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| Cover shown is for the revised edition |
| UNDER FIRE: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control Osha Gray Davidson New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1993 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN 0-8050-1904-9 | 306p. | HC | $25.00 | |
Davidson begins this well-researched book with the story of one Patrick Edward Purdy, who on 17 January 1989 massacred five children at a Stockton, California school with a Chinese-made AK-47. Davidson uses this grim tale to frame the debate on gun control in America.
The National Rifle Association, or NRA, began during the Civil War as an organization dedicated to improving the marksmanship skills of U.S. Army troops. Today, with a large budget and a membership varying between two and three million, it has become an effective lobbying group at all levels of political organization in this country.
In the face of a rising crime wave over most of the past twenty years, and with 30,000 deaths due to handguns in 1990, the NRA has never moderated its position that all measures to control handguns must be opposed. It has acquired the reputation of being an invincible foe able to turn out of office any politician who crosses it. This reputation is overblown; but it is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Davidson probes its internal power struggles, comparable to those of the old Soviet Politburo, and its recent campaign against the Brady Bill.
This bill is named after former Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot and permanently disabled by John Hinckley during his attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Its chief provision: It would impose a week-long waiting period on anyone who wished to purchase a handgun. This, to the NRA, is a threat to the rights of all Americans and the first step on the path to a total gun ban.
Thus the battle resembles a religious war, with the NRA leadership in the role of beleaguered believers defending the One True Faith against a horde of infidels. No proposal for gun control is mild enough to be tolerable — despite the fact that two out of three Americans favor some form of control. Davidson details the politicking over the Brady Bill and its immediate predecessors in Congress, as well as some state and local skirmishes.
In an epilogue, he calls for moderation — a consummation devoutly to be wished, and one which at last seems possible as the NRA's myth of invincibility fades and politicians begin to stand up to its fanatic crusade.
This book is a useful look at the NRA, its people and its tactics — and at the other facets of the issue, as seen from that Stockton schoolyard and from a Washington, DC hospital trauma ward. It will not provide any solutions, but it eloquently describes the scope of the problem.
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.