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Gun Politics in Our Federal Political Institutions

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Guns and Values

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Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of how the gun control policy debate has unfolded in Washington from the Kennedy to the Obama Administrations. We catalog how gun control has been advocated for, and resisted, by presidents and members of Congress. Since, as we argue in the book, the strength of individualism’s grasp on our culture—and thus politics—isn’t constant over time, we use this chapter to demonstrate that gun control’s prospects are the strongest when individualism’s grasp is weakest. For most of this time period, the influence of American individualism was strong and gun control was effectively resisted, and in some cases, rolled back. However, there were notable times—particularly 1968 and 1994—when concern for the public good was strong enough to overcome the American bias for protecting private rights, and major federal gun control legislation was signed into law.

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  1. Political Science, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, USA

    Dylan S. McLean

  2. Political Science, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, USA

    Anthony K. Fleming

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Correspondence to Dylan S. McLean .

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McLean, D.S., Fleming, A.K. (2023). Gun Politics in Our Federal Political Institutions. In: Guns and Values. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37174-5_4

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