” Dallas Morning News, Nov. 14, 2010.

  18. “32 Dead in Virginia Tech Shootings,” CNN Newsroom, Apr. 16, 2007.

  19. “One Killed, Gunman Apprehended in Florida Shooting: Officials,” Agence France-Presse, Nov. 6, 2009.

  20. “Atlanta Mayor Back in Front of Spotlight as Shooting Crisis Unfolds,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, July 29, 1999.

  21. “32 Dead in Virginia Tech Shootings.”

  22. Ibid.

  23. See NRA Political Victory Fund, “NRA-PVF Endorses Randy Forbes for U.S. House of Representatives in Virginia’s 4th Congressional District,” Oct. 1, 2010, www.nrapvf.org/news-alerts/2010/10/nra-pvf-endorses-randy-forbes-for-us-house-of-representatives-in-virginia%E2%80%99s-4th-congressional-district.aspx.

  24. “14 Dead in New York Shooting Rampage,” Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull, CNN, Apr. 3, 2009.

  25. “Copley Gunman Hunted Down His Victims, Including Boy, 11,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, Aug. 9, 2011.

  26. “Friend Says Ex-Wife Described Dyess as Controlling, Violent,” Yuma Sun, June 9, 2011.

  27. “Fighter Pilot Murder Mystery; Did Elite Navy Pilot Snap?” Good Morning America, ABC, Jan. 5, 2012.

  28. “Shooter Targets Former Employer in Orlando Building,” Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, CNN, Nov. 6, 2009.

  29. See “Staff Clinical Director,” Center for Health Sex, http://centerforhealthysex.com/about/staff-clinical-director.

  30. “Shooter Targets Former Employer in Orlando Building.”

  31. See “Battle over Anna Nicole Smith’s Body,” CNN Newsroom, CNN, Feb. 23, 2007; “Obama Assassination Threat Plot [sic] of Bigger Problem?” Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, CNN, Oct. 28, 2008; “Remains Found Near Missing Girl’s Home,” Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, CNN, Dec. 11, 2008; and “New Jobs Reports Coming,” American Morning, CNN, Sept. 4, 2009.

  32. “Virginia Tech Campus Massacre; The Second Gun; Hospital News Conference on Condition of Virginia Tech Survivors,” CNN Newsroom, CNN, Apr. 18, 2007.

  33. See, e.g., “Cupertino Quarry Massacre 911 Tapes: ‘There Are People Dying Right Now. My Supervisor Is Dying,’” San Jose Mercury News, Oct. 20, 2011 (“Breathless, the man pleaded with an emergency dispatcher ‘Please, please help. They’re going to die’ ”); “911 Tapes from Nev. Shooting Reveal Frantic Scene,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, Sept. 7, 2011 (“Dozens of 911 calls made from in and around a Nevada IHOP where a deadly shooting rampage took place detail a frantic scene”); “911 Tapes Released of Calls Made During Shooting Rampage at a Connecticut Beer Distribution Plant Tuesday,” NBC News Transcripts, Aug. 5, 2010 (Matt Lauer, co-host: “We’re now hearing the chilling 911 calls placed on Tuesday from inside that Connecticut beer distributor where a man went on a shooting spree, killing eight co-workers and then himself”).

  34. “Shrines Pop Up Across City in Colorful Displays of Caring,” Arizona Daily Star, Jan. 19, 2011 (“At four impromptu shrines around the Old Pueblo, a mourning community comes bearing flowers, balloons, stuffed animals and votive candles”); “Tape Points Finger in Mass Shooting,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, June 11, 2007 (“A makeshift shrine of teddy bears, stuffed bunnies, a dinosaur and candles stood under a tree outside the shooting scene Monday”).

  35. “14 Dead in New York Shooting Rampage” (pro-gun stalwart Representative J. Randy Forbes of Virginia told CNN after the Virginia Tech massacre that “Virginia is a large family. And you know, we reach out and put our arms around the students that are there, the victims and their families”); “32 Dead in Virginia Tech Shootings.”

