At a recent social gathering, I was approached by a gentleman who had heard I had written a book about the gun control issue. “I am a gun owner,” he began. I braced myself for the usual lecture on the sacrosanct Second Amendment and the futility of gun regulation. What he said next, however, left me surprised and relieved. “I can’t stand the NRA,” he continued. “I quit them years ago. They are so extreme.”

My initial assumption, that a gun owner would simply parrot the NRA line, likely reflects the thinking of many politicians on the gun issue. They simplistically fear that any vote to impose new gun regulations will be seen as an attack on their gun-owning constituents. I should have known better. Opinion surveys have long shown broad gun owner support for a range of stronger gun laws.

But a new survey, by Republican pollster Frank Luntz and commissioned by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of over 400 mayors, even more dramatically contradicts the conventional political wisdom on the gun issue. Not only does the NRA not represent the views of gun owners on major issues of gun policy; it doesn’t even represent the views of its own membership.

For example, the Luntz survey found that 69% of self-described NRA members agree that all gun sellers at gun shows should be required to conduct criminal background checks on prospective buyers, a reform that would close the infamous “gun show loophole”. Luntz found that 82% of NRA members support “prohibiting persons on the terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns.” Seventy-eight percent of NRA members support “requiring gun owners to alert police if their guns are lost or stolen.” All of these measures are vehemently opposed by the NRA.

The Luntz poll struck a raw nerve at NRA headquarters, which immediately issued an ad hominem attack on Frank Luntz. The gun lobby’s problem, of course, is that no one can credibly accuse Luntz of bias in favor of progressive positions, given his outsized reputation for putting Democrats on the defensive through his effective messaging for Republicans. Moreover, Luntz found that a majority of NRA members strongly support the Second Amendment and oppose some gun control proposals, results that reinforce the credibility of his survey as a whole.

The Luntz poll isn’t the first to indicate a cleavage between the NRA’s policy positions and its members. Indeed, in 1993, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, using data from a 1989 Time Magazine/CNN survey, found that “when gun owners are asked about specific regulatory requirements, they often support the regulation, disagreeing with the stated position of the organization [the NRA]. This holds true for both NRA members and nonmembers.” I suspect that the Luntz results, however, coming from a pollster who has spent much of his career devising messages to support conservative Republicans, will have an impact no prior survey has had.

Let’s hope the Luntz results will open some eyes in the political leadership of both major parties. It seems undeniable that the opposition to reasonable steps to reduce gun violence is driven by a cadre of ideological extremists who obsessively communicate their views to Congressional offices, state legislators, newspapers, talk radio hosts and anyone else who will listen (including the Huffington Post!). When the NRA opposes extending Brady background checks to all gun show sales, or other sensible reforms, it is speaking for them, and only for them. The Luntz poll is the most compelling evidence yet that these extremists are both a minority of gun owners and a minority of NRA members.

The Luntz results reminded me of an insightful comment made back in the summer by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen as he spoke out against an NRA-supported bill passed by his state’s legislature allowing holders of concealed carry permits to carry guns into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. (Last month the law was struck down by a Nashville judge as unconstitutionally vague.) “This is an issue which is being driven by a few thousand people in the state who are very passionate about this issue,” he said, “but I think there are tens of thousands or millions of people who . . . particularly in cases like the guns-in-bars are just shaking their heads and thinking it’s craziness.” He added that there are “about 3,000 to 3,500 people out there who always engage on these (gun) issues, are constantly there, e-mailing everybody on the issue.” Governor Bredesen understood that it was his duty to serve the majority of his constituents, not simply pander to the noisy few.

How much gun craziness must our nation endure before more of our politicians start standing up to the extremist minority to enforce the common aspiration of the majority of Americans, including NRA members, for reasonable gun laws to protect the safety and security of our families and communities?

For more information, see Dennis Henigan’s new book, Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy.

One would think that the massive health care reform package hammered out in the back offices of the Capitol over recent weeks would have kept Senators busy with issues focused on better health, but they still found time to bend over backwards for a non-healthy conspiracy theory from the Gun Owners of America (a gun lobby organization even more extreme than the National Rifle Association).

