including “Qaddafi Buying Austrian Plastic Pistols,” Washington Post , January 15, 1986; “Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Plastic Pistols,” Washington Post , March 14, 1986; and “Concern Growing Over Plastic Pistol,” Washington Post , April 18, 1986. Other important coverage of the affair included editorials such as “Hijacker’s Special?,” New York Times , February 9, 1986, and “Pass Laws to Ban Plastic Handguns,” USA Today , February 27, 1986. I also relied on the following articles: Josh Sugarmann, “Progress Gives Us Great New Handgun: Hijacker Special,” Los Angeles Times , March 24, 1986; Gayle White, “Partly Plastic Gun Comes Under Fire: Critics Say Pistol Would Help Terrorists Evade Metal Detectors,” Atlanta Journal- Constitution , May 1, 1986; Robert J. Mrazek, “The Deadly Truth About Plastic Guns,” Washington Post , May 15, 1986; “Lincoln Mayor Sponsors Resolution: Call for Ban on Plastic Guns Triggers Response by NRA,” Associated Press, June 17, 1986; and Wayne King and Warren Weaver Jr., “Washington Talk: Gun-Control Struggle,” New York Times , December 7, 1986.
CHAPTER 6
Helpful coverage of American police departments’ adoption of the Glock includes: “Miami Police Get New Firepower,” United Press International, July 19, 1987; Kevin Diaz, “Faster Pistol for Police Is Gaining Acceptance: Semiautomatics Replace Revolver,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune , September 7, 1987; Gerald Volgenau, “Police Being Outgunned by Lawbreakers,” Knight Ridder, July 3, 1988; Veronica Jennings, “Union Chief Seeks New Police Guns; More Firepower Needed, Officer Says,” Washington Post , September 15, 1988; “Top Cop Wards Off Ban on Super Gun,” New York Post , September 29, 1988; “Police Lift Ban on Gun Ward Carries, a Glock,” New York Times , September 30, 1988; Karla Jennings, “New Gun ‘Ugly,’ But Effective, Police Say,” Atlanta Journal- Constitution , October 13, 1988; Mitch Gelman, “Automatic Guns for NY Narcs,” Newsday , November 28, 1988; Andrew H. Malcolm, “Many Police Forces Rearm to Counter Criminals’ Guns,” New York Times , September 4, 1990; James C. McKinley Jr., “Subway Police to Get New Pistols,” New York Times , December 21, 1990; and William Bratton, “Don’t Knock the Glock,” Newsday , September 25, 1991. The killing of NYPD Officer Scott Gadell was described by Robert D. McFadden in “Wide Hunt for Killer of Officer,” New York Times , June 30, 1986, and “Memory of a Fallen Officer,” New York Times , May 31, 1992. For background on Samuel Colt, see, e.g., William Hosley, “Gun, Gun Culture, and the Peddling of Dreams,” in Dizard, Muth, and Andrews, eds., Guns in America: A Reader , pp. 47–85, and Wills’s The Illustrated History of Weaponry , pp. 130–133.
CHAPTER 7
As noted in the text, Rodrigo Bascunan and Christian Pearce provide colorful background about Glock and the hip-hop world in Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent . Dean Speir’s website, The Gun Zone ( thegunzone.com ), has a useful section on Glock.
CHAPTER 8
For this chapter I again relied on Allen’s April 19, 1989, Washington Post essay “The Mystique of Guns: From Daniel Boone to Dirty Harry,” as well as historian Richard Hofstadter’s “America as a Gun Culture,” American Heritage 21, no. 6 (1970), and “Reflections on Violence in the United States,” in Hofstadter and Michael Wallace, eds., American Violence: A Documentary History (New York: Knopf, 1970). The Billy Bathgate passage is, of course, from E. L. Doctorow’s 1989 novel Billy Bathgate (New York: Random House).
CHAPTER 9
On the decline of the American gun industry in the 1980s, see Resa W. King, “US Gunmakers: The Casualties Pile Up—Depressed Sales, Costly Insurance, and Foreign Competition Keep Claiming Victims,” Business Week , May 19, 1986; Kirk Johnson, “Gun Valley Tries to Adapt to the Winds of Change,” New York Times , March 21, 1989; and Henry Allen, “Uncle Sam Can’t Shoot Straight: Our Crooks Use Uzis, Our Cops Glocks—Even the Ammo’s Imported,” Washington Post , March 25, 1990. For my discussion of Smith & Wesson, I relied on “Appointments: Smith & Wesson Corp.,” Financial Times , December 10, 1987; Robert W. Hunnicutt, “SHOT Show 1990,” American Rifleman , March, 1990; Charles E. Petty, “Smith & Wesson: In-Store Promotions,” Shooting Industry , May 1, 1991; Greg Cox, “A Call to Arms: Facing Tough Competition, Smith & Wesson’s New CEO Presses Ahead with Sweeping Changes,” Business Week , November 1, 1992; and William Freebairn, “Smith & Wesson at 150: Springfield Gunmaker Defined by Controversy, Innovation,” Springfield Union-News , August 4, 2002. For this chapter I again referred to Dyan Machan’s March 31, 2003, Forbes interview, “Top Gun,” and to Wills’s Illustrated History of Weaponry , pp. 134–137.
CHAPTER 10
I relied on a number of accounts of the Killeen massacre and the tracing of Hennard’s Glock, including Kathy Jackson, “Gunman’s 9mm Pistol Is Type Often Used by Police: Weapon’s Accuracy Credited for Its Popularity,” Dallas Morning News , October 17, 1991; Tara Parker Pope, “Massacre in Killeen: Nevada County’s Tough Gun Laws Failed to Stop Killer,” Houston Chronicle , October 19, 1991; Nick Ravo, “Gun Used in Slayings Has Lethal Reputation,” New York Times , October 17, 1991; Linda Rehkopf, “Gun Came from Smyrna: Mother Likely Bought It,” Atlanta Journal- Constitution , October 18, 1991; and Allan Turner, “Bloodbath in Killeen: ‘Ugly’ Gun Can Fire 16–20 Shots,” Houston Chronicle , October 17, 1991. For background on the assault weapons debate in Congress, I read Holly Idelson, “House Members Duel on Crime: Assault-Gun Ban Is Rejected,” Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report , October 19, 1991, and Matt Yancy, “House Rejects Ban on Assault Rifles, Large Clips,” Associated Press, October 17, 1991. Also of use in writing this chapter were “Of What Legal and Practical Use Is a Glock 9mm Semiautomatic Pistol?” Atlanta Journal- Constitution , October 18, 1991; “Gun Ownership Has New Champion: Killeen Massacre Survivor,” Shooting Industry , June 1, 1992; Mark McDonald, “Under the Gun: As Crime Comes Closer and Closer, More and More City Dwellers Consider Owning and Learning to Use Firearms,” Dallas Morning News , December 12, 1991; and “Top 18 Handguns Used by Criminals,” USA Today , June 3, 1992.
CHAPTER 11
To describe the unintended consequences of gun control, I relied on, among other sources: “Brady Bill Triggers