  36. “Texas Mass Shooting Strikes Chord in Covina,” San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Dec. 27, 2011 (Christmastime mass shootings at homes in Grapevine, Texas, in 2011 and in Covina, California, in 2008); “Thanksgiving Massacre Victim out of Coma: Patrick Knight Was Told That His
Wife, Unborn Child Died in Jupiter Attack,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Mar. 10, 2010; “Investigators Confirm Killer ID; Murder-Suicide: Tests Show the Teenage Boy Pulled the Trigger. The Families Had Gathered for a Barbecue,” Riverside (CA) Press Enterprise, Apr. 1, 2008 (murder of four family members and friends; teenage shooter committed suicide).

  37. “Terror in Littleton: The Overview; 15 Bodies Are Removed from School in Colorado,” New York Times, Apr. 22, 1999 (Columbine High School massacre); “Death Toll 11 Students, 1 Teacher in Nation’s recent school shootings,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Aug. 12, 1998 (survey of school shootings in United States).

  38. “Texas Church Shooting Leaves 8 Dead, 7 Hurt; Pipe Bomb Also Used in Ft. Worth Incident; Gunman Kills Himself,” Baltimore Sun, Sept. 16, 1999.

  39. “Amid Mourning, Eerie Details Emerge About Connecticut Shootings: Man Who Killed 8 Went to Work Well Armed,” New York Times, Aug. 5, 2010 (eight shot to death and shooter committed suicide at Connecticut beer wholesaler).

  40. “Recent Violence Puts Stores on Alert: Retailers Prepare for How to React,” USA Today, Apr. 15, 2011; “Gunman at an Omaha Mall Kills 8 and Himself,” New York Times, Dec. 6, 2007.

  41. “Nurses Recall Carnage at Post,” San Antonio Express-News, Oct. 20, 2010 (Fort Hood massacre).

  42. Dahlia Lithwick, “The Cruelest Month,” Slate, Apr. 15, 2009.

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

  44. “Households by Number of Motor Vehicles: 2010,” Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

  45. For a detailed history of gun ownership in the United States as reported by the General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, see Violence Policy Center, A Shrinking Minority: The Continuing Decline of Gun Ownership in America (Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2011), www.vpc.org/studies/ownership.pdf

  46. See Violence Policy Center, “Gun Deaths Outpace Motor Vehicle Deaths in 10 States in 2009,” May 2012, www.vpc.org/studies/gunsvscars.pdf

  47. Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig, “Fact-Free Gun Policy?” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 151, no. 4. (Apr. 2003): 1329–40.

  48. Matthew Parker, Panama Fever: The Epic Story of the Building of the Panama Canal, Kindle ed. (New York: Vintage, 2009), loc. 4759–63.

  49. Ibid., loc. 4807–15.

  50. See National Shooting Sports Foundation, “About the National Shooting Sports Foundation,” www.nssf.org/industry/aboutNSSF.cfm.

  51. “The Gun Lobby’s Hunting Safety Assessment: Chance of Death Not Included,” Media Matters for America, Dec. 6, 2011, http://mediamatters.org/blog/201112060033.

  52. See National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), “Modern Sporting Rifle,” http://nssf.org/MSR See also the NSSF YouTube video “The Modern Sporting Rifle,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbDQUADaIkE.

  53. See, e.g., “Traditional Ammunition Campaign,” in A Building Block to History: NSSF 2010, (Newtown, CT: National Shooting Sports Foundation, 2010), 15; Larry Keane, “Senator Introduces Bill to Protect Traditional Ammunition,” National Shooting Sports Foundation blog, Sept. 28, 2010, www.nssfblog.com/senator-introduces-bill-to-protect-traditional-ammunition; and Larry Keane, “EPA Denies Petition to Ban Traditional Ammunition,” NSSF blog, Aug. 28, 2010, www.nssfblog.com/epa-denies-petition-to-ban-traditional-ammunition.

  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 Bro
adcaster, 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.