The Last Gun

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

  75. For examples, see James Oberg, “Soviet Space Propaganda: Doctored Cosmonaut Photos,” Wired, Apr. 12, 2011, www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/soviet-space-propaganda.

  76. “‘Fantasy’ Website Helps Students Learn About Supreme Court,” CNN.com, Nov. 23, 2010.

  77. “Gun Chic: Out Among the Firearms Experts at the Fairfax Rod & Gun Club,” Daily Standard, Apr. 23, 2002; “How to Win Your Very Own Glock 9mm,” Newsweek Web Exclusive, May 14, 2001.

  78. “High Court to Consider Pledge in Schools; Scalia Recuses Himself from California Case,” Washington Post, Oct. 15, 2003.

  79. Dave Kopel, “Conservative Activists Key to DC Handgun Decision,” Human Events Online, June 27, 2008.

  80. Anderson, “Barack & Load.”

  81. Dorie E.Apollonio and Lisa A. Bero, “The Creation of Industry Front Groups: The Tobacco Industry and ‘Get Government off Our Back,’” American Journal of Public Health, Mar. 2007.

  82. Bailey, “A.K.A. Gunnut.”

  83. “Raging Bitch Beer Ban Spurs Flying Dog Brewery to Sue Michigan Liquor Control Commission on First Amendment Grounds,” Business Wire, Mar. 28, 2011.

  84. “The New Terminators: The Anti-Indian Movement Resurfaces,” Native America’s, Sept. 30, 2000.

  85. “Influence Game: Leaks Show Group’s Climate Efforts,” Associated Press Financial Wire, Feb. 16, 2012.

  86. See Violence Policy Center, Joe Camel with Feathers: How the NRA with Gun and Tobacco Industry Dollars Uses Its Eddie Eagle Program to Market Guns to Kids (Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 1997), www.vpc.org/studies/eddiecon.htm.

  87. Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscure the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010), 236.

  88. Ibid., 217.

  89. Brief Amicus Curiae of The Heartland Institute in Support of Petitioners, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Docket No. 08–1521, Supreme Court of the United States, p. 2; “Gun Rights,” Heartland Institute, http://news.heartland.org/ideas/gun-rights (“In this case, Otis McDonald and the other Petitioners seek the right to possess handguns within their homes for the purpose of self-defense. They need handguns.”).

  90. “Agenda: 2011 Emerging Issues Forum,” http://eif.heartland.org/?page_id=39.

  91. “Policy Documents,” Heartland Institute, http://heartland.org/policy-documents/heartlander-July-2002.

  92. See, e.g., “The U.S. Is on a Suicide Watch,” AmmoLand.com, Jan. 18, 2012 (“Conservative think tanks like The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, The Heartland Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and others have spelled out programs that can and will save America . . .”); “Charlton Heston, Meet Joe Camel,” Washington Post, May 4, 1999 (“The free-market Heartland Institute, arguing against gun control. . .”).

  93. Lee Fang, “Memo: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met with Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck to Plot 2010 Election,” Think Progress, Oct. 20, 2010, http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/10/20/124642/beck-koch-chamber-meeting/?mobile=nc.

  94. “Advocacy Group Says Justices May Have Conflict in Campaign Finance Cases,” New York Times, Jan. 20, 2011.

  95. Brad Friedman, “Exclusive Audio: Inside the Koch Brothers’ Secret Seminar: A Close-up View of the Oil Billionaires’ Dark-Money Fundraiser and 2012 Strategy Session,” Mother Jones, Sept. 6, 2011, http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/exclusive-audio-koch-brofhers-seminar-tapes.

  96. “Beck Claims ‘This Game Is for Keeps’ with ‘the Left’, Asks Listeners to ‘Pray for Protection,’” Media Matters, Sept. 8, 2009, http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200909080010 (from the Sept. 8 edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ Glenn Beck Program).

