Outgunned : Up Against the NRA-- The First Complete Insider Account of the Battle over Gun Control

by Peter Harry Brown; Daniel G. Abel

• ISBN13: 9780743215619
• ISBN10: 0743215613
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-01-07
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

Ours is a nation in the grip of a strange kind of mania. Why after President Reagan was shot was there virtually no handgun legislation? Why after the Columbine massacre in Littleton, Colorado, was nothing done to regulate the tools that children most frequently use to kill one another? Why was there no legislative response after a six-year-old in Flint, Michigan, shot a classmate with a .32 caliber "pocket rocket"? Tragedy follows tragedy, with twelve children shot dead every day in America, but guns remain less regulated than automobiles. Why? As authors Peter Harry Brown and Daniel G. Abel in this powerful book demonstrate, it is because of the terrible power of the gun coalition. Outgunned begins with the story of Wendell Gauthier, the "master of disaster" attorney, who brought down the tobacco industry to the tune of billions and then turned his attention to guns. He struck fear into the hearts of the gun manufacturers as he set out to make gunmakers bear some liability for the killings caused by the often poorly made, inaccurate handguns they marketed to criminals. Coauthor Daniel G. Abel worked for Gauthier, along with other attorneys, as the gun-control campaign gathered momentum. This legal initiative seemed to be about to make history and change the face of violence in America, but sadly, Wendell Gauthier died of cancer before meaningful gun control could be established. More than thirty class-action suits against gun manufacturers now languish in courtroom paralysis while as many Saturday night specials as ever are being made. What happened? Brown and Abel demonstrate how the pro-gun forces once again curbed the will of a nation. This book shows the enomous power of the NRA -- how it killed pending legislation in Congress, hijacked the Campaign Act to fund the George W. Bush presidential election victory, and eviscerated the American Shooting Sports Council. That association and the gun manufacturers actually wanted to compromise and agree to new handgun laws, implicitly accepting some liability, but the NRA leadership, with Charlton Heston as their president, crushed them. In Outgunned, Brown and Abel uncover how NRA lobbyists were instrumental in stopping Smith & Wesson in its tracks. They show how the tendrils of the NRA reach into the Christian Alliance and Republican Party, and how men like John McCain have fought back and been undermined. Outgunned reveals how the NRA began dealing with President George W. Bush when he was still governor of Texas -- prodding him into signing a shocking prohibition against the kind of suits Gauthier brought against the gun manufacturers. Outgunned is the story of a legal crusade with up-close accounts of the people who fought every step of the way. For those who believe in the importance of stopping unnecessary bloodshed, this book is essential, powerful, and urgent.

Author Biography

Peter Harry Brown is a veteran journalist for The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times; he has won the California Associated Press Award for best investigative journalism, the New Mexico and Colorado Associated Press Award for feature writing, the Copley Newspapers Ring of Truth Award, the Gannett Newspapers annual award for feature writing, and the Florida Newspaper Publishers' Award for best spot news reporting. He lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. v
Preface	p. ix
Introduction: A Shooting in Faubourg Marigny	p. 1
Mission Impossible: Assembling the Team	p. 7
Trails of Blood: Guns Passed from Hand to Hand to Killer	p. 20
The Sleeping Giant: And Its Ad Agency	p. 31
Moneymakers: Mandarins of the Gun	p. 49
Washington Snipers: A Tobacco Haze	p. 68
The Guns of April: Tragedy in Littleton	p. 88
High Noon: The Baker Boys Take on Congress	p. 104
The Summer of Blood: And the Trouble with Colt	p. 123
Scenes from the Barricades: From Rosie O'Donnell to a Courtroom in Ohio	p. 144
Fresh Horses: The Housing Secretary's Posse	p. 171
Riding into the Valley of Death: Smith & Wesson Attempt to Be Independent	p. 193
Mobbed: The NRA Destroys Any Hope of Compromise	p. 215
Election Fever: Mothers Take to the Streets and a Child Goes to Jail	p. 235
On the Front Lines: The End of One Beginning	p. 256
Terror Gallops On: From the IRA to Al Qaeda	p. 276
Epilogue: A Death and the Changing of the Guard	p. 287
Sources	p. 305
Index	p. 327
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