At the behest of GOA, Sen. Charles Grassley was able to get a little-noticed provision tucked into Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s “manager’s amendment” (the compromise version of the health care reform bill coming out of the Senate) which takes pains to say:

A wellness and health promotion activity implemented under [this bill] may not require the disclosure or collection of any information relating to –

(A) the presence or storage of a lawfully-possessed firearm or ammunition in the residence or on the property of an individual; or

(B) the lawful use, possession, or storage of a firearm or ammunition by an individual.

I wonder if Sen. Reid recalls the words of his colleague from Nevada, Sen. John Ensign, who in September recognized (albeit accidentally) the high costs of gun violence in our health care system, relative to much of Europe.  Sen. Ensign said:

If you take out accidental deaths due to car accidents, and you take out gun deaths — because we like our guns in the United States and there are a lot more gun-deaths in the United States [than Europe] — you take out those two things, you adjust those, and we’re actually better in terms of survival rates.

Sen. Ensign was right about the high number of gun deaths in America relative to Europe.  Every year, 30,000 people in America are killed by gunfire, while another 80,000 are wounded.  (By contrast, England and Wales have about 200 gun deaths total in a year, including 60 gun homicides, with a gun homicide rate over 30 times lower than ours.)

I wonder if Sen. Reid is aware that, as far as Nevada is concerned, the Silver State has the fifth highest overall gun death rate in America, including the 11th highest gun homicide rate, according to the latest government figures.

I wonder if Sen. Reid knows that states with the highest levels of gun ownership have 114 percent higher firearm homicide rates and 60 percent higher overall homicide rates than states with the lowest gun ownership.

I wonder if Sen. Reid knows that the risk of homicide is three times higher in homes with firearms; the risk of suicide is three to five times greater; and that a gun in the home is 21 times more likely to be used against the homeowner or family member in a completed or attempted suicide, a criminal assault or homicide, or an unintentional shooting death or injury, than used in self defense.

I wonder, finally, whether Sen. Reid knows that among gun-owning parents who reported that their children had never handled their firearms at home, 22% of those children, when questioned separately, said that they had, and that of youths who committed suicide with firearms, 82% obtained the firearm from their home, usually a parent’s firearm.

Regardless of whether it was even conceivable that health care providers could “require” disclosure of a firearm in the home under health care reform – and it never was – the research is clear that keeping a gun at home increases the risk of serious injury or death to those inside.

Doctors and health professionals asking patients about firearm ownership and safe storage practices is just common sense in the full evaluation of risks to their health.

On this issue at least, it seems clear that some Senators were more concerned with pleasing the extremes of the gun lobby and less concerned with the actual health of American children and families.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

Those following news reports this year will not be surprised by this sad figure.

From AP today:

…Across the nation, 2009 was a particularly perilous year for officers involved in gun disputes.

The number of officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire increased 24 percent from 2008, according to preliminary statistics compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a national nonprofit organization that tracks officer-related deaths.

As of Saturday, 47 police officers have died nationwide this year after being shot while on duty, up from 38 for the same time in 2008, which was the lowest number of gunfire deaths since 1956, according to the data.

Over the past decade, small spikes in gunfire deaths have been common, but experts say they are surprised by the number of officers this year who have been specifically targeted by gunmen.

“There’s an increasingly desperate population out there,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “Other than in rare cases for ideological reasons, we really haven’t seen people taking on the cops head-to-head. Something is amiss. It should be cause for grave concern.”

Contributing to this year’s spike are cases in which several officers were shot and killed in groups — the four officers last month outside Seattle; the four officers in Oakland, Calif., in March; three officers in Pittsburgh in April; and two officers in Okaloosa County, Fla., in April….

[more]

Republican pollster Frank Luntz conducted a poll released yesterday by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns which helps confirm surveys of National Rifle Association members conducted as far back as 1989.

The Luntz survey shows – again – that gun owners and even members of the NRA strongly support many specific gun violence prevention laws.

For example, the Luntz survey and others show that gun owners and even NRA members strongly support Brady criminal background checks for all gun sales at gun shows, and also strongly support keeping guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists.

Specifically, 82% of NRA members supported prohibiting people on the “Terrorist Watch List” from buying guns.  69% of NRA members supported requiring Brady criminal background checks for all gun sales at gun shows.