  97. “Beck Repeats Call for Prayers, Claims, ‘You Can Shoot Me in the Head . . . but There Will Be 10 Others That Line Up,’” Media Matters, Sept. 08, 2009, http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200909080013 (from the Sept. 8 edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ Glenn Beck Program). “You can try to put the lid on this group of people, but you will never silence us. You will never—you can shoot me in the head, you can shoot the next guy in the head, but there will be 10 others that line up. And it may not happen today, it may not happen next week, but freedom will be restored in this land.”

  98. Fang, “Memo: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met.”

  99. Petition for Declaratory Judgment, Koch v. Washburn, Johnson County, Kansas District Court, Case No. 12CV01749, filed Mar. 1, 2012.

  100. “Policy Group Caught in Rift over Direction,” New York Times, Mar. 6, 2012.

  101. “Supreme Court Strikes Down D.C. Gun Ban; Antiwar MoveOn.org Ad Uses Baby,” Glenn Beck, CNN, June 26, 2008.

  102. “Naples Man Behind Major Supreme Court Decision Plays as Hard as He Works,” Naples Daily News, June 27, 2008.

  103. “For Young Area Lawyer, the Supreme Compliment,” Washington Post, Mar. 18, 2008.

  104. “Lawyer Who Wiped Out D.C. Ban Says It’s About Liberties, Not Guns,” Washington Post, Mar. 18, 2007.

  105. “Heller Attorneys Awarded $1.1M in Fees, One-Third of Their Request,” The BLT blog, Legal Times, Dec. 29, 2011, http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2011/12/heller-attorneys-awarded-11m-in-fees-one-third-of-their-request.html.

  106. “Robert A. Levy, Chairman,” Cato Institute, www.cato.org/people/robert-levy.

  107. “Robert A. Levy, Legal Briefs,” Cato Institute, www.cato.org/people/pub_list.php?auth_id=225&pub_list=5.

  108. “Lawyer Who Wiped Out D.C. Ban Says It’s About Liberties, Not Guns.”

  109. “Staff, Clark Neily, Senior Attorney,” Institute for Justice, www.ij.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=607&Itemid=165; Cato Institute, “Robert A. Levy, Chairman.”

  110. “For Young Area Lawyer, the Supreme Compliment,” Washington Post, Mar. 18, 2008.

  111. “Lawyer Who Wiped Out D.C. Ban Says It’s About Liberties, Not Guns.”

  112. “Commentary: Scalia, Writing Expert Team Up to Offer Practice Pointers, Stress Self-Preparation,” North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, June 9, 2008; Liptak, “In Re Scalia the Outspoken v. Scalia the Reserved”; “Acerbic Scalia Hurls Barbs from the Bench,” Associated Press, July 3, 1994.

  113. United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939).

  114. Bogus, “History and Politics of Second Amendment Scholarship,” 3, 4.

  115. Ibid., 3, 4–5.

  116. Robert J. Spitzer, “Lost and Found: Researching the Second Amendment,” Chicago-Kent Law Review 76, no. 1 (2000): 349, 376.

  117. Bogus, “History and Politics of Second Amendment Scholarship,” 3, 14.

  118. “Good Day for the Bill of Rights,” Cato@Liberty blog, June 27, 2008.

  119. Posner, “In Defense of Looseness.”

  120. Anderson, “Barack & Load.”

  121. Violence Policy Center, “National Rifle Association Receives Millions of Dollars from Gun Industry ‘Corporate Partners,’ New VPC Report Reveals,” news release, Apr. 13, 2011, www.vpc.org/press/1104blood.htm.

  122. Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, “Post-Heller Litigation Summary,” Aug. 1, 2012, http://smartgunlaws.org/post-heller-litigation-summary

  123. “Portion of Md. Gun Law Ruled Too Broad,” Washington Post, Mar. 6, 2012.

  124. David Hemenway, Private Guns, Public Health (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006), 61–62.

  125. “Shooting from the Lip: Justice Scalia’s New Book on Judging Is Brilliant but Acerbic,” ABA Journal, Jan. 1997.

