Gun Control Act of 1968: Franklin E. Zimring, “Firearms and Federal Law: The Gun Control Act of 1968,” Journal of Legal Studies 4 (1975): 133.
It also prohibited certain classes of people deemed dangerous: 18 U.S.C. sec. 922 (d).
“This has been the subject”: Charlayne Hunter-Gault, “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: Interview with Warren Burger.”
CHAPTER FIVE: REVOLT AT CINCINNATI
“the nation’s longest standing”: http://home.nra.org/history.
target practice a waste of time: Osha Gray Davidson, Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control (New York: Henry Holt, 1993), 21.
“There will be no war”: Ibid., 26.
the NRA began to shift its focus: Ibid., 20–29.
it did not object to the first federal gun control measure: U.S. Congress, Hearings Before the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, 73rd Cong., 2nd Sess. (1934), 38.
“I have never believed”: Ibid., 52.
an advertisement appeared: Josh Sugarmann, The National Rifle Association: Money, Firepower and Fear (Washington, D.C.: National Press Books, 1992), 35.
Hidell was Lee Harvey Oswald: Gerald Posner, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (New York: Random House, 1993), 102–3.
“We do not think that any sane American”: Davidson, Under Fire, 30.
American Rifleman started a new column: Rick Perlstein, Nixonland (New York: Scribner, 2008), 199.
“criminal-coddling do-gooders”: DeConde, Gun Violence in America, 180.
“The most gun-addicted sections of the United States”: Richard Hofstadter, “America as a Gun Culture,” American Heritage 21, no. 6 (October 1970), http://somd.com/news/headlines/2013/16749.shtml.
For years after, politicians would whisper: See Jeremy Barr, “45 Years Later, Tydings’ Gun Control Bill Remains a Cautionary Tale,” Southern Maryland Online newspapers, April 11, 2013.
“The measure as a whole”: The story of the transformation of the NRA into a feared militant organization is told in gripping fashion in Joel Achenbach, Scott Higham, and Sari Horwitz, “How NRA’s True Believers Converted a Marksmanship Group into a Mighty Gun Lobby,” Washington Post, January 12, 2013, http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-12/politics/36311919_1_nra-leaders-nra-officers-mighty-gun-lobby/3.
“does not necessarily approve”: American Rifleman, March 1968, 16.
“Revolt at Cincinnati”: Achenbach, Higham, and Horwitz, “How NRA’s True Believers Converted a Marksmanship Group into a Mighty Gun Lobby.”
“Is it possible that some of these incidents”: Ibid.
“What the NRA Is”: Scott Melzer, Gun Crusaders: The NRA’s Culture War (New York: NYU Press, 2009), 89.
the response from the right: A prescient and perceptive look at the phenomenon is Thomas Byrne Edsall and Mary Edsall, Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights and Taxes on American Politics (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991). Gripping narrative histories of the immediate backlash—and its cultural roots—include Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (New York: Hill & Wang, 2001), and Matthew Dallek, The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan’s First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics (New York: Free Press, 2000).
Evangelical Christian churches underwent a similar change: On the rise and politicization of the Religious Right at the same time the NRA was becoming more militant, see Darren Dochuk, From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism (New York: W. W. Norton, 2010); Daniel K. Williams God’s Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Proposition 13: See Robert Kuttner, Revolt of the Haves: Tax Rebellions and Hard Times (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980).
landowners opposed the Interior Department: “Sagebrush Rebellion,” U.S. News & World Report, December 1, 1980.
Organized business shifted: Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Winner Take All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer, and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 95–135; Thomas Byrne Edsall, The New Politics of Inequality (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984), 76–78. See generally David Vogel, Fluctuating Fortunes: The Political Power of Business in America (New York: Basic Books, 1989).
measured by polls: Polls are compiled in “Public Trust in Government: 1958–2013” by the Pew Research Center, January 31, 2013, www.people-press.org/2013/01/31/trust-in-government-interactive/. The 1958 poll was conducted by the American National Election Study; the 1980 study by CBS/New York Times.
an overtly political coalition: The Olin Foundation was one of the major sources of funds for various streams of conservative thought and activism. Olin is a major manufacturer of ammunition and guns. For an excellent overview, see Alice O’Connor, “Financing the Counterrevolution,” in Bruce J. Schulman and Julian E. Zelizer, eds., Rightward Bound (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008), 148–68.
