Enough : Our Fight to Keep America Safe from Gun Violence (9781476750118) by Giffords Gabrielle; Kelly Mark

Enough : Our Fight to Keep America Safe from Gun Violence (9781476750118) by Giffords Gabrielle; Kelly Mark

Author:Giffords, Gabrielle; Kelly, Mark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster


CHAPTER EIGHT

NRA, INC.

Political meddling is one thing, but there’s another side to the NRA that Gabby and I began to find even more troubling.

The National Rifle Association, you’ll recall, was founded as a gun safety group in the aftermath of the Civil War, an organization aimed at schooling urban Northern soldiers in the basics of marksmanship. Today, the NRA maintains affiliations with youth organizations like the Boy Scouts and 4-H, and since 1988, its Eddie Eagle GunSafe program has taught young Americans how to protect themselves if they stumble upon a gun. We are the first to admit that, through these and other programs, the NRA does a great job of promoting gun safety.

But the NRA is also, historically, an advocacy group for gun owners. From the NRA’s point of view, owning a gun is a basic civil right, and therefore the NRA is a civil rights group—as the homepage of the organization’s website puts it, “America’s longest-standing civil-rights organization.”

Though the NRA has fairly high approval ratings, and most Americans see the group in a positive light, Gabby and I always sensed that the NRA was more than a benign advocacy group for gun owners.

I was especially curious about the relationship between the NRA and gun manufacturers, which I assumed was close. To understand the issues, policy, and laws around gun rights and gun violence, we first had to investigate the ties between the NRA and the firearms industry.

Did the firearms industry control the NRA? Was that why LaPierre’s organization was so dead set against even the most basic regulations on guns?

The answers came as a great surprise to me and Gabby.

***

In 1999, cities across the country started suing the firearms industry for damages caused by gun violence.

“By taking this action,” said Mayor Joseph Ganim of Bridgeport, Connecticut, “we are saying to the handgun industry, ‘From now on, you are responsible for the costs associated with your handgun products.’ ”

Mayors filed lawsuits based on the legal theory that gun makers were responsible for violence that was costing cities millions of dollars in law enforcement and medical care. The gun makers, they argued, were liable for negligence and creating a public nuisance by making deadly weapons coveted by criminals. Municipalities also targeted gun dealers for selling weapons they allegedly knew were destined for street violence.

The theories seemed to be a stretch: why would a firearms manufacturer like Glock or a gun shop be responsible for damages caused by a handgun used in a street crime? But there was an interesting precedent, as in recent years states had successfully sued tobacco companies for the health care costs of treating cigarette smokers. Major tobacco companies had just agreed to settle lawsuits by paying upward of $200 billion to the states. Why not try to apply similar legal theories to gun makers and make them compensate cities and states for millions associated with footing the bills for gun violence?

Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell told the Philadelphia Inquirer in the summer of 1999 that his lawyers



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