  126. For a detailed discussion, see Violence Policy Center, Unintended Consequences: Pro-Handgun Experts Prove That Handguns Are a Dangerous Choice for Self-Defense (Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2001).

  127. Arthur L. Kellermann, “Do Guns Matter?” Western Journal of Medicine 161 (Dec. 1994): 614.

  128. Arthur L. Kellermann, Dawna S. Fuqua-Whitley, Tomoko R. Sampson, and Walter Lindenmann, “Public Opinion About Guns in the Home,” Injury Prevention, Sept. 2000, 189–94.


  129. Lisa Hepburn, Matthew Miller, Deborah Azrael, and David Hemenway, “The US Gun Stock: Results from the 2004 National Firearms Survey,” Injury Prevention 13 (2007):15–19.

  130. 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

  131. Hepburn et al., “US Gun Stock.”

  132. Ibid.

  133. Anderson, “Barack & Load.”

  134. Duane Thomas, The Truth About Handguns: Exploding the Myths, Hype, and Misinformation (Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1997), 45.

  135. Chris Bird, The Concealed Handgun Manual: How to Choose, Carry, and Shoot a Gun in Self Defense (San Antonio: Privateer Publications, 1998), 40.

  3. Women and Children Last

  1. “Pistol-Packing Soccer Dad Gives Tearful Apology,” Muskegon Chronicle, Aug. 17, 2010.

  2. “Soccer Dad Pleads No Contest to Gun Charge: Judge Commits to Capping Sentence to 30 Days for Felony Conviction,” Grand Rapids Press, July 9, 2010.

  3. “Asst. Coach Pulls Gun on Soccer Dad: Coach Was Arrested for Felonious Assault,” WOOD-TV (Grand Rapids, MI), May 28, 2010, www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/muskegon_county/assistant-coach-pulls-gun-on-soccer-dad.

  4. “Soccer Dad Pleads No Contest to Gun Charge.”

  5. “Pistol-Packing Soccer Dad Gives Tearful Apology.”

  6. “Militia on the Move: Group Training in Manistee National Forest to ‘Help Our Citizens,’ ”Muskegon Chronicle, June 25, 2011.

  7. “Our Story,” Fruitport Township website, www.fruitporttownship-mi.gov/visitors/25-the-township/20-our-storyhtml.

  8. “Pistol-Packing Soccer Dad Gives Tearful Apology.”

  9. Result of search to “Verify a License/Registration” for James Ian Sherrill, Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs website, Mar. 4, 2012, in files of Violence Policy Center, Washington, DC.

  10. “Nothing to Conceal Here,” Muskegon Chronicle, June 26, 2011.

  11. “‘Soccer Dad’ Waives His Preliminary Exam,” Muskegon Chronicle, June 9, 2010.

  12. “One Handgun Connects Humphrey’s Past to His Future,” Janesville Gazette, May 8, 2011.

  13. “Pistol-Packing Soccer Dad Gives Tearful Apology.”

  14. “Defusing Parents at Games,” Newsday, Oct. 11, 2007.

  15. Brooke de Lench, “Misbehaving Youth Sports Parents Too Common,” June 23, 2008, www.momsteam.com/successful-parenting/game-day/sideline-behavior/misbehaving-youth-sports-parents-too-common.

  16. “Lubbock Sports Officials Cry Foul over Parents’ Abusive Behavior at Youth Games,” Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Oct. 26, 2008.

  17. “Man Guilty of Aiming Rifle During Practice,” Roanoke Times, Dec. 6, 2003; “Police: Roanoke County Man Aimed Rifle at Kids’ Soccer Team,” Roanoke Times, Sept. 13, 2003.

  18. “Man Pulls Gun at Game, Now Charged with Assault,” Oct. 20, 2008, KCBD (Lubbock, TX), www.kcbd.com/Global/storyasp?S=9209796&nav=menu69_2_12.

  19. “Grand Jury No Bills Man Who Pulled Gun at Soccer Match,” KCBD (Lubbock, TX), Nov. 24, 2008, www.kcbd.com/story/9408464/grand-jury-no-bills-man-who-pulled-gun-at-soccer-match?clienttype=printable.

