America and Its Guns
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
What Is a Gun?
A more precise term for the subject of this book is firearm, which is a portable weapon that shoots projectiles from a metal tube, propelled at high speed by ...
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Billionaires
Robert E. Mutch
in Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know®
The rise of the super PAC was also the rise of the politically active billionaire. Dropping the old restrictions on who could give how much to whom did more than turn the attentions of ...
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Causes of Gun Violence
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Who Can Be Trusted with a Gun?
A simplistic but common understanding of crime is that the population can be divided neatly into two groups, good guys and bad guys. In this view, ...
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Conclusion
Robert E. Mutch
in Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Even a week can be a long time in politics, so predictions about longer periods should be made, and read, with caution. That said, it does not feel like much of a risk to say that the ...
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Corporations, Unions, And Citizens United
Robert E. Mutch
in Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Citizens United undermined more than 100 years of campaign finance law when it gave corporations the First Amendment right to spend money in elections. Congress had said in ...
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Disclosure and the Federal Election Commission
Robert E. Mutch
in Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know®
The point of disclosure is to let voters see who is financing election campaigns. That was why the Supreme Court upheld the disclosure law in Buckley v. Valeo and Citizens United, and that ...
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Effectiveness of Firearms Policy
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
With So Many Guns Out There, Is There Any Point to Gun Control?
Yes. The evidence suggests that certain regulations have been effective in reducing gun use in crime. And even in ...
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Gun Control in America
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
What Are the Basics of the US System of Gun Regulation?
Gun regulations have a long history, stretching back to the colonial era. By and large, the laws have been enacted to secure ...
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The Gun Rights Movement
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
What Is the Gun Rights Movement?
The gun rights movement consists of several hundred local, state, and national organizations that seek to promote a positive view of firearms in ...
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The Gun Violence Prevention Movement
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
What Is the Gun Violence Prevention Movement?
Like the gun rights movement, the gun violence prevention movement includes national, state, and local organizations. Some are ...
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Guns and Gun Control in History
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Is There a Uniquely American Gun Culture?
Yes. We know of no other country where firearms are as plentiful and as inextricably linked to individual identity and popular values as ...
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The Harm Done by Guns
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
How Many Americans Are Killed or Injured by Gunfire?
Approximately 1 million Americans have died from gunshot wounds in homicides, accidents, and suicides during just the last ...
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Is There a Way Forward for Gun Policy?
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Every question about guns, gun violence, or gun policy is contentious. Basic facts—the annual number of gun transactions, or even the number of guns in private hands—are not known with any ...
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Manufacture and Marketing of Guns
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
How Large Is the Gun Industry in America?
The gun industry itself is rather small by traditional measures. Only a handful of companies produce a significant number of firearms in ...
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Outside Money
Robert E. Mutch
in Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know®
By 2015, “outside money” had come to mean spending by super PACs and politically active tax-exempt groups. Super PACs are registered political committees under the FECA and must disclose ...
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Political Action Committees
Robert E. Mutch
in Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Non-party organizations form political action committees (PACs) to make the campaign contributions the FECA bans them from making themselves. The FEC defines every PAC as belonging to one ...
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Public Opinion, Political Parties, and Guns
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Do Americans Want Stricter Gun Laws?
Public opinion experts have long observed that the United States has a gun control paradox: Most Americans favor all sorts of firearms ...
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The Rise and Fall of Public Funding
Robert E. Mutch
in Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Public funding for presidential elections was the most controversial and most innovative part of the post-Watergate reforms. It was not controversial with the public, which supported it by ...
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Super Pacs
Robert E. Mutch
in Campaign Finance: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Super PACs are independent expenditure committees that can take contributions of any size from any American individual, corporation, or labor union, and spend without limit. They made a ...
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The Value of Guns for Personal and Collective Defense
Philip J. Cook and Kristin A. Goss
in The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Why Is Self-Defense Central to the Debate over Gun Control?
Personal safety is a vital matter, and self-protection is a more compelling rationale for owning guns than recreation. ...
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