Assassinations and Mass Shootings: The Role of Critical Events in the Struggle for US Gun Policy

In this paper, we examine Handgun Control Inc. and the National Rifle Association’s contributions to mobilizations, for and against gun control. As with any social and political movement, we find these two opposing networks, the proponents of gun control and the anti-gun control groups, utilizing each other’s frames, actions and policies as a way of countering the opposition and advancing their own agendas.