The Nineties in America Gun control 395
The Final Clinton Years Stymied in Congress and
in all but a few state legislatures, the nation’s leading
gun control organization, Handgun Control, Inc.
(HCI), convinced several big-city mayors to sue
handgun manufacturers, under the theory that the
manufacturers were legally responsible for handgun
crimes. Chicago and New Orleans sued in Novem-
ber, 1998, and within a few months several dozen cit-
ies had filed similar cases, with the support of the De-
partment of Housing and Urban Development,
headed by Andrew Cuomo.
The Columbine High School massacre on April
20, 1999, near Littleton, Colorado, seemed to pro-
vide antigun forces with their greatest opportunity
yet, but relatively little gun control legislation re-
sulted. However, the tragedy did cause many schools
to abolish shooting sports programs; it also led to
more restrictions on gun possession by young peo-
ple and to enactment of California’s purchase limit
of one handgun per month.
Impact During the 1990’s, the gun control debate
became more prominent in American politics than
at any previous time in U.S. history. In only a few
states (most notably California, New Jersey, and
Maryland) were gun control laws significantly
stricter at the end of the decade than before. In most
of the rest of the country, gun purchasers were now
subject to NICS, but some other restrictions had
been removed. Reversing a gun control trend of sev-
eral decades, the shall-issue laws of the 1990’s rees-
tablished the social and legal legitimacy of carrying
concealed handguns in public.
Subsequent Events President Clinton credited the
NRA with providing the crucial margin in George W.
Bush’s victory over Al Gore in the 2000 presidential
election. The gun issue appeared to have accounted
for Bush’s narrow wins in Missouri, Arkansas, Ten-
nessee, West Virginia, and Florida. The federal as-
sault weapons ban expired in September, 2004. The
large majority of states, as well as Congress, enacted
legislation to prohibit municipal antigun lawsuits.Further Reading
Bijlefeld, Marjolijn.People For and Against Gun Con-
trol: A Biographical Reference. Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 1999. Fair and sympathetic bi-
ographies of leaders in the gun debate.
Kleck, Gary.Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Con-
trol. New York: Aldine, 1997. Superb analysis of
the subject by a renowned criminologist.
LaPierre, Wayne.Guns, Crime, and Freedom. Washing-
ton, D.C.: Regnery, 1995. The author, who has
served as executive vice president and chief exec-
utive officer of the NRA, makes the pro-gun case
in the first gun policy book ever to make the best
seller lists.
Simkin, Jay, Aaron S. Zelman, and Alan M. Rice.Le-
thal Laws: “Gun Control” Is the Key to Genocide.Mil-
waukee: Jews for the Preservation of Firearms
Ownership, 1994. Influential analysis of twenti-
eth century genocides. Cited by former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Utter, Glenn H.Encyclopedia of Gun Control and Gun
Rights. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1999. A compe-
tent survey of the subject as it existed in the late
1990’s.
Weir, William.A Well Regulated Militia: The Battle over
Gun Control. North Haven, Conn.: Archon Books,- The constitutional theories of the gun con-
trol lobby.
David B. Kopel
See also Bush, George H. W.; Carjacking; Clinton,
Bill; Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Columbine massacre;
Crime; Drive-by shootings; Elections in the United
States, midterm; Ferguson, Colin; Gore, Al; Militia
movement; Oklahoma City bombing; Reno, Janet;
Republican Revolution; Waco siege.