“Over the past forty years”: Thomas Byrne Edsall, Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power (New York: Basic Books, 2007), 5.
From the time of the first urban rioting: David Frum, How We Got Here: The 70s, The Decade That Brought You Modern Life—For Better or Worse (New York: Basic Books, 2000), 19.
Reagan gave the new constitutional thrust rhetorical support: The former governor argued against gun control in his radio broadcasts. For a discussion of the shift rightward by the NRA, and the embrace of gun rights language by the Republican Party, see Rick Perlstein, “How the NRA Became an Organization for Aspiring Vigilantes,” TheNation.com, January 9 and 10, 2013, www.thenation.com/blog/172100/how-nra-became-organization-aspiring-vigilantes-part-1#axzz2dBPH6Zpv, and at www.thenation.com/blog/172125/how-nra-became-organization-aspiring-vigilantes-part-2#axzz2dBPH6Zpv. See also Jill Lepore, “Battleground America: One Nation, Under the Gun,” The New Yorker, April 23, 2012, www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore.
The 1972 Republican platform: Republican Party Platform, August 21, 1972, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25842.
Reagan wrote: Ronald Reagan, “Ronald Reagan Champions Gun Ownership,” Guns & Ammo, September 1975, 34, cited in Reva B. Siegel, “Dead or Alive: Originalism as Popular Constitutionalism in Heller,” Harvard Law Review, no.122 (2008): 209.
“We believe the right of citizens”: Republican Party Platform of 1980, July 21, 1980, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25844.
the NRA gave Reagan its first-ever presidential endorsement: Dudley Clendenin, “Campaign Report,” New York Times, October 30, 1980. The same article reported that TV Guide had also backed Reagan in its first-ever presidential endorsement.
“ ‘What if there had been a Brady Bill 150 years ago?’ ”: Achenbach, Higham, and Horwitz, “How NRA’s True Believers Converted a Marksmanship Group into a Mighty Gun Lobby.”
“But he would say”: President William J. Clinton, “Remarks to the Convocation of the Church of God in Christ,” Memphis, Tennessee,” November 13, 1993, http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3436. I have written about the speech and its gestation in My Fellow Americans: The Most Important Speeches of America’s Presidents, from Washington to Obama (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2011; 2nd ed.), 285–90.
“Not a single hunter in America has lost a weapon”: Bill Clinton, Between Hope and History (New York: Times Books, 1996), 81.
gun measures cost Democrats dearly: Jeffrey Birnbaum, “Under the Gun,” Fortune, December 6, 1999. Birnbaum describes the organization’s state-of-the-art political and lobbying operation, including a staff of thirty telemarketers. In addition to Foley, the NRA was credited with the defeat of Representative Jack Brooks (D-TX), the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which was responsible for the Brady Bill.
“The NRA is the reason the Republicans control the House”: Evelyn Theiss, “Clinton Blames Losses on NRA,” Clevelan
d Plain Dealer, January 14, 1995. Clinton estimated the fight over the assault weapons ban cost twenty Democrats their seats.
Conventional wisdom echoed Clinton’s plaint: The assault weapons ban was only one controversy dogging Democrats that year. In addition, the party had raised taxes and had sought, but failed, to pass national health insurance. In addition, it had failed to enact campaign finance or other political reforms, helping spur support for term limits. For an analysis of the 1994 elections that puts the gun issue in context, see Gary C. Jacobson, “The 1994 House Elections in Perspective,” Political Science Quarterly 111, no. 2 (1996): 203.
An organizational resolution declared: Charles M. Sennott, “NRA Becomes Militias’ Beacon,” Boston Globe, August 13, 1995 (quoting NRA’s Civilian Militia Statement of November 10, 1994).
Wayne LaPierre: Greg Zoroya, “On the Defensive: Amid Both Political and Public Turmoil, NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre Has Stood Fast. But the Strains of Combat—from Within as Well as Without—Are Showing,” Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1995.
fund-raising letter: Richard Kell, “NRA Apologizes for ‘Jack Boot’ Letter,” Associated Press, May 18, 1995, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950518&slug=2121718.
