The Last Gun (51 page)

38
. Affidavit of Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Kurt Titsworth, 1–2.

39
. “The .40 at 20: Guns Magazine's 55th Anniversary Year Coincides with the 20th for the .40 Smith & Wesson Cartridge,”
Guns Magazine
, Jan. 1, 2010.

40
. For a more complete discussion of the rise of Clock in America, its aggressive tactics for selling to law enforcement, and its long-range strategy of reaching the civilian market through its sales to law enforcement, see Tom Diaz,
Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America
(New York: The New Press, 1999).

41
. “Holstering Heightened Firepower: Target Practice Provides Feel for New Weapon,”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
, Oct. 4, 2004. Terminal ballistics, also known as wound ballistics, is “the study of how a projectile behaves when it hits its target and transfers its kinetic energy to the target. The bullet's design, as well as its impact velocity, plays a huge role in how the energy is transferred.” See “Terminal Ballistics,” Hornady Manufacturing,
www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/terminal
.

42
. “Man Sought for Questioning as 2 Girls Buried,”
Oklahoma City Oklahoman
, June 14, 2008.

43
. “OSBI: No DNA Evidence Discovered,” Associated Press State & Local Wire, June 8, 2009; “Man Sought for Questioning as 2 Girls Buried.”

44
. “OSBI Cuts Officers on Weleetka Killings,”
Tulsa World
, Sept. 13, 2008.

45
. Affidavit of Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Kurt Titsworth, 2.

46
. “Murder Charges Filed in Weleetka Girls' Slayings,”
Tulsa World
, Dec. 9, 2011,

47
. Affidavit of Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Kurt Titsworth, 1–2.

48
. Ibid., 2.

49
. Ibid., 2.

50
. Ibid., 3.

51
. “Police Weapon Traced to Killings: Clock, Once City-Owned, Used to Kill Two Okla. Girls,”
Baltimore Sun
, Dec. 18, 2011.

52
. Affidavit of Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Kurt Titsworth, 2–3.

53
. “Agents Use New Tools to Trace Handguns,” Associated Press Online, July 14, 2007.

54
. Ibid.

55
. “After Gun Industry Pressure, Veil Was Draped over Tracing Data,”
Washington Post
, Oct. 24, 2010.

56
. “Firearms Measure Surprises Some in GOP,”
Washington Post
, July 21, 2003.

57
.
City of Chicago v. Department of Treasury
, 287 F3d 628, 631 (7th Cir. 2002).

58
. Colin Miller, “Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Why the Tiahrt Amendment's Ban on the Admissibility of ATF Trace Data in State Court Actions Violates the Commerce Clause and the Tenth Amendment,”
Utah Law Review
2010, no. 665 (2010): 665, 677.

59
. Federal Judicial Center, “Bauer, William Joseph,” in
Biographical Directory of Federal Judges
,
www.fjc.gov//files/20/91/54/f209154/public/home.nsf/hisj
.

60
.
City of Chicago v. Department of Treasury
, 287 F.3d 628, 634 (7th Cir. 2002). Tiahrt and the NRA claimed that the lawsuits compromised eighteen ATF investigations. But ATF associate chief counsel Barry Orlow told the
Washington Post
that none was compromised. “After Gun Industry Pressure, Veil Was Draped over Tracing Data.”

61
.
City of Chicago v. Department of Treasury
.

62
. Ibid.

63
. See “Foreign Intelligence and Counterintelligence Records System,” U.S. Department of Justice,
www.justice.gov/nsd/foia/mis/ficrs.htm
.

64
. See, e.g., letter from Ronald Weich, Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice to the Honorable Joseph R. Biden Jr., President, U.S. Senate, dated Apr. 30, 2012.

65
. Angela Jacqueline Tang, “Note: Taking Aim at Tiahrt,”
William & Mary Law Review
50 (Apr. 2009): 1787, 1821.

66
. “Police Union Lobbyist Has Influence in Gun Debate, Beyond,”
Washington Post
, Dec. 15, 2010.

