The Last Gun (46 page)

42
. “Ma Deuce Still Going Strong,”
Defense Industry Daily
, Mar. 5, 2012,
www.defenseindustrydaily.com/ma-deuce-still-going-strong-03539
.

43
. U.S. Army, “Small Arms—Crew-Served Weapons,” in
2012 US Army Weapon Systems Handbook
, 292, available from Federation of American Scientists,
www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/wsh2012/index.html
.

44
. U.S. Patent No. 4, 677, 897, “Anti-Armor Gun,” issued to Ronnie G. Barrett on July 7, 1987.

45
. “The Big Gun: Controversy over the 50-Caliber Rifle,”
60 Minutes
, CBS, Jan. 9, 2005.

46
. “AP Centerpiece: Small-Time Tinkering Leads to Big-Time Guns, Sales by Tennessee Company,” Associated Press, Nov. 25, 2005.

47
. Barrett Firearms, “Ronnie Barrett, President and Founder of Barrett Firearms, Named as an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for 2006,” news release, July 5, 2006.

48
. Robert H. Boatman,
Living with the Big.50: The Shooter's Guide to the World's Most Powerful Rifle
(Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 2004), 6, 9.

49
. Ibid., 6.

50
. “Barrett's Shorty: The M82CQ Carbine,”
Tactical Response
, Jan.–Feb. 2007.

51
. “Army Approves Full Fielding of M-107 Sniper Rifle,” Army News Service, Mar. 31, 2005,
www4.army.mil/ocpa
(accessed Apr. 1, 2005).

52
. See the following reports, all of which are available on the Violence Policy Center's website,
www.vpc.org
:
Clear and Present Danger: National Security Experts Warn About the Danger of Unrestricted Sales of 50 Caliber Anti-Armor Sniper Rifles to Civilians
(July 2005);
The Threat Posed to Helicopters by 50 Caliber Anti-Armor Sniper Rifles
(Aug. 2004);
Really Big Guns: Even Bigger Lies
(Mar. 2004);
“Just Like Bird Hunting”
—
the Threat to Civil Aviation from 50 Caliber Sniper Rifles
(Jan. 2003);
Sitting Ducks
—
The Threat to the Chemical and Refinery Industry from 50 Caliber Sniper Rifles
(Aug. 2002);
The U.S. Gun Industry and Others Unknown
—
Evidence Debunking the Gun Industry's Claim That Osama bin Laden Got His 50 Caliber Sniper Rifles from the U.S. Afghan-Aid Program
(Feb. 2002);
Voting from the Rooftops: How the Gun Industry Armed Osama bin Laden, Other Foreign and Domestic Terrorists, and Common
Criminals with 50 Caliber Sniper Rifles
(Oct. 2001);
One Shot, One Kill: Civilian Sales of Military Sniper Rifles
(May 1999).

53
. “The Football,”
GlobalSecurity.org
,
www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/nuclear-foofball.htm
(accessed Apr. 11, 2005).

54
. Don A. Edwards, “Large Caliber Sniper Threat to U.S. National Command Authority Figures,” Research Report Submitted to Faculty, National War College, Washington, DC, 1985, 20.

55
. Ibid., 22–23.

56
. James Bonomo et al.,
Stealing the Sword: Limiting Terrorist Use of Advanced Conventional Weapons
(Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2007), 64.

57
. Ibid., 39.

58
. Ibid.

59
. Ibid., 39–40.

60
. Ibid., 75.

61
. Ibid., 76.

62
. “No Recession for Firearms Industry,”
New York Times
, Jan. 13, 1992.

63
. Violence Policy Center,
Voting from the Rooftops: How the Gun Industry Armed Osama bin Laden, Other Foreign and Domestic Terrorists, and Common Criminals with 50 Caliber Sniper Rifles
(Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2001), 35,
www.vpc.org/graphics/rooftop.pdf
.

64
. Violence Policy Center,
Clear and Present Danger: National Security Experts Warn About the Danger of Unrestricted Sales of 50 Caliber Anti-Armor Sniper Rifles to Civilians
(Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2005), 11,
www.vpc.org/studies/50danger.pdf.