Timothy McVeigh: For an exploration of Timothy McVeigh’s views, including his opposition to the Brady Bill as one reason for the bombing, see John Kifner, “McVeigh’s Mind: A Special Report; Oklahoma Bombing Suspect: Unraveling of a Frayed Life,” New York Times, December 31, 1995, www.nytimes.com/1995/1⅔1/us/mcveigh-s-mind-special-report-oklahoma-bombing-suspect-unraveling-frayed-life.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.
founder of Soldier of Fortune magazine: The board member was Robert K. Brown, still on the NRA board in 2013. See Dave Gilson, “Meet the NRA’s Board of Directors,” Mother Jones, January 16, 2013, www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/nra-board-members-selleck-nugent.
George H. W. Bush resigned: “Letter of Resignation Sent by Bush to Rifle Association,” New York Times, May 11, 1995, www.nytimes.com/1995/05/11/us/letter-of-resignation-sent-by-bush-to-rifle-association.html.
“I am not really here”: Charlton Heston, Speech at Free Congress Foundation’s 20th Anniversary Gala, December 7, 1997, www.vpc.org/nrainfo/speech.html.
“sacred stuff resides”: Charlton Heston, NRA Members’ Meeting, Charlotte, North Carolina, July 29, 2000; video available at http://home.nra.org/events/video/charlton-heston-2000-meetings/list/2000-nra-annual-meetings.
the wall of the building’s lobby: See “The Second’s Missing Half,” Mother Jones, January/February 1994, www.motherjones.com/politics/1994/01/seconds-missing-half. The lobby of the NRA headquarters building still contains the edited, incomplete version of the Second Amendment. Personal visit by researcher for this volume, July 2013.
The first to argue otherwise: Stuart Hays, “The Right to Bear Arms, A Study in Judicial Misinterpretation,” William and Mary Law Review 2 (1960): 381–406.
“From 1970 to 1989”: Carl Bogus, “The History and Politics of Second Amendment Scholarship: A Primer,” in Carl Bogus, ed., The Second Amendment in Law and History: Historians and Constitutional Scholars on the Right to Bear Arms (New York: New Press, 2002), 4.
He served as a lawyer in the NRA’s general counsel’s office: See ibid., 284, fn. 24: “Although in these [six] articles Halbrook identifies himself only as an attorney in Fairfax, Virginia, in 1986 he told a federal district court that he was a lawyer in the Office of General Counsel of the NRA. See Oefinger v. D.L.O. Manufacturing and Importing, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18370 (D.D.C. 1986).”
three strikingly prolific writers: Saul Cornell and Nathan Kozuskanich, “Introduction: The D.C. Gun Case,” The Second Amendment on Trial: Critical Essays on District of Columbia v. Heller, eds. Saul Cornell and Nathan Kozuskanich (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013), 9.
One lawyer: David Kopel, “Books and Journal Articles,” davekopel.com.
Patrick Henry professorship: “NRA Endows Chair at George Mason U. Law School,” Chronicle of Higher Education 49, no. 27 (March 14, 2003): A25, http://chronicle.com/article/NRA-Endows-Chair-at-George/19835.
“Stand Up for the Second Amendment”: Robert J. Spitzer, The Politics of Gun Control, 5th edition (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2008), 171; Robert J. Herz, “Gun Crazy: Constitutional False Consciousness and Dereliction of Dialogic Responsibility,” Boston University Law Review 75 (1995): 57.
Academics for the Second Amendment: A private meeting of the group is described in Wendy Kaminer, “Second Thoughts About the Second Amendment,” The Atlantic, March 1, 1996, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/03/second-thoughts-on-the-second-amendment/306747/.
The NRA paid one lawyer $15,000: According to the website of the NRA Civil Rights Legal Defense Fund, “At September 14, 2007, meeting an educational grant of $15,500 was provided to David T. Hardy analysis of book on right to bear arms and response thereto in William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, for an analysis of case law on standing and an article on standing in the Thomas Jefferson Law Review, and research of U.S. Supreme Court papers.” See NRA Civil Rights Legal Defense Fund, “Supported Research/Previous Years,” www.nradefensefund.org/previous-years-research.aspx. Hardy published a review of Cornell’s book. David T. Hardy, “A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origin of Gun Control in America,” William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 15 (2007): 1237, http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj/vol15/iss4/6. The article did not mention the funding from the NRA.
Joyce Lee Malcolm bragged: Daniel Lazare “Your Constitution Is Killing You,” Harper’s, October 1999, 59.
“Standard Model”: Glenn Harlan Reynolds, “A Critical Guide to the Second Amendment,” Tennessee Law Review 62 (1995): 461–51.
One law review article changed all that: Sanford Levinson, “The Embarrassing Second Amendment,” Yale Law Journal 99 (1999): 637–59.
Laurence Tribe tentatively endorsed: Tribe’s previous edition had relegated the Second Amendment to a footnote. By the third edition, he acknowledged that the amendment had a political purpose related to militia service, which had vanished. “This is not to say, however, that the Second Amendment can properly be deemed wholly irrelevant today or that it may plausibly be construed to do no more than protect state defense forces against outright abolition by Congress.” Laurence Tribe, American Constitutional Law, Vol. 1 (St. Paul: Foundation Press, 1999; 3rd. ed.), 900.
What mattered was their political provenance: See Adam Liptak, “A Liberal Case for Gun Rights Sways Judiciary,” New York Times, May 6, 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/us/06firearms.html?pagewanted=all.
Tribe and Amar later penned an op-ed: Laurence H. Tribe and Akhil Reed Amar, “Well Regulated Militias and More,” New York Times, October 28, 1999. “The fact is, almost none of the proposed state or Federal weapons regulations appears to come close to offending the Second Amendment’s core right to self-protection.” After Newtown, Tribe engaged in a heated email exchange with a critical blogger, defending his views. “It badly distorts the meaning of everything I have written on the subject to treat me as remotely hostile to the comprehensive national regulation of firearms and ammunition possession, transfer, and use.” Laurence Tribe, “A Response from Laurence Tribe in the Wake of Newtown,” Reader Supported News, December 18, 2012, http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/265-34/15098-a-response-from-laurence-tribe-in-the-wake-of-newtown.
“It is one thing to ransack the sources”: Jack Rakove, “The Second Amendment: The Highest Stage of Originalism,” Chicago-Kent Law Review, no. 76 (2000): 103.
“she is not a member”: Antonin Scalia, A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 137, fn. 13.
Carl Bogus fact-checked the justice: Bogus, “The History and Politics of Second Amendment Scholarship,” 5. Malcolm is now the Patrick Henry Professor of the Constitution and the Second Amendment at George Mason University Law School.
“Mr. Halbrook does not recognize”: Wi
lls, “To Keep and Bear Arms,” citing Stephen P. Halbrook, A Right to Bear Arms (Westport: Greenwood, 1989), 101. Wills adds: “The author had published this argument five years earlier in his book That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right (University of New Mexico Press, 1984), 219, and no scholar of the movement had the heart (or perhaps the head) to correct him in the interval.” www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1995/sep/21/to-keep-and-bear-arms/?pagination=false.
declaration from Patrick Henry: Reynolds, “A Critical Guide to the Second Amendment,” 469.
A $10,000 gift: www.nraam.org/downloads/COAV_2013BenefitsTable.pdf.
“Historical research demonstrates”: Don B. Kates, “Gun Control: Separating Reality from Symbolism,” Journal of Contemporary Law 20 (1984): 362. Others citing the same Jefferson quote include Scott A. Henderson, “U.S. v. Emerson: The Second Amendment as an Individual Right—Time to Settle the Issue,” West Virginia Law Review 102 (1999): 201; L. A. Powe, Jr., “Guns, Words, and Constitutional Interpretation,” William and Mary Law Review 38 (1997): 1358; Randy E. Barnett and Don B. Kates, “Under Fire: The New Consensus on the Second Amendment,” Emory Law Journal 45 (1996): 1216; Anthony J. Dennis, “Clearing the Smoke From the Right to Bear Arms and the Second Amendment,” Akron Law Review 29 (1995): 57; David Kopel, “Lawyers, Guns, and Burglars,” Arizona Law Review 47 (2001): 356.
Jefferson was not talking about guns: The error is gleefully pointed out by David Thomas Konig, “Thomas Jefferson’s Armed Citizenry and the Republican Militia,” Albany Government Law Review 1 (2008): 261. Jefferson’s letter to Washington is available at “Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 19 June 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-00633. “While on the subject of papers permit me to ask one from you,” Jefferson asked Washington, explaining that he had given handwritten letters about a disagreement among administration officials to political foes. “I have often thought of asking this one or a copy of it back from you, but have not before written on subjects of this kind to you. Tho’ I do not know that it will ever be of the least importance to me yet one loves to possess arms tho’ they hope never to have occasion for them. They possess my paper in my own handwriting. It is just I should possess theirs.”
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