United States Firearms

In the United States, the Alcohol Tax Unit came into being with the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, and it became the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax division of the Internal Revenue Service in 1952. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), established in 1972, and the Department of the Treasury closely regulate the manufacture of distilled spirits. 

Denatured Ethanol. Eor hundreds of years alcohoHc beverages have been taxed all over the world to generate government revenue. When ethanol emerged as a key industrial raw material, the alcohol tax was recognized as a burden to many essential manufacturing industries. To lift this burden, the Tax-Eree Industrial and Denatured Alcohol Act of 1906 was passed in the United States. The U.S. Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATE), now oversees the production, procurement, and use of ethanol in the United States. 

To understand how Americans acquired a distinctive attitude toward firearms, it is important to remember that the political culture of the United States grew out of the English rather than continental European experience. 

There is little disagreement that a significant number of deaths and injuries are caused by firearms, although gun deaths peaked at about 40,000 in 1995 and then started to decline. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), firearms are the second leading cause of injury death in the United States although the overall homicide rate as well as the firearm injury rate have continued to decline. 

Medical and sociological gun control advocates have also pointed out that such countries as Britain and Japan, with strict firearm controls, have far lower homicide rates than the United States. Gun rights activists question whether such cross-cultural comparisons are valid, noting that European and Japanese societies are more conformist and that it is social control, not gun control, that is responsible for their low rate of violence. 

National Firearms Act of 1934 Sonzinsky v. United States United States V. Miller... 

Taxation on firearms Sonzinsky v. United States Tenth Amendment Printz v. U.S. 

A federal law prohibits the mailing of concealable firearms in the United States. 

Kennett, Lee B., and James L. Anderson. The Gun in America The Origins of a National Dilemma. Westport, Conn. Greenwood Press, 1975. Describes the many roles that firearms have played in U.S. culture and how the United States can indeed be said to be the arsenal of democracy with both positive and negative consequences. 

Coalition to Stop Handgun Violence. The Unspoken Tragedy Firearm Suicide in the United States. Washington, D.C. Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence and Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, 1995. Reports that firearms are being increasingly used in suicides by females, a group that had previously preferred poison. Because firearms are more often lethal than other means, the fatality rate for female suicide attempts has increased. 

Krug, E. G. Firearm-Related Deaths in the United States and 35 Other High- and Upper-Middle-Income Countries.The Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 280, August 5, 1998, p. 401. Reports that the 49th World Health Assembly has declared violence a worldwide public health problem. Using data provided by health officials, a study concludes that firearms death rates are much higher in the United States and that types of death (murder or suicide) as well as rates vary with national income. 

Points out that the United States has the world s highest rates of firearms-related injury and death. Strong action is needed to address this public health problem, including gun owner training, safety, and storage requirements. 

Fact Sheet Firearm Injury and Death in the United States. Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. Available online. URL http //www.jhsph.edu/gunpolicy/US factsheet 2004.pdf. Updated in January 2004. Gives statistics and trends relating to gun violence in the United States. Overall gun-related deaths have declined by 25 percent between 1993 and 2001. Other topics summarized include effects on youth, public health effects and cost of gun ownership, summary of the effects of different types of gun laws, legal issues, regulation and litigation, and public opinion. 

Rates of Homicide, Suicide, and Firearm-Related Death among Children—26 Industrialized Countries. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 46, February 7, 1997, pp. lOlffi Concludes that the United States has by far the highest rates of child homicide, suicide, and firearms-related deaths among the industrialized nations. 

Kruschke, Earl R. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms A Continuing American Dilemma. Springfield, 111. Thomas, 1985. Explores the legal history of firearms law and cases in the United States. 

United States Code of Federal Regulations. Title 21 Alcohol, Tobacco Products, and Firearms. 2 vols. Revised as of April 1, 2003. Washington, D.C. U.S. Government Printing Office, 2003. This part of the U.S. Code embodies federal firearms legislation. 

Squires, Peter. Gun Culture or Gun Control Firearms, Violence and Society. New York Routledge, 2001. This exploration of gun issues is from a British perspective, comparing differences in the gun culture between Britain and the United States, and the resulting differences in the development of social policy. The impact of the 1996 Dunblane, Scotland, shootings on British attitudes is also explored. 

Simonds, Merilyn. Code of Arms. Canadian Geographic, vol. 116, March-April 1996, pp. 44ff. Describes the gun scene in Canada, which has a reasonable number of guns but does not have the emotional attachment to them that many people in the United States have. Simonds reviews the different historical experiences that people in Canada and the United States have had with firearms. She also discusses events that have heated up the gun control debate in Canada. A related article gives a brief chronology of gun control in Canada. 

The graph Types of Firearm Deaths in Children, Top Ten Countries offers a chance to compare both the absolute numbers of firearm deaths of children among different countries and to compare the relative proportions of the different types of deaths (homicides, suicides, and accidents). First, as is generally expected, the rate of firearm deaths of children per 100,000 in the United States is about three times that of the nearest competitor, Finland. The proportions of homicides, suicides, and accidents vary considerably In the United States, gun homicides of children outpace suicides roughly three to one, but in Norway suicides seem to dominate by about two to one. (It should be noted that because numbers of gun deaths for children are relatively low, there may be considerable variation in relative proportions from year to year.)... 

AUTHORITY TO OBTAIN OEEICIAL INFORMATION.— Notwithstanding any other law, the Attorney General may secure directly from any department or agency of the United States such information on persons for whom receipt of a firearm would violate subsection (g) or (n) of section 922 of title 18, United States Code or State law, as is necessary to enable the system to operate in accordance with this section. On request of the Attorney General, the head of such department or agency shall furnish such information to the system. 

OTHER TERMS.— The terms firearm , handgun , licensed importer , licensed manufacturer , and licensed dealer have the meanings stated in section 921(a) of tide 18, United States Code, as amended by subsection (a)(2). 

Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States 708-709 (Carolina Academic Press 1987) (1833) (emphasis added). Justice Story calls the right of citizens to keep and bear arms the palladium of our liberties. He viewed the private ownership of firearms as reducing the need for the maintenance of large standing armies by promoting the vitality of the militia, and laments that militia participation is on the decline, fearing this will result in fewer Americans being armed. 

Firearms -Law and legislation - United States. 2. Gun control - United States. 

United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. See under Tagging of Explosives in Vol 9, T3-L ff... 

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