  20. “Parent Cleared in Peewee-Game Fight,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Apr. 18, 2007; “Gun at Pee-Wee Football: Sad Lesson,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 24, 2006.

  21. E-mail communications with Tennessee Department of Public Safety, in files of Violence Policy Center, Washington, DC; “Gun Permit Suspended After Incident at Ball Game,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, June 15, 2010; “Dad in Alleged Row Out on Bond: Accused of Pulling Gun on Son’s Coach,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 12, 2010; “Police Look for Armed, Mad Dad: Man Allegedly Pulls Gun on Coach over Son’s Play,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 10, 2010.

  22. “Police: Roanoke County Man Aimed Rifle at Kids’ Soccer Team,” Roanoke Times, Sept. 13, 2003.

  23. “Guns in Parks and Kids’ Sports,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 14, 2010.

  24. “County Gun Laws Stiffened in Split Decision,” Jefferson (NC) Post, Feb. 9, 2012.

  25. For detailed accounts of the confusion, see “Seaford Pharmacy Shootings: DA’s Confidential Memo Details Druggist’s First-hand Report of Fatal Confrontation,” Newsday, Feb. 9, 2012; and “Memo Offers New Account of ATF Agent’s NY Shooting,” Associated Press, Feb. 9, 2012.

  26. “CHL Holder Fired Shot That Killed Store Clerk,” MyFoxHouston.com, May 30, 2012, www.myfoxhouston.com/story/18661869/chl.

  27. “Gun Bans Fall, Raising Applause, Concerns; Restrictions at Places Such as Parks Yield to a State Law That Allows Firearms. Nationwide, Advocates Welcome New Rights, Opponents Worry About Safety,” Harnsburg Patriot News, May 14, 2010.

  28. “Victory for Concealed Carry in Forsyth County, NC,” AmmoLand.com, Feb. 16, 2012.

  29. See generally Violence Policy Center, When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2009 Homicide Data—Females Murdered by Males in Single Victim/Single Offender Incidents (Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2011), www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2011.pdf.

  30. Leonard J. Paulozzi et al., “Surveillance for Homicide Among Intimate Partners—United States, 1981–1998,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Surveillance Summaries 50 (Oct. 12, 2001): 1–16.

  31. In 2009, justifiable homicides involving women killing men occurred in: California (1), Indiana (1), Louisiana (4), Maryland (1), Michigan (2), Mississippi (1), North Carolina (1), Oklahoma (2), Oregon (2), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (1), Texas (3), and Virginia (1). In 2009, justifiable homicides involving women killing men with a firearm occurred in: Louisiana (1), Michigan (2), Mississippi (1), Oklahoma (2), Oregon (2), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (1), Texas (2), and Virginia (1). Of these, handguns were used in: Louisiana (1), Michigan (2), Mississippi (1), Oklahoma (1), Oregon (2), South Carolina (1), Texas (1), and Virginia (1). Violence Policy Center, When Men Murder Women.

  32. Shannon Catalano, “National Crime Victimization Survey: Victimization During Household Burglary,” Special Report, Sept. 2010, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, fig. 1, “Number and Percent of Household Burglaries, 2003–2007,” 1.

  33. Ibid., table 17, “Victim-Offender Relationship in Violent Household Burglary, 2003–2007,” 9.

  34. “Long Guns Short Yardage: Advances in Bullet Technology Make the .223 an Excellent Choice for Home Defense,” Guns & Ammo, Mar. 1, 2012.

  35. Some accounts state that Hain was the mother of four children. The discrepancy is apparently that she was stepmother to one child in addition to her own three children. See “Gun-Toting Woman Divides Community,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 12, 2008.

  36. “Daughter Was Abuse Victim, Mom Says,” Harrisburg Patriot News, June 28, 2008.

  37. “Pistol-Packin’ Soccer Mama Brings On Heat,” Lebanon Daily News, Sept. 24, 2008.

  38. “Glock 26,” Glock, www.glock.com/english/glock26.htm.

  39. See Lebanon County, PA, website, www.lebcounty.org/Pages/default.aspx.

  40. “Gun-Toting Woman Divides Community.”

  41. Ibid.

  42. Ibid.

  43. “Police-Fire Digest,” Lancaster New Era, Apr. 20, 2006.

  44. “Gun Carrier Sues for $1 Million: Woman Claims Permit Revocation Violated Constitutional Rights,” Harrisburg Patriot News, Nov. 25, 2008.

  45. “Gun-Toting Woman Divides Community.”

  46. Ibid.

  47. “Pistol-Packin’ Soccer Mama Brings On Heat.”

  48. Ibid.

  49. “Gun-Toting Woman Divides Community.”

  50. “Pistol-Packin’ Soccer Mama Brings On Heat.”

  51. “Gun Carrier Sues for $1 Million”; “Guns at a Kids’ Game: Judge Wisely Points Out Difference Between Legality, Sensibility,” Harrisburg Patriot News, Oct. 18, 2008.

  52. “New Life to Aging Murder Tops List,” Lebanon Daily News, Dec. 27, 2008.

  53. “Gun-Toting Mom Get
s Permit Back,” Lebanon Daily News, Oct. 14, 2008.

  54. Ibid.

  55. “I Am Happy Being a Gun Owner,” Harrisburg Patriot News, Dec. 27, 2008.

  56. “Soccer Parents Wince at Prospect of Guns at Games,” Harrisburg Patriot News, Oct. 18, 2008.

  57. Ibid.

  58. “I Am Happy Being a Gun Owner” (“There is no doubt Hain aroused a storm of controversy—making headlines locally and nationally. Whenever The Patriot-News published a story about Hain on PennLive.com, dozens, sometimes hundreds, of readers weighed in.”); “Gun-Toting Mum,” The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia), Nov. 26, 2008.

  59. “Gun Carrier Sues for $1 Million.”

  60. Ibid.

  61. “Matthew B. Weisberg Esq.,” Weisbarg Law, P.C., www.ppwlaw.com/Bio/MatthewWeisberg.asp; “Gun Carrier Sues for $1 Million.”

  62. “Gun Carrier Sues for $1 Million.”

  63. “I Am Happy Being a Gun Owner.”

  64. Ibid.

  65. “Gun-Toting Woman Divides Community.”

  66. “Pistol-Packin’ Soccer Mom Shot Dead in Lebanon,” Lebanon Daily News, Oct. 8, 2009.

  67. “Gun-Toting Soccer Mom, Husband Shot Dead,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 9, 2009; “Lebanon Soccer Mom Shot by Husband While Chatting on Webcam,” Lebanon Daily News, Oct. 9, 2009; Hain v. DeLeo, 2010 U.S. Dist. Lexis 116393, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Nov. 2, 2010.

  68. “Gun-Toting Soccer Mom, Husband Shot Dead.”

  69. Ibid.

  70. “Pistol-Packin’ Soccer Mom Shot Dead in Lebanon.”

  71. “Lebanon Soccer Mom Shot by Husband While Chatting on Webcam.”

  72. “Pistol-Packin’ Soccer Mom Shot Dead in Lebanon.”

  73. Ibid.

  74. “Lebanon Soccer Mom Shot by Husband While Chatting on Webcam.”

  75. Ibid.

  76. “Gun-Toting Soccer Mom, Husband Shot Dead.”

  77. Josh Sugarmann, “Beyond the Easy Irony of Murdered Gun Advocate Meleanie Hain,” Huffington Post, Oct. 9, 2009, www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/beyond-the-easy-irony-of_b_315731.html.

  78. “Gun-Toting Mother’s Lawsuit Dismissed,” Harrisburg Patriot News, Nov. 4, 2010; Hain v. DeLeo, 2010 U.S. Dist. Lexis 116393, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Nov. 2, 2010.