Control: Exposing the Truth About Guns (23 page)

The Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book

Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government

Glenn Beck’s Common Sense:

The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government,

Inspired by Thomas Paine

America’s March to Socialism:

Why We’re One Step Closer to Giant Missile Parades
(audiobook)

The Christmas Sweater

An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World’s Biggest Problems

The Real America: Early Writings from the Heart and Heartland

AUTHOR’S NOTE

“ ‘
We can do better. We must do something.’ ”
Richard Blumenthal, “Mourning a Lost Son; Guns in America; Arming the Teachers,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, December 20, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11hfP4L
. • “ ‘
We must act, we must act, we must act
.’ ” Eliza Collins, “Thousands Rally in Washington for Gun Control,”
USA Today
, January 26, 2013,
http://usat.ly/11hfQ8O
. • “
fewer people had been struck by trains that year
,” Ted Mann, “Track Deaths Rare,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 28, 2013,
http://on.wsj.com/11hfVJN
. • “ ‘
shouldn’t we also quit marketing murder as a game?
’ ” David Axelrod, “In NFL post-game: an ad for shoot ’em up video game. All for curbing weapons of war. But shouldn’t we also quit marketing murder as a game?” December 17, 2012, 12:57AM, Twitter post,
https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/280552289360560128
.

PART ONE: THE TRUTH ABOUT GUNS

“
depicting intense gun violence in movies
” “Hollywood A-Listers Called Hypocrites on Issue of Gun Violence in ‘Demand a Plan’ Response Video,”
foxnews.com
, January 2, 2013,
http://fxn.ws/11hfM8W
.

IT’S TIME FOR AMERICA TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT GUNS.

“ ‘
before all those kids in Connecticut died today
’ ” Rep. Carolyn McCarthy,
Rachel Maddow Show
, MSNBC, December 14, 2012,
http://on.today.com/11hdtmk
. • “ ‘
we’re going to have a national conversation on the subject
’ ” Cindy Handler, “How to Talk About Gun Violence,”
The Blog
blog at
huffingtonpost.com
, January 11, 2013,
http://huff.to/WF4bk4
.

WE SHOULD START DRAFTING A BILL TO ENSURE NEWTOWN NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.

“ ‘
It’ll be ready on the first day
’ ” Sen. Diane Feinstein, interview by David Gregory,
Meet the Press
, NBC, December 16, 2012,
http://nbcnews.to/161qJ1i
.

GUNS ARE LETHAL.

“ ‘
not with knives, but with automatic weapons
’ ” Nicholas Kristof, interview by Piers Morgan,
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 8, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11heICb
. • “
When [a .223-caliber round] hits a human body, the effects are devastating
” Gen. Stanley McChrystal, “Gen. McChrystal: Assault Rifles Are for Battlefields, Not Schools,”
Morning Joe
, MSNBC, January 8, 2013,
http://on.msnbc.com/11hfE9t
. • “
as fertilizer (ammonium nitrate), a common cleaning solvent (liquid nitromethane), and diesel fuel
”
Jo Thomas, “For First Time, Woman Says McVeigh Told of Bomb Plan,”
New York Times
, April 30, 1997,
http://nyti.ms/11hfjns
, See also: Jon Ronson, “Conspirators,”
Guardian,
May 4, 2001. • “
was carried out with a bomb
” Pete Winn, “The Worst School Massacre in American History Was ‘Gun Free,’ ”
cnsnews.com
, September 12, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11hfizM
.

