Gun Politics MidTerm review sheet

Mikhail Kalashnikov

Created the AK-47. Developed in The USSR.

Sam Colt

'Father of handguns in the US--1836-1860' Created Colt Army Model before civil war.' Used by the union. Longer barrel → increased accuracy. Colt's firearms were interchangeable.

According to Spitzer, what common assumptions about firearms are held by folks on both sides of the issue?

- The primary and unique purpose of firearms is to provide an efficient means of destruction of people, animals, and objects. - Existing gun laws have , at best, limited effects in curtailing gun-related deaths and injuries nationwide. Gun control advocates argue that the relative ineffectiveness of gun laws lies with their weakness and the problem of jurisdiction. - Although gun ownership has been gradually declining, guns still permeate American society. - Part of America's social and cultural tradition includes an identifiable "gun culture," a phrase popularized by the historian Richard Hofstadter in his "America as a Gun Culture."

Martial needs for firearms

1. Reliability of firing, 2. accuracy of projectile, 3. force of projectile, 4. speed/rate of firing

U.S. v. Miller

1934—Congress passed the National Firearms Act (NFA)-Regulated sale and possession of fully automatic weapons-Regulated interstate transportation of various weapons, including "sawed-off" shotguns•Jack Miller and Frank Layton indicted for transporting an unregistered sawed-off shotgun across state lines

Caliber

A measure of the inside diameter of a firearm barrel.

Semi-automatic firearms (how they function)

A semi-automatic firearm, or self-loading firearm, is one that not only fires a bullet each time the trigger is pulled, but also performs all steps necessary to prepare it to discharge again—assuming cartridges remain in the firearm's feed device. Typically, this includes extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge case from the firing chamber, re-cocking the firing mechanism, and loading a new cartridge into the firing chamber. To fire again, the trigger is released and re-pressed.

wheel lock

A wheellock, wheel-lock or wheel lock, is a friction-wheel mechanism to cause a spark for firing a firearm. It was the next major development in firearms technology after the matchlock and the first self-igniting firearm. Its name is from its rotating steel wheel to provide ignition.

Michael Bellisles

Abricated research to argue that during the early period of US history, guns were uncommon during peacetime and that a culture of gun ownership did not arise until the mid-nineteenth century

Hiram Maxim

An american inventor who created the machine gun. First single barrel automatic weapon He was the inventor of the Maxim Gun - the first portable, fully automatic machine gun

Selective incorporation of Bill of Rights

But selective incorporation has nothing to do with business corporations. It's a constitutional law concept that refers to the way that selected provisions of the U.S. Bill of Rights have been applied to the states through the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth (14th) Amendment.

Casimir Lefaucheaux

Casimir Lefaucheux is credited with the invention of one of the first efficient self-contained cartridge system in 1836, featuring a pin-fire mechanism.

Components of a modern metallic cartridge

Casing: The container that holds all the components together. The case can be made of brass, steel, or copper for pistols and rifles. Shotgun "shells" are a plastic case, with the base covered in a thin brass covering. Primer: The primer is an explosive chemical compound that ignites the gunpowder when struck by a firing pin. Primer may be placed either in the rim of the case (rimfire) or in the center of the base of the case (centerfire). Powder: The gunpowder is an explosive consisting of a powdered mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. Bullet: The projectile typically made of metal containing lead, cylindrical and pointed, that is expelled from the barrel.

McDonald v. City of Chicago

Constitutional Issue: 2nd Amendment Precedent: States cannot create laws that ban ownership of guns. Case overruling Chicago's law banning handguns in the city.

KTW rounds

Could penetrate vests. Basically the same thing as the apple greens. Teflon-coated bullets, sometimes colloquially, but incorrectly known as "cop killer bullets", are bullets that have been covered with a coating of polytetrafluoroethylene.

John Thompson

Created the Thompson Machine Gun (efficient). Called the Tommy. "Gangster Gun"

"apple greens"

Describes handgun ammunition that could supposedly penetrate up to 18 layers of kevlar, typical in the soft body army worn by law enforcement. "KTW" rounds, Kopsch, Turcus, Ward from Lorain County, Oh. KTW had hardened brass alloy core and were so hard they wore out barrels. Outlawed by 1986 Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act.