NRA leaders oppose both of these policies.  This means they are ignoring not only the wishes of the American people but also their own dues-paying members by blocking these and other policies that would help save lives.

The Luntz survey isn’t the only one that shows how out-of-step NRA leaders are with the rest of their claimed constituency.

After Election Day in November 2008, the Brady Campaign commissioned a survey of voters, conducted by the firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland.  In that poll, 84% of gun-owning voters favored Brady criminal background checks for all gun sales, while 60% of gun-owning voters even favored the registration of gun sales and the licensing of gun owners.

Data that is now 20 years old tells us much the same thing about the preferences of NRA members on specific gun violence prevention policies.  Two researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health examined survey data collected in a 1989 TIME Magazine/CNN survey, and in a peer-reviewed study, the researchers concluded:

[T]he support for the NRA is strongest when measured in very general terms….  However, when gun owners are asked about specific regulatory requirements, they often support the regulation, disagreeing with the stated position of the organization [the NRA].  This finding holds for both NRA members and nonmembers.

For at least 20 years the NRA’s leaders have misrepresented to elected officials the feelings of their members on a range of reasonable measures that would help reduce gun violence.

In the face of stubborn data like this, it is time for Congress to start listening to the American people – including NRA members and gun owners – instead of responding to the dictates of NRA bosses.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

It was May of 2001 and I was sitting at the counsels’ table in the courtroom of the California Supreme Court, preparing to argue a case against notorious assault weapon manufacturer Navegar, Inc. for the victims of a mass shooting at the 101 California St. office building in San Francisco. Among the spectators in the courtroom was Bob Ricker, former lawyer for the National Rifle Association and longtime strategist and spokesperson for the gun industry. Bob approached me after the argument. “Dennis,” he said, “I’m not in the gun industry anymore. We should talk.”

Thus began Bob’s journey from industry advocate to industry whistleblower. He became the gun industry’s Jeffrey Wigand – the consummate industry insider who had the courage to tell the truth. I was saddened to hear this week that Bob had passed away after a long struggle with cancer. All Americans who seek to put our nation on a path to sanity on the gun issue owe him a debt of gratitude.

Although Russell Crowe never played him in the movies, Bob actually had a far more pivotal position in the gun industry than Wigand had within the tobacco industry. I regarded him as the industry’s most effective advocate and my toughest opponent. Soft-spoken in manner, he skillfully avoided the strident tone and extreme statements so common among gun lobby spokespeople. But I always felt that Bob’s heart wasn’t really in it.

It turns out that he was a consistent and forceful advocate for reform from within the industry, urging gun makers to take voluntary action to reduce the risk of gun death and injury. For example, he was instrumental in persuading major gun makers to enter into an agreement with the Clinton White House to sell child safety locks with their guns. But the hardliners in the industry, beholden to the extremists at the NRA, ultimately forced Bob out, along with other reformers.

Bob’s response was to try to change the industry from the outside. In appearances on 60 Minutes and other shows, he ridiculed the industry’s disavowal of all responsibility for the gun violence problem. In sworn testimony introduced in court, he revealed that industry leaders were well aware that the illegal market in guns was constantly fed by corrupt or irresponsible dealers, knew that manufacturers and distributors could take steps to sell only to dealers adopting safe sales practices, yet consciously decided to do nothing. As Ricker described it, the industry adopted a “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil approach” that encouraged “a culture of evasion of firearms laws.” Based in part on his testimony, a federal judge in New York found that the industry’s irresponsible distribution of guns constituted a public nuisance.

Because Bob Ricker told the truth to the American people, we now understand the close connection between the gun industry and the vast pool of illegal guns available to criminals. Unfortunately, we also understand that the industry, no doubt motivated by the profitability of the illegal market, will not police itself. It is critical that we strengthen federal gun laws to crack down on the dealers who pollute the streets of our cities with illegal guns.

Based on my personal experience taking on the gun lobby, I have some idea of the vitriol Bob Ricker likely had to endure after he became the industry’s worst nightmare. He never backed down, continuing to be a voice for common sense against the din of NRA propaganda, until his final days. His impact will be felt for years to come.

For more information, see Dennis Henigan’s new book, Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy.