stayed home indicated no statistical difference in in-
cidence of Gulf War syndrome, whereas illness rates
were much lower among British soldiers who served
in Iraq. Some people view Gulf War syndrome as a
political creation designed to discredit Republicans.
However, most of the affected veterans have genuine
physical illnesses not common in previous wars or
among civilians, suggesting that one or more of the
health hazards enumerated above, or one not yet
identified, is indeed responsible.
Further Reading
Fulco, Carolyn E., Catharyn T. Liverman, and Har-
old C. Sox, eds. Institute of Medicine. Committee
on Health Effects Associated with Exposures Dur-
ing the Gulf War.Gulf War and Health. 5 vols.
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000-
2005.
Hyams, Kenneth C., Stephen Wignall, and Robert
Roswell. “War Syndromes and Their Evaluation:
From the U.S. Civil War to the Persian Gulf War.”
Annals of Internal Medicine125, no. 5 (1996): 398-
405.
Rosof, Bernard M., and Lyla M. Hernandez, eds.
Gulf War Veterans: Treating Symptoms and Syndromes.
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2001.
Martha Sherwood
See also Gulf War; Health care.
Gun control
Definition Regulation of the selling, possession,
and use of firearms
President Bill Clinton’s administration sought to enact
tough federal gun control legislation, but a powerful pro-
gun lobby proved a formidable opponent during Clinton’s
tenure.
Although Republican presidential candidate George
H. W. Bush had run on a strongly pro-Second Amend-
ment platform in 1988, with an endorsement from
the National Rifle Association (NRA), President Bush
in early 1989 had become a gun control advocate.
He banned the importation of “assault weapons”
(military-style self-loading rifles, shotguns, and pis-
tols). In 1991, he said he would support the Brady
bill, which included a waiting period provision for
handgun purchases, but only if it was accompanied
by a law allowing courtroom use of gun-related evi-
dence that had been seized in violation of the Fourth
Amendment. The bill was named for James S. Brady,
press secretary to President Ronald Reagan who was
shot and subsequently paralyzed during an assassi-
nation attempt on the president by John Hinckley,
Jr., in 1981. In 1990-1992, all but a few states rejected
efforts to pass assault weapons bans or handgun wait-
ing periods; state inaction hindered the push for
federal laws.The Early Clinton Administration While Bush’s sup-
port for gun control had been sporadic, gun control
was a priority under Bill Clinton’s administration.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
(ATF) aggressively used regulatory and enforce-
ment powers on a broad front. By the end of the de-
cade, the ATF had reduced the number of federally
licensed firearms dealers by approximately 70 per-
cent.
In 1993, Congress passed the Brady bill, signed
into law as the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention
Act, which went into effect the next February. The
act established a waiting period of five government
working days for handgun sales, during which local
police would conduct a background check of hand-
gun buyers. The law applied to the twenty-eight
states that did not already have a background-check
provision.
Thanks to NRA efforts, the act’s handgun waiting
period provision would be replaced in 1998 by the
National Instant Check System (NICS). Under NICS,
retail purchasers of handguns or long guns in all fifty
states must undergo a computerized “instant check”
of criminal and other records. The check is con-
ducted by a state agency or by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), depending on the state. In prac-
tice, the background check sometimes takes min-
utes but can often take hours.
In August, 1994, after intense struggle, Congress
passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforce-
ment Act, a comprehensive anticrime law that in-
cluded many gun control provisions, most notably
one about which congressional Democratic leaders
had privately warned President Clinton: a ban on
the possession or sale of new assault weapons and of
magazines holding more than ten rounds. Also in
1994, eleven states enacted restrictions or bans on
juvenile gun or handgun possession, joining the
eighteen states that already had such laws.The Nineties in America Gun control 393