Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Brady_Center_to_Prevent_Gun_Violence".

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (October 2008)

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence are two closely affiliated non-profits in the United States that work to highly regulate gun ownership. The Campaign wing is a 501(c)(4), devoting its efforts to passing legislation; the Center, however, is a 501(c)(3), which seeks to use education to prevent gun violence. The two groups are together called, colloquially, the Brady Campaign.

The Brady Campaign emerged from Handgun Control, Inc., originally the National Council to Control Handguns (NCCH), and the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (CPHV). NCCH was founded in 1974 by Dr. Mark Borinsky, a victim of gun violence, and became HCI in 1980.¹

HCI grew rapidly following an assassination attempt on U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. Both Reagan and his press secretary, James Brady were shot; President Reagan recovered quickly, but Mr. Brady, shot in the head, was paralyzed for life. This led his wife, Sarah Brady, to join HCI in 1985, of which she became chair in 1989. Two years later, she became chair of CPHV (in 1991).¹

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, or Brady Bill into law. The culmination of a seven-year effort on the part of HCI, the Brady Bill required a five-day waiting period and background check on handgun purchases.¹

On June 14, 2001, Handgun Control, Inc. was renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in honor of Sarah and Jim Brady.¹ On October 1, 2001, it incorporated the Million Mom March.²

Leadership

James Brady and Sarah Brady have been influential in the movement since at least the mid-80s. Mrs. Brady replaced Pete Shields as chair in 1989. Shields had held the position since 1978.³

From 2000 to May 2006 former Maryland Congressman Michael D. Barnes was the president of the Brady Campaign. He was succeeded by former Fort Wayne, Indiana mayor Paul Helmke.^{citation needed}

Stated mission

From Brady Campaign's website:

"As the largest national, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence, the Brady Campaign, the Million Mom March and the Brady Center are dedicated to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in their communities. The Brady Campaign, the Million Mom March and the Brady Center believe that a safer America can be achieved without banning all guns."⁴

Although in 1976, HCI's chairman stated that the long-term goal of the organization was a ban on handgun ownership,⁵ the Brady Campaign has since shifted its goals, and no longer openly promotes a handgun ban.^{citation needed}

Past efforts and actions

The Brady Campaign was the chief supporter of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, known as the "Brady Bill", enacted in 1993 after several years of debate; and successfully lobbied for passage of the first-ever Federal Assault Weapons Ban, banning the manufacture and importation of so-called military-style assault weapons,⁶ a provision that critics called "arbitrary"⁷ and "symbolic".⁸ The ban expired in September 2004.⁹

Criticism

The Brady Campaign has labeled semi-automatic or self-loading rifles as "assault weapons," trying to conflate them in the public imagination with assault rifles, raising criticism over the use of an incorrect term (traditionally, an assault weapon is one used for breaching obstacles such as the Bangalore Torpedo, SMAW, SRAW, APOBS, and Flamethrower.) Additionally, the Campaign has in the past called for a ban of non-existent "plastic guns".¹⁰¹¹

Identity confusion

As noted previously, the Brady Campaign was founded in 1974 as the National Council to Control Handguns (NCCH). The organization was renamed the Brady Campaign in part to link their lobbying efforts to a tragic current-event. Possibly contributing to confusion about the Campaign's role was the similarly-named National Council to Ban Handguns, subsequently known as the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (and also started in 1974). These two organizations, the National Council to Control Handguns (NCCH) and the National Council to Ban Handguns were ostensibly separate in theory but shared the same goals and many of the same members.^{citation needed}

Further reading

• "A Reporter At Large: Handguns," The New Yorker, July 26, 1976, pp. 57-58
• "First Reports Evaluating the Effectiveness of Strategies for Preventing Violence: Firearms Laws" The CDC, October 3, 2003¹²

See also

• List of United States firearms topics
• Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
• The Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition
• Gun politics in the US

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} About the Brady Campaign: A History of Working to Prevent Gun Violence
2. ^ Million Mom March: How We Started
3. ^ "Nelson Shields 3d, 69, Gun-Control Advocate". New York Times (1993-01-07). Retrieved on 14 November 2008.
4. ^ "Our Mission" (html/php). The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Retrieved on 2008-10-28.
5. ^ Richard Harris, "A Reporter at Large: Handguns," New Yorker, July 26, 1976, 53, 58
6. ^ Barak, Gregg (2007). Battleground. Greenwood Publishing Group, 335. ISBN 0313340404. 
7. ^ Wilkie, Dana (2004-03-20). "Effectiveness of assault-weapon bans still unclear". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved on 14 November 2008.
8. ^ Kopel, Dave (2004-09-14). "Bait-’n’-Switch". National Review. Retrieved on 14 November 2008.
9. ^ Siebel, Brian (2004-09-14). "The Assault Weapons Ban: Brady Campaign". The Washington Post. Retrieved on 14 November 2008.
10. ^ Kennedy, Michael Plastic Guns: New Weapons For Terrorists?, Toronto Star, May 8, 1988, at B6.
11. ^ Ruhl, Jesse Matthew; Rizer, Arthur L. III; Wier, Mikel J. "Gun Control: Targeting Rationality in a Loaded Debate", The Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, Volume XIII Number III
12. ^ First Reports Evaluating the Effectiveness of Strategies for Preventing Violence: Firearms Laws,Robert A. Hahn, Ph.D.; Oleg O. Bilukha, M.D., Ph.D.; Alex Crosby, M.D.; Mindy Thompson Fullilove, M.D.; Akiva Liberman, Ph.D.; Eve K. Moscicki, Sc.D.; Susan Snyder, Ph.D.; Farris Tuma, Sc.D.; Peter Briss, M.D.