67
. Compare National Fraternal Order of Police directory,
www.fop.net/contact/index.shtml#Admin
, and First Quarter 2011 Lobbying Report of Jim Pasco and Associates, filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.

68
. “Philip Morris Is Client of Police Lobbyist Fighting Tobacco Bill,”
USA Today
, May 12, 1998.

69
. Ibid.

70
. “Big Tobacco Quietly Tries to Grow Grass Roots: Industry's Sophisticated Lobbying Tactics Strike Some Critics as Deceptive,”
Washington Post
, May 16, 1998; “Philip Morris Is Client of Police Lobbyist Fighting Tobacco Bill.”

71
. “Police Union Lobbyist Has Influence in Gun Debate, Beyond.”

72
. Ibid.

73
. Chuck Canterbury, “Don't Buy Claims About Tiahrt Gun Amendment,”
Wichita Eagle
, Apr. 24, 2007.

74
. Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA executive director, “Political Report: One on One with Chuck Canterbury, National President, Fraternal Order Of Police,”
www.nrapublications.org/index.php/10217/political-report-16
.

75
. “Lawmakers Ask Feds to Share Info on Gun Trace Data That Could Help Find the Source of Guns,” Associated Press, May 2, 2007.

76
. “Police Union Lobbyist Has Influence in Gun Debate, Beyond.”

77
. See “Jim Pasco,” CornerStone Associates,
www.cornerstone-associates.org/biographies.html#jim_pasco
.

78
. See “Capabilities,” CornerStone Associates,
www.cornerstone-associates.org/capabilities.html
.

79
. See “Our Clients,” CornerStone Associates,
www.cornerstone-associates.org/clients.html
.

80
. “Endorsements: U.S. Senate and House, Kansas Governor,”
Wichita Eagle
, July 25, 2010.

81
. Miller, “Lawyers, Guns, and Money,” 665, 681–82. See also “After Gun Industry Pressure, Veil Was Draped over Tracing Data.”

1
. Richard Lacayo, “Under Fire,”
Time Magazine
, Ian. 29, 1990. A version dated June 24, 2001, is available at
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,153695,00.html
.

2
. Josh Sugarmann,
NRA: Money, Firepower & Fear
(Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2010), 14–15.

3
. “Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., Presidential Candidate, Delivers Remarks at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting Celebration of American Values Leadership Forum,” CQ Transcriptions, Apr. 13, 2012. The speech can be watched at “Mitt Romney at 2012 NRA Annual Meeting,” YouTube,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlqz_IPNOzO
.

4
. “Dem-Backed Crime Bill Has Romney's Support,”
Boston Herald
, May 29, 1994.

5
. “Romney Cries Foul, Dares Kennedy to Debate Him,”
Boston Herald
, June 2, 1994.

6
. “Herald Panel Grills Romney on Crime,”
Boston Herald
, Aug. 1, 1994.

7
. “Mitt Rejects Right-Wing Aid,”
Boston Herald
, Sept. 23, 1994.

8
. “Massachusetts to Enforce Strict Gun Safety Laws,”
New York Times
, Apr. 3, 2000.

9
. “Area Gun Lovers Mad at Romney,”
The Republican
, July 10, 2003.

10
. “Bay State Enacts Assault Weapons Ban,”
Boston Globe
, July 2, 2004.

11
. “Massachusetts Governor Shares Election Views,”
Hannity & Colmes
, Fox News, Aug. 4, 2004.

12
. The VPC defined states with “strong” gun laws as those that add significant state regulation in addition to federal law, such as restricting access to particularly hazardous types of firearms (for example, assault weapons), setting minimum safety standards for firearms and/or requiring a permit to purchase a firearm, and restrictive laws governing the open and concealed carrying of firearms in public. States with “weak” gun laws were defined as those that add little or nothing to federal restrictions and have permissive laws governing the open or concealed carrying of firearms in public. Violence Policy Center, “Massachusetts Has Lowest Gun Death Rate in Nation,” news release, Apr. 23, 2012,
www.vpc.org/press/1204death.htm
.

13
. Violence Policy Center, “Massachusetts Has Lowest Gun Death Rate in Nation.”

14
. “In farming, sheep dipping is a chemical bath given to sheep to rid them of bugs or disease or to clean their wool before shearing. In CIA terminology, sheep dipping means disguising the identity of an agent by placing him within a legitimate organization. This establishes clean credentials that can later be used to penetrate adversary groups or organizations. Similar to the real sheep, the agent is cleaned up so that nobody knows where he's been, kind of like money laundering.” See “11 Terms
Used by Spies,” HowStuffWorks,
http://people.howstuffworks.com/11-terms-used-by-spies.htm
.

15
. “Romney Assures Gun Rights Group of His Fealty,”
New York Times
, Apr. 14, 2012; “Mitt Romney Announces Support of Conservationist Rob Keck,” Targeted News Service, Feb. 21, 2012.

16
. Ibid.

17
. “Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., Presidential Candidate, Delivers Remarks at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting Celebration of American Values Leadership Forum.”

18
. Ibid.

19
. James William Gibson,
Warrior Dreams: Violence and Manhood in Post-Vietnam America
(New York: Hill & Wang, 1994).

20
. Ibid., 11.

21
. The Free Congress Foundation was a pioneer in marshaling funds from the ultra-wealthy and in coordinating the strategy of the far right's culture war against the perceived excesses of liberalism. “FCF is also widely credited as one of the pioneer organizations of political action through organized coalition. Before the foundation's creation, established conservative leaders and institutions often acted individually in accordance with their beliefs. FCF introduced conservatives to the ‘coalition model,' which trained them to coordinate—and time—their efforts with conservative members of Congress, journalists, think tanks and grassroots groups. This would ensure that initiatives had broad-based coordinated support.” See “History,”
www.freecongress.org/about/history
. The late Paul Weyrich, who founded both the Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation with the help of the beer magnate Joseph Coors, was credited in a 1998 article surveying the right-wing landscape with laying the foundation of the “new conservative labyrinth.” This labyrinth “includes dozens of national and regional think tanks (Heritage, American Enterprise, Free Congress Research and Education, Cato, Hudson, Hoover, Manhattan, and so on), legal centers (Institute for Justice, Washington Legal Foundation, and the Pacific, Atlantic, New England, and Southeastern Legal Foundations), magazines (
American Spectator, Weekly Standard
), journals (
Public Interest, National Interest
), and an extensive communications and marketing capacity.” Karen M. Paget, “Lessons of Right-Wing Philanthropy,”
American Prospect
, Sept.–Oct. 1998.

22
. Speech by National Rifle Association First Vice President Charlton Heston, delivered at the Free Congress Foundation's 20th Anniversary Gala, Dec. 7, 1997, available at
www.vpc.org/nrainfo/speech.html
.

23
. For a detailed discussion of the NRA's alignment with the right-wing's “movement conservatives,” see Violence Prevention Campaign,
From the Gun War to the Culture War: How the NRA Has Become the Pillar of the Right
(Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center, 2002),
www.vpc.org/graphics/gunwar.pdf
.

24
. “Call to Arms,”
Washington Post
, Aug. 6, 2000.

25
. Gibson,
Warrior Dreams
, 11–12.

26
. Southern Poverty Law Center, “T.J. Ready,” Intelligence Files,
www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/jt-ready
“Ready was well known
as a friend of Russell Pearce, former president of the Arizona senate, sponsor of the state's draconian anti-immigrant law, known as S.B. 1070. The two were photographed and videotaped together at a 2007 rally. When confronted by a reporter at the time, Pearce claimed he hardly knew Ready. But, in fact, as the
Phoenix New Times
reported, Pearce was part of a small group that had celebrated Ready's baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2003 or 2004. And when Ready was running for the Mesa City Council in 2006, Pearce called him a ‘true patriot' in a video supporting his candidacy, according to
New Times
. The newspaper also reported that Ready described Pearce as a ‘father figure' who had groomed him for a possible run for the Arizona state legislature.”