Firearms & Gun Control

Washington Post reporter Todd Frankel explains how the AR-15 was adapted from the M16 military combat automatic rifle, and how it became an icon of gun culture and a favored weapon for mass shooters.

How do we prevent the next mass shooting before it happens? That's the question Mother Jones national affairs editor Mark Follman has been researching since 2012, when a gunman killed 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

Ryan Busse went to work for the firearms manufacturer Kimber America, where he was so good at marketing the weapons that he became a rising star of the industry. But over the years, he became disillusioned when he saw the NRA refuse to consider gun controls after mass shootings. His new book is 'Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America'.

In her new book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America, Carol Anderson traces racial distinctions in Americans' treatment of gun ownership back to the founding of the country and the Second Amendment

New York Times reporter Danny Hakim discusses conflicts within the NRA's leadership, its lawsuit against its advertising and PR company, and what leaked documents reveal about the organization.

Alex Kotlowitz discusses the people whose lives were changed or lost due to gun violence in Chicago one summer. He likens the trauma of living with gun violence to the PTSD some veterans experience.

For trauma surgeon Joseph Sakran, gun violence is a very personal issue. He has treated hundreds of gun wound victims, comforted anxious loved ones and told mothers and fathers that their children would not be coming home.

But Sakran's empathy for his patients and their families extends beyond the hospital. Sakran knows the pain of gun violence because he is a survivor of it; when he was 17, he took a bullet to the throat after a high school football game.

Washington Post investigative journalist Rosalind Helderman says Butina was welcomed by members of the Christian right and the NRA who had "become intrigued with Putin's Russia."

Law professor Adam Winkler says that in the past 200 years, businesses have gone to court claiming constitutional rights that were originally intended for people. His new book is We the Corporations.

Journalist Mike Spies says the NRA's push to allow guns on college campuses, daycare centers and bars is part of an effort to "normalize gun carrying as much as possible in American public life."

Journalist Evan Osnos who writes about the evolution of concealed carry in the current issue of The New Yorker, estimates that there are about 13 million people who are licensed to carry a concealed gun in the United States — more than 12 times the number of police officers and detectives in America. He says that gun manufacturers market a "concealed-carry lifestyle," which uses fear to sell guns.

Senior analyst for the Violence Policy Center Tom Diaz says one of the weapons found at the site of the Newtown, Conn. shooting was a variant of a type of gun developed for troops in Vietnam.

The shootings put gun control back on the political radar screen. But political scientist Robert Spitzer says legislative changes are unlikely because of the relationship Congress has with the NRA.

Arizona's gun laws, among the most lenient in the country, allowed Jared Lee Loughner to conceal and carry his firearm without a permit, explains Washington Post reporter James Grimaldi, who wrote a piece Sunday about Arizona's lax gun laws and Saturday's Tuscon shooting rampage.

Since 2006, more than 60,000 of the weapons used in Mexican crimes have been traced back to the United States. Washington Post investigative reporter James Grimaldi explains how a team of reporters uncovered the names of the top 12 U.S. dealers of guns traced to Mexico.

Journalist Howard Fischer has been covering Arizona state government since 1982. He joins Fresh Air to discuss Arizona's controversial immigration law and other recent bills passed in the state, including one that allows Arizona's citizens to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

Speculation is growing that Justice John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court's longest-serving member, will step down in June. New Yorker legal correspondent Jeffrey Toobin discusses who is likely to replace Stevens -- and offers his take on how the court will rule on the future of gun control laws.

The Minus 5 is the newest album by singer-songwriter Scott McCaughey.

Journalist Osha Gray Davidson. His book Under Fire: The NRA and The Battle For Gun Control is now available in paperback. He talks about the recent NRA convention and what it says about the direction of the group.

Executive Director of the Institute for Legislative Action, the NRA's Lobbying Arm, Tanya Metaksa. She responds to criticism of the letter sent to NRA members calling federal agents "jackbooted Government thugs." Metaksa denies that the group has any association with paramilitary groups. The organization has suffered image problems since the Oklahoma City Bombing. The group recently ended their national convention.