65
. Two VPC monographs document the bin Laden transaction and the rebuttal of Barrett's story in great detail. See
The U.S. Gun Industry and Others Unknown
—
Evidence Debunking the Gun Industry's Claim That Osama bin Laden Got His 50 Caliber Sniper Rifles from the U.S. Afghan-Aid Program
(Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2002),
www.vpc.org/graphics/snipercia.pdf
; and
Voting from the Rooftops
.

66
. “Gunmaker Is Surviving Fight Against .50-Caliber,”
Nashville Tennessean
, Jan. 9, 2005.

67
. “What Did You Do in the War, Charlie?”
Dallas Morning News
, June 15, 2003.

68
. “Charlie Wilson's Death Touches Murfreesboro,”
Murfreesboro Post
, Feb. 14, 2010,
www.murfreesboropost.com/charlie-wilson-s-death-touches-murfreesboro-cms-21921
.

69
. Violence Policy Center,
Voting from the Rooftops
, 28, fn q.

70
. “Church Leader Fans Fires of Fear,”
The Oregonian
, Dec. 10, 1989.

71
. “Arms Seized in Spokane Snare IRA Suspect in Miami,”
The Oregonian
, Jan. 19, 1990.

72
. Violence Policy Center,
Voting from the Rooftops
, 30.

73
. See Violence Policy Center, “Criminal Use of the 50 Caliber Sniper Rifle,”
www.vpc.org/snipercrime.htm
.

74
. Violence Policy Center,
Voting from the Rooftops
, 34.

75
. Violence Policy Center,
Clear and Present Danger
, 10–11.

76
. Office of Special Investigations, U.S. General Accounting Office, “Briefing
Paper: Criminal Activity Associated with .50 Caliber Semiautomatic Rifles,” No. GAO/OSI-99–15R, presented to representatives of the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform, July 15, 1999, 3.

77
. Copies of the court documents from which this data was extracted are in the files of the Violence Policy Center in Washington, DC.

78
. Colby Goodman and Michel Marizco, “U.S. Firearms Trafficking to Mexico: New Data and Insights Illuminate Key Trends and Challenges,” Working Paper Series on U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: Mexico Institute and the University of San Diego Trans-Border Institute, Sept. 2010, 171–72.

79
. Violence Policy Center, “Vast Majority of Mexican Crime Guns Originate in U.S., New ATF Trace Data Reveals,” news release, Apr. 26, 2012,
www.vpc.org/press/1204atf.htm
.

80
. Goodman and Marizco, “U.S. Firearms Trafficking to Mexico,” 167–68.

81
. Ibid., 172–73.

82
. For TCO operations in Africa and their use of Africa as a conduit to Europe, see, e.g., “Statement of Michele M. Leonhart, Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Department of Justice, Before the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, June 20, 2012,”
CQ Congressional Testimony
, June 20, 2012; Alex Pena, “DEA: Mexican Drug Cartels Reach Further Across Africa,” Voice of America, June 15, 2012,
www.voanews.com/content/illegal-drugs-cartels-africa-mexico/1211572.html
.

83
. National Drug Intelligence Center,
National Drug Threat Assessment 2011
(Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2011), 7.

84
. Ibid., 11.

85
. National Drug Intelligence Center,
The Economic Impact of Illicit Drug Use on American Society
(Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Justice, 2011), xi.

86
. National Gang Intelligence Center,
2011 National Gang Threat Assessment: Emerging Trends
(Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2011), 26.

87
. Ibid., 43.

88
. Ibid., 46.

89
. “100 Gang Members ID'd Locally,”
Murfreesboro Post
, Aug. 19, 2007.

90
. “Indictments Show Gangs' Spread in Middle TN,”
Nashville Tennessean
, Oct. 28, 2009; “Nine Charged in '07 Violence,”
Murfreesboro Daily News Journal
, Oct. 28, 2009.

91
. “Police Intensify Crackdown on Gang Activity,”
Nashville Tennessean
, Jan. 27, 2012.

92
. “The Big Gun; Controversy over the .50-Caliber Rifle,”
60 Minutes
, CBS News Transcripts, Jan. 9, 2005.

93
. Ibid.

94
. U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (now U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives), “Firearms and Explosives Application Inspection Summary,” for applicant Ronnie Gene Barrett, Jan. 20, 1984.

95
. “Gunmaker Is Surviving Fight Against .50-caliber,”
Nashville Tennessean
, Jan. 9, 2005.

96
. Ibid.

97
. Ibid.

98
. David Hemenway,
Private Guns, Public Health
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006), 1–3.

99
. Jonathan Berr, “Gun Sales Go Soft as Economy Improves, Fears Subside,”
Daily Finance
, Apr. 14, 2010,
www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/gun-sales-go-soft-as-economy-improves-fearssubside/19437972
.

100
. Frank Hobbs and Nicole Stoops,
Demographic Trends in the 20th Century
(Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 2002), appendix A, table 1, “Total Population for the United States, Regions, and States: 1900 to 2000.”

101
. National Shooting Sports Foundation, “Small-Arms Production in the United States,” in
Industry Intelligence Reports
(Newtown, CT: National Shooting Sports Foundation, 2007), 2, table, “25 Years Small-Arms Production (1980–2005).”

102
. “Industry Hanging onto a Single Category,”
Shooting Wire
, Dec. 17, 2008,
www.shootingwire.com/archived/2008-12-17_sw.html
.

103
. “Man Accidently Shoots Wife,”
Murfreesboro Daily News Journal
, Mar. 2, 2009.

104
. Jeff Woods, “Oops! Handgun Permit Holder Shoots His Wife While Watching Cher on TV,”
Nashville Scene
,
www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2009/03/04/oops-handgun-permit-holder-shoots-his-wife-while-watching-cher-on-tv
.

1
. For a summary of Florida's national influence toward relaxation of gun laws, see “Florida: Fertile Ground for Pro-Gun Laws,”
Miami Herald
, Mar. 27, 2012.

2
. “‘Gunshine State': How NRA Attained Dominance in Florida,”
Palm Beach Post
, Apr. 7, 2012 (Florida's “reputation as the ‘Gunshine State' is rooted in politics, culture and the seemingly irresistible force of Marion Hammer”); Daniel Ruth, “More Madness in Gun-Happy Florida,”
St. Petersburg Times
, op-ed, Jan. 21, 2011 (“But this is Florida, the Gunshine State, where barely conscious yahoos can arm themselves right up to the drool”); “Firearms Issue: Concealed Weapons Law Is Riddled with Flaws—Some Potentially Fatal,”
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
, editorial, Feb. 1, 2007 (“Such is life in the ‘Gun shine State' ”).

3
. “How Did Florida Get Its Nickname, the Sunshine State?”
MyFlorida.com
, Aug. 7, 2002,
http://myflorida.custhelp.eom/app/answers/detail/a_id/695/~/how-did-florida-get-its-nickname,-the-sunshine-state%3F.

4
. “About NRA-ILA,” NRA Institute for Legislative Action,
www.nraila.org/about-nra-ila.aspx
.

5
. Hammer won the “Roy Rogers Man of the Year” Award in 1985. “Marion P. Hammer,” Winning Team,
http://nrawinningteam.com/hammer.html
.

6
. “Pistol-Packin' Populace: Florida Up in Arms; Gun Sales Soar Under the State's New Liberalized Law,”
Washington Post
, Oct. 22, 1987.

7
. “Marion P. Hammer.”

8
. Text accompanying “Unified Sportsmen of Florida Membership Application,” downloaded from
www.scgaa.org/usf.pdf
. According to the National Rifle
Association, “Ms. Marion Hammer, Executive Director of Unified Sportsmen of Florida, did business with the NRA in the amount of $122,000 for 2011.” National Rifle Association of America, “Report of the Secretary to the Annual Meeting of Members,” Apr. 14, 2012 (in the files of the Violence Policy Center).

9
. See, e.g., “Marion Hammer,”
St. Petersburg Times
, Aug. 11, 1996 (“The new president of the National Rifle Association glances up at several aides holding two-way radios, and growls, ‘If one of those things squawks during my best sound bite, I'll kill you' ”); and “Leader as Hard as Nails Is Taking Reins at N.R.A.,”
New York Times
, Apr. 14, 1996 (“Instead of getting rid of all firearms to end the seething national debate over gun control, she wonders out loud, why not just ‘get rid of all liberals?' ”).