Following the firearms: A reporter's notebook

[RamboLiberal]

Reporter Brandt Williams spent more than four months searching hundreds of police and court records and talked to dozens of law enforcement officials from around the country in order to find out who is using illegal guns and trace where the guns come from.

Along the way, he kept a notebook of his reporting and the difficulties he encountered during his investigation. Below is a first-person account of Williams' reporting for "Following the Firearms: Gun Violence in Minneapolis."

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First presenter Tom Diaz had some interesting insight into the gun industry. Diaz is senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center. He says the industry is "sick," meaning its sales have been flat for decades. Guns are durable; they can last for 40, 50 even 100 years. So the gun industry tries to persuade people to buy new guns with improved design features. They also offer more firepower and lethality as selling points. That's led to an increasing "militarization". Diaz says incidence of gun violence has followed the militarization.

Ben Van Houten, Legal Community Against Violence, summarized the gun laws for Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. Apparently, strong gun laws don't necessarily mean fewer gun crimes. The state of Illinois ranks #6 for the strongest gun laws in the U.S. (MN is #15). However, the city of Chicago alone had more than 400 homicides last year.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/03/20/following-firearms-reporters-notebook/

[Glassunion]

1. Very interesting... Great find +1

[Atypical Liberal]

2. LOL.

He says the industry is "sick," meaning its sales have been flat for decades.

Oh please. Since 2008 firearm sales are at record highs! Prices are up! For a long time ammunition was scarce!

Guns are durable; they can last for 40, 50 even 100 years. So the gun industry tries to persuade people to buy new guns with improved design features.

Just like say, any industry???

They also offer more firepower and lethality as selling points. That's led to an increasing "militarization". Diaz says incidence of gun violence has followed the militarization.

I've been a firearm enthusiast for over 20 years. Here are the biggest trends I've seen over the years:

1) Assault rifles have skyrocketed in popularity since the Assault Weapons Ban. The AWB made civilian variants of military weapons the "get them while you can" firearm purchase of all time. People figured the 1994 AWB was going to do to semi-automatic rifles what the 1986 closing of the machine gun registry did to machine guns. The AWB did more to boost the popularity of these weapons than any industry PR blitz could have.

Additionally, it was found that the AR platform was inherently a very modular system. This made it easy to swap out parts to customize it to individual tastes. This generated an entire interest and industry catering to people who liked to tinker with their firearms. This has been called variously "Tacti-cool" or "Barbies for men".

2) The AWB also limited new magazines to 10 rounds or less. This had two effects:

* Since new pistols were limited to 10 rounds, manufacturers made the most of this restriction by making firearms as small as possible that could accommodate this limit. Thus there was a surge of modern "concealed carry" firearm designs and marketing for these products.

* Once the ban expired, handgun designs flourished as they figured out how to maximize the number of rounds that could be carried in a standard-sized magazine. This is logical. If a new firearm is going to cost me $600 no matter what, unless I'm specifically concerned about size and weight, as for concealed carry, I might as well buy the one that has the highest capacity.

The upshot of all this is that threat of banning had far more of an influence over the industry than any marketing blitz by the industry. The industry has largely been responding to demand.

[Hangingon]

4. I read this thing all the way through and the Joyce foundation

got what it paid for. Loved the insight into NPR journalism.

Also, see Januar 24 - A guy named Johnson was shot with a .9mm Luger CBC. I assume that is a ballistic Brazilian pencil lead.

[GreenStormCloud]

3. Funded by the Joyce Foundation. All that needs to be said. N/T

[VoteProgressive]

5. Just curious if you would agree if someone said "Funded by the NRA. All that needs to be said."

Bias works both ways.