The Last Gun (40 page)

57
. “Issue of Gun Rights Still Holds Sway,”
New York Times
, Mar. 15, 2009.

58
. “Gun Control Efforts Going Nowhere,”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
, Apr. 9, 2009.

1
. “Copley Shooter Bought Gun Five Days Before Killing Spree,”
Akron Beacon Journal
, Aug. 10, 2011; “Autopsy Notes Hint at Fury with Which Gunman Fired,”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, Aug. 11, 2011.

2
. According to the township's website, 13, 641 people live in Copley, of whom 86.4 percent are white. The median household income is about $55, 000, and only 3.3 percent of the families live below the poverty level. Copley Township,
“Demographics,”
www.copley.oh.us/about-copley/about-copley/demographics.html
.

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
.