Harlon Carter
Harlon Carter | |
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University of Texas Emory University School of Law |
Harlon Bronson Carter (August 10, 1913 – November 19, 1991) was an American advocate for
When Carter was 17 years old, he shot and killed 15-year-old Ramón Casiano. Though Carter was convicted of Casiano's murder, this conviction was later overturned on a technicality, and the incident was not generally known during most of Carter's leadership of the NRA, but rose to greater prominence and infamy later.
Biography
Carter was born in
Carter graduated from the
Carter first joined the National Board of the NRA in 1951, and served as the organization's president from 1965-1967. In 1975, Carter became director of the NRA's lobbying arm, the
The NRA leadership was ambivalent about the Gun Control Act of 1968, the first gun control legislation since the 1930s. Franklin Orth, the group's Executive Vice President at the time of the act's passage, supported some parts of law, including limits on mail-order gun purchases and bans of Saturday night specials, inexpensive, often low-quality handguns, while opposing other provisions as "unduly restrictive and unjustified in their application to law-abiding citizens".[8][9] In contrast, Carter believed that no gun control legislation could be acceptable. He wrote to the NRA membership: "We can win it on a simple concept – No compromise. No gun legislation."[10][7] Carter opposed background checks for gun purchasers, saying that the acquisition of guns by violent criminals and the mentally ill is the "price we pay for freedom".[11]
In 1976, the NRA leadership fired seventy-four employees, most of them supporters of Carter. Carter resigned in protest. However, in 1977, at the NRA's annual meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, Carter and other activists succeeded in changing the organization's bylaws and voting out much of the leadership. Carter replaced Maxwell Rich as Executive Vice President, responsible for the NRA's operations.[7] In July of that year, he was featured prominently on the cover of The American Rifleman, the official magazine of the NRA.[12] Carter remained in this position until 1985. Under Carter's leadership, the NRA's membership tripled to over three million. The organization's budget and political influence also increased.[4]
In 1981, newspaper reporters learned that Carter had been convicted of murder related to the 1931 death of 15-year-old Ramón Casiano.[6] Carter initially denied any knowledge of the incident but later acknowledged that he had been responsible for the shooting.[4][13]
Carter died of lung cancer in 1991 at his home in Green Valley, Arizona. He was buried at Evergreen Memorial Park in Tucson, Arizona.[4]
In popular culture
The album American Band by the Drive-By Truckers features a song, "Ramon Casiano", about the shooting of Casiano, and Carter's subsequent career.[14]
Notes
- ^ Shannon, Joel. "San Francisco declares NRA a 'domestic terrorist organization' in resolution". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
- ^ Davidson 1998, p. 36.
- ^ Spitzer 2002.
- ^ a b c d e f Lambert 1991.
- ^ Davidson 1998, p. 39.
- ^ a b c d e f Crewdson 1981.
- ^ a b c Davidson 1998, pp. 28–36.
- ^ Hardy 2002.
- ^ Lepore 2012.
- ^ Achenbach, Higham & Horwitz 2013.
- ^ Powell 2000.
- ^ "Harlon Carter". Flickr. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
- ^ "Leader of Rifle Group Affirms that he Shot Boy to Death in 1931". The New York Times. 6 May 1981. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
- ^ Gotrich 2016.
References
- Achenbach, Joel; Higham