NO ONE WANTS TO TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY

“ ‘
No one is saying that people’s guns should be taken away
’ ” Don Lemon, “Aurora and the Politics of Guns,”
CNN Newsroom
, CNN, July 22, 2012,
http://bit.ly/101bCkj
. • “ ‘
Nobody questions the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms
’ ” “Dannel Malloy, Michael Bloomberg, Dianne Feinstein, Bill Bennett, David Brooks, Randi Weingarten, Tom Ridge, Michael Eric Dyson, Pete Williams,”
Meet the Press
, NBC, December 16, 2012,
http://nbcnews.to/11hffE0
. • “ ‘
I want to get rid of these killing machine assault weapons off the street
’ ” Piers Morgan, “Guns in America,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 7, 2013,
http://bit.ly/10jLcfY
. • “ ‘
No serious person, including Obama, is even proposing taking away owned guns
’ ” Touré, “ ‘Gun grabber’ is a mythical boogeyman. No serious person, including Obama, is even proposing taking away owned guns. #StopFear mongering,” February 16, 2013, 6:22AM, Twitter post,
https://twitter.com/Toure/status/302784941337501696
. • “
74 percent of Americans oppose a ban on the possession of handguns
” “Guns,”
gallup.com
, accessed March 5, 2013,
http://bit.ly/LLI5U0
. • “ ‘
an outright ban, picking up every one of them
’ ” Warner Todd Huston, “ ‘Turn ’em All In’ Feinstein Said She Wanted All Guns Banned,”
breitbart.com
, January 1, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11hfajU
. • “ ‘
What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns
’ ” “Eric Holder: Gun Owners Should ‘Cower’ in Shame Like Smokers,”
newsbusters.org
, January 10, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11hf6AF
. • “
really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way
” “Eric Holder: Gun Owners Should ‘Cower’ in Shame Like Smokers,”
news busters.org
, January 10, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11hf6AF
. • “ ‘
not hunt elementary school children
’ ” Katherine Fung, “Don Lemon: ‘We Need to Get Guns and Bullets and Automatic Weapons Off the Streets’ (Video),”
huffingtonpost.com
, December 17, 2012,
http://huff.to/11heSJA
. • “ ‘
We don’t need guns. We have 10,000 murders a year
’ ” “America’s Assault Weapons; Attorneys for Alleged Rape Victim in Ohio and Her Alleged Rapist Argue Their Sides as Case Stirs Controversy Across Social Media,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 8, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11heICb
. • “ ‘
the United States should ban private gun ownership entirely, or almost entirely
’ ” Jeff McMahan, “Why Gun ‘Control’ Is Not Enough,”
Opinionator
blog at
nytimes.com
, December 19, 2012,
http://nyti.ms/11heQS7
. • “ ‘
aggressive efforts to reduce the supply of existing weapons, no one can be safer
’ ” “Taming the Monster: Get Rid of the Guns: More Firearms Won’t Make America Safer—They Will Only Accelerate and Intensify the Heartache and Bloodshed,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 28, 1993,
http://lat.ms/11hf4bK
. • “
banning all guns—is not going to happen
.” Lexington, “The Gun Control that Works: No Guns,”
The Economist
, 15 December 2012,
http://econ.st/11heY42
. • “ ‘
I totally respect and admire the Constitution and the Second Amendment
’ ” Piers Morgan, “California School Shooting; America and Assault Rifles,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 10, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11heHOG
. • “ ‘
in an ideal world, I’d have all guns gone
’ ” Piers Morgan, “California School Shooting; America and Assault Rifles,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 10, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11heHOG
. • “
Morgan had this exchange on his show
” “America’s Assault Weapons; Attorneys for Alleged Rape Victim in Ohio and Her Alleged Rapist Argue Their Sides as Case Stirs Controversy Across Social Media,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 8, 2013,
http://bit.ly/11heICb
. • “
Here’s a brief summary of how their gun ban came to be
” “Britain’s Changing Firearms Laws,”
BBC
News
, 12 November 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7056245.stm
. • “
This expired after two years
” Clayton Cramer, “Gun Control: Political Fears Trump Crime Control,”
Maine Law Review 61,
no.1 (2009): 58–81,
http://bit.ly/16Jjlc5
. • “ ‘
the ownership of firearms ceased to be a right of Englishmen, and instead became a privilege
’ ” Clayton Cramer, “Gun Control: Political Fears Trump Crime Control,”
Maine Law Review 61,
no.1 (2009): 58–81,
http://bit.ly/16Jjlc5
. • “
An update to the Firearms Act is passed that raises the minimum age to buy a gun, gives police more power to regulate licenses
” “Firearms Act, 1937,” Page 1,
http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/fa1937.pdf
• “
The home secretary also rules that self-defense is no longer a valid reason to be granted a gun certificate
” Malcolm, Joyce Lee,
Guns and Violence: The English Experience
, 2002, Page 160,
http://bit.ly/16JeuaU
. • “
show good reason for carrying ammunition and guns
” “Prohibited Weapons Defined by section 5 Firearms Act 1968 as Amended,”
The Crown Prosecution Service: Legal Resources
,
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/firearms/#a14
.

WELL, CAN’T WE AT LEAST CLARIFY THE SECOND AMENDMENT?

“
Is there an argument for the Second Amendment to be repealed and to be clarified and be redrafted
” Piers Morgan, “Remembering Olivia Engel; Gun Control in America; Interview with Carolyn McCarthy, Ron Barber,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, December 18, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11hag6q
.

THAT MAY BE, BUT EVEN THOMAS JEFFERSON WANTED THE SECOND AMENDMENT TO EXPIRE.

“ ‘
said that it should be revisited every 20 years to see if it is still appropriate
’ ” Christopher Kennedy Lawford, “Guns in America,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, January 7, 2013,
http://bit.ly/10jLcfY
. • “
a man who is a self-described ‘author, activist and actor
’ ” Christopher Kennedy Lawford, “Home,”
christopher kennedylawford.com
, accessed March 3, 2013,
http://christopherkennedylawford.com
. • “ ‘
it is an act of force and not of right
’ ” Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, September 6, 1789,
http://bit.ly/11heACz
.

THE UNITED STATES HAS THE HIGHEST GUN MURDER RATE IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD.

“ ‘
murder and gun crime of any of the civilized countries of this world
’ ” Piers Morgan, “Remembering Olivia Engel; Gun Control in America; Interview with Carolyn McCarthy, Ron Barber,”
Piers Morgan Tonight
, CNN, December 18, 2012,
http://bit.ly/11hag6p
. • “
the U.S. murder rate was 4.7 per 100,000
” William J. Krouse, Gun Control Legislation, report prepared for Members and Committees of Congress, 12 Cong., 2d sess., 2012, Committee Print, 10,
http://bit.ly/wvkslu
. • “
the gun murder rate was 3.2
” William J. Krouse, Gun Control Legislation, report prepared for Members and Committees of Congress, 12 Cong., 2d sess., 2012, Committee Print, 10,
http://bit.ly/wvkslu
. • “
homicide rates in Russia and Brazil have averaged about four to five times higher than ours
” “Intentional Homicide, Count and Rate per 100,000 Population (1995–2011),” 2011 Global Study on Homicide: Trends/Contexts/Data (Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2011),
http://bit.ly/16JjRqx
. • “
the United States is somewhere near the mid-range
” Olga Khazan, “Here’s How U.S. Gun Violence Compares with the Rest of the World,”
Washington Post
, December 14, 2012,
http://wapo.st/16JjY5t
. • “
higher rates of gun ownership correlate with fewer deaths
” Simon Rogers, “Gun Homicides and Gun Ownership Listed by Country,”
Datablog
blog at
guardian.co.uk
, July 22, 2012,
http://bit.ly/16Jk64R
.

OKAY, BUT THE OVERALL U.S. MURDER RATE IS MUCH HIGHER THAN OTHER WEALTHY COUNTRIES.

“ ‘
tougher laws controlling private ownership of guns
’ ” “In Other Countries, Laws Are Strict and Work,”
New York Times
, December 17, 2012,
http://nyti.ms/16JkfW9
. • “
The U.S. homicide rate in 2011 was 4.7
” William J. Krouse,
Gun Control Legislation
, report prepared for Members and Committees of Congress, 12 Cong., 2d sess., 2012, Committee Print, 10,
http://bit.ly/wvkslu
. • “
the United Nations data on homicide rates for the 20 “wealthiest” countries
” Simon Rogers, “Gun Homicides and Gun Ownership Listed by Country,”
Datablog
at
guardian.co.uk
, July 22, 2012,
http://bit.ly/16Jk64R
. • “
have rates between 0.7 and 2.5
” Simon Rogers, “Gun Homicides and Gun Ownership Listed by Country,”
Datablog
at
guardian.co.uk
, July 22, 2012,
http://bit.ly/16Jk64R
.