Barriers to gun control (Spitzer)

Durable goods, lot of them, you don't have a lot of government ability to intervene , society has grown accustomed to have a lot of them,

Dick Act

Federal law that made state militias the National Guard

flint lock

Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint striking ignition mechanism.

B. Bruce-Briggs, "The Great American Gun War" Compare the arguments made by Bruce-Briggs in 1976 with arguments made today.

Focus was on use of guns in robberies, murders, crime related endeavors. Interdiction and deterrence were the main strategies considered. Describes American cultural divide between well-educated and rural populations. "But so long as the issue is kept at white heat, with everyone having some ground to suspect everyone else's ultimate intentions, the rule of reasonableness has little chance to assert itself."

Honoré le Blanc

French Gunsmith who worked out a system for making gun parts in a standardized pattern. Jefferson saw potential in this as a way to rid America's dependence on guns from countries with which it may be at war.

Gun powder/gun cotton/smokeless gun powder

Gun powder - an explosive powder made of saltpeter and other materials. Sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate (saltpeter) Gun Cotton - a highly nitrated form of nitrocellulose, used as an explosive. Smokeless Gun Powder - Smokeless powder is the name given to a number of propellants used in firearms and artillery that produce negligible smoke when fired, unlike the black powder they replaced. Nitrocellulose mostly, but contains less than gun cotton.

Why was gun cotton better than gun powder? / Why was gun cotton worse than gun powder?

Guncotton was more powerful than gunpowder, but at the same time was once again somewhat more unstable. John Taylor obtained an English patent for guncotton; and John Hall & Sons began manufacture in Faversham.

Benjamin Tyler Henry

Henry designed .44 rimfire. He was an American gunsmith and manufacturer. He was the inventor of the Henry rifle, the first reliable lever-action repeating rifle.

U.S. v. Timothy Emerson 2001

Holds that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees individuals the right to bear arms. The case involved a challenge to the Constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8)(C)(ii), a federal statute which prohibited the transportation of firearms or ammunition in interstate commerce by persons subject to a court order that, by its explicit terms, prohibits the use of physical force against an intimate partner or child.[3]

Richard Gatling

In 1862 Patented the Gatling Gun rapid, continuous rate of fire (200 rounds/mins) Crank it and it sprays bullets-- gun to end all wars

Individual Rights model/interpretation of 2d Amendment

Individual model states that 2nd amendment confers an individual right to possess a firearm, with no connection to military or militia service.

Huey Newton & Bobby Seal

Leaders of the Black Panthers. - 1967, marched at the California State House carrying assault rifles - Bill to ban open carry, with republican support, passed and was signed into law largely because of this. Black nationalist organization.

John Moses Browning

Invented BAR, M1911 pistol, among other rapid fire weapons

Incorporation of the Second Amendment

McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that found that the right of an individual to "keep and bear arms" as protected under the Second Amendment is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment against the states.

Muzzle-loading firearm v. breech loading firearm

Muzzle - A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and usually the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun (i.e., from the forward, open end of the gun's barrel). This is distinct from the more popular modern (higher tech and harder to make) designs of breech-loading firearms. Breech - A breech-loading gun is a firearm in which the cartridge or shell is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a barrel. ... Early firearms, on the other hand, were almost entirely muzzle-loading.

Cincinnati Revolt

On May 21, 1977, and into the morning of May 22, a rump caucus of gun rights radicals took over the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association. The rebels wore orange-blaze hunting caps. They spoke on walkie-talkies as they worked the floor of the sweltering convention hall. They suspected that the NRA leaders had turned off the air-conditioning in hopes that the rabble-rousers would lose enthusiasm.

Randolph Roth

Randolph Roth is a professor of History and Sociology at Ohio State and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Roundtable of Crime Trends (2013-2016), which investigated the causes of the drop in crime rates across the affluent world since the 1970s, and as a member of the Editorial Board of the American Historical Review (2014-2017). He specializes in the history of the United States from colonial times to the present, with an emphasis on social and cultural history, the history of crime and violence, environmental history, the history of religion, the history of democracies, global history, quantitative methods, and social theory.

Collective Rights model/interpretation of 2d Amendment

Second Amendment rights are limited to the collective rights of states to regulate their own militias.

Arguments made by supporters of gun rights (Ken Ekermeyer)

Self-defense, guns don't kill people people kill people. Ken insisted that the Second Amendment gives him the right to defend himself with firearms. Ken said pretty much everything he and his son do together revolve around gun culture.

Arguments made by supporters of gun control (Pia Lalli)

She explained the story about her friend getting shot. Ken wasn't having much of it, asking whether Pia has heard many stories about when guns have protected people from crime. Ken showed Pia his gun collection and she admitted that she didn't feel safe with so many guns around the house. Pia said they just seemed like they were playing with toys. As she watched them all shooting, Pia realized that everyone she'd met there had grown up around guns.

Smooth bore v. rifled barrels

Smooth bore - A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. The majority of shotguns are smoothbores and the term can be synonymous. Rifled barrels - In firearms, rifling is the helical groove pattern that is machined into the internal ( bore) surface of a gun's barrel, for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting.

Minie balls

The Minié ball, or Minni ball, is a type of muzzle-loading spin-stabilized rifle bullet named after its co-developer, Claude-Étienne Minié, inventor of the Minié rifle. It came to prominence in the Crimean War and American Civil War. After the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, both Union and Confederate soldiers used the "minnie" bullet (as they called it) in their muzzle-loading rifles. ... Here is a Minie Ball: This bullet had a devastating effect on troops. When fired, the expanding gas deformed the bullet and engaged the barrel's rifling, providing spin for better accuracy and longer range. So devastating because it would flatten out and/or splinter when it hit a human target.

Rocket ball ammunition

The Rocket Ball was one of the earliest forms of metallic cartridge for firearms, containing bullet and powder in a single, metal-cased unit. The Rocket Ball, patented in 1848 by Walter Hunt. By packing the deep cavity with powder, and sealing it with a cap with a small hole in the rear for ignition, the Rocket Ball replaced the earlier paper cartridge with a durable package capable of being fed from a magazine. The cap was blown out of the bore upon firing.

Mike Walker

The guy who designed the Remington 700 rifle. Outed them as liars later in his life.

Incorporation of Bill of Rights

The incorporation doctrine is a constitutional doctrine through which the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution (known as the Bill of Rights) are made applicable to the states through the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Remington Under Fire Discuss the issue and the proposed "fix" Why didn't Remington "fix" the issue? Where was the Consumer Product Safety Commission in all this?

The issue was that the Remington was firing on its own when the safety was switched off. The same aspects of the design that allow the gun to fire so smoothly also make it possible for internal parts of the trigger to become misaligned, rendering the gun unsafe. Specifically, they cite a tiny part called a "trigger connector," which they say can become clogged with rust or debris. Under the settlement, Remington plans to replace the triggers with "connectorless" mechanisms—a similar fix to one Walker himself proposed in 1948. They did not initially do this because it was going to cost Remington a pretty penny.

match lock

The matchlock was the first mechanism invented to facilitate the firing of a hand-held firearm. Before this, firearms (like the hand cannon) had to be fired by applying a lit match (or equivalent) to the priming powder in the flash pan by hand; this had to be done carefully, taking most of the soldier's concentration at the moment of firing, or in some cases required a second soldier to fire the weapon while the first held the weapon steady. Adding a matchlock made the firing action simple and reliable by a single soldier, allowing him to keep both hands steadying the gun and eyes on the target while firing.

Rifling

The spiral pattern of lands and grooves in the barrel of a firearm the cutting of spiral grooves on the inside of the barrel of a firearm

According to Adam Winkler, why did the NRA oppose Alan Gura's challenge to the D.C. gun ordinance? What did the NRA do to thwart Gura's efforts?

There doesn't seem to be any love lost between the National Rifle Association and Alan Gura the attorney behind the 2008 US Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment - District of Columbia v. Heller. When Alan Gura was plodding along en route to the Supreme Court, the National Rifle Association tried to derail his lawsuit (Heller) but failed. The case still faced other hurdles. Early on, lawyers for the NRA — fearing pro-gun forces lacked enough votes to convince a Supreme Court majority that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to bear arms — tried to talk Levy out of pursuing the case. They then attempted to dissuade him from using as his lead lawyer an untested sole practitioner, Alan Gura. Doubting Heller's prospects, the NRA filed a competing suit, Seegars v. Ashcroft, helmed by a leading Second Amendment advocate, Stephen Halbrook. Gura and co. were just slightly to the left of the hardline activists.

Gunned Down: The Power of the NRA What was the NRA's impact on 2000 presidential election? Why did the NRA "target" Al Gore in the election? What was Joe Manchin's role in gun legislation following Sandy Hook? What was the result?

They got gun owners fired up in crucial swing states that Al Gore should have won like Ohio, West Virginia, Florida, Arkansas, etc. According to the notes they targeted him out of a need for revenge for the tie breaking votes for Clinton's automatic weapons ban but idk. Manchin was a gun toting democrat who supported some common sense gun legislation, NRA aggressively went after him.

Roth, Maltz & Eckberg, "Homicide Rates in the Old West" How did murder rates in the compare with other areas of the United States?

This article describes the methods that social scientists use to measure and compare the risks that various populations face of being murdered. It demonstrates that the West was unusually homicidal compared to the rest of the Western world, except for the most violent areas of the South during Reconstruction.

Wayne LaPierre

Wayne Robert LaPierre, Jr. is an American author and gun rights advocate. He is best known for his position as the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. Many famous quotes.

Filindra & Kaplan, "Testing Theories of Gun Policy ..." How does support for gun control proposals vary by race?

Whites overall seem to support gun control the least out of any race. Blacks the most over latinos.

U.S. v. Cruikshank

William Cruikshank and two others were charged as part of the Colfax Massacre•Charged with 32 counts of depriving blacks of their constitutional rights, including two claiming that defendants had deprived blacks of firearms possession which violated the 1870 Enforcement Act (aka "the Force Act").

Urban's Monster

World's first super gun, 17 feet in length, 20 tons, could shoot huge granite projectile a mile, killed Urban first time it shot. Urban was hired by Sultan Mehmet II to manufacture 7 cannons, including the monster.

Revolvers (how they function)

all rounds of ammunition inside of a cylinder. In order to fire the gun you have to rotate the cylinder to put a round in firing position with the hammer. You either do that by rotating the cylinder or by pulling the trigger. The cylinder has to rotate in order to make the gun work. In double action trigger cocks and drops the handle. Single action you have to cock the cylinder yourself.

Remington 700 rifle

in 1944 Remington had completed its military contracts, and decided to take what it had learned during the war years to make the first truly modern bolt action rifle. First appeared on Market in 1962. Entire series of rifles known for smooth and accurate firing.

Center-fire ammunition

is a cartridge with a primer located in the center of the cartridge case head. Unlike rimfire cartridges, the primer is a separate and replaceable component. Centerfire cartridges have supplanted the rimfire variety in all but the smallest cartridge sizes.

Pinfire cartridges

is an obsolete type of metallic firearm cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge.Pinfire became obsolete once reliable rimfire and centerfire cartridges became available because without a pin which needed aligning in the slot in the chamber wall they were quicker to load. They were also safer because they had no protruding pin which could cause the ammunition to accidentally detonate during rough handling, particularly of loose ammunition.

Thompson

made the sub machine gun, called the sub machine gun because it uses pistol ammunition/cartridges

Rifle ignition systems

match lock, flint lock, wheel lock, breech loaders/muzzle loaders

Brady hangun violence prevention act

outlawed magazine with more than 10 rounds of ammunition

D.C. v. Heller

struck down a Washington DC ordinance that banned handguns forced the DC to lift its gun ban, 2nd amendment right of individuals to possess firearm

Presser v. Illinois

was a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States holding that "Unless restrained by their own constitutions, state legislatures may enact statutes to control and regulate all organizations, drilling, and parading of military bodies and associations except those which are authorized by the militia laws of the United States." Saying the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution limited only the power of Congress and the national government to control firearms, not that of the state and that the right peaceably to assemble was not protected by the clause referred to except to petition the government for a redress of grievances. SAID THAT the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution limited only the power of Congress and the national government to control firearms, not that of the state and that the right peaceably to assemble was not protected by the clause referred to except to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Black Panthers

• 1967, marched at the California State House carrying assault rifles • Bill to ban open carry, with republican support, passed and was signed into law largely because of this. Black nationalist organization.

Quilici v. Village of Morton Grove

•City ordinance banned the ownership of working handguns by anyone except:-Peace officers, prison officials, members of the armed forces and National Guard, and security guards as long as possession was in accordance with their official duties•Ordinance also exempted licensed gun collectors and owners of antique firearms. District court said it was constitutional, Supreme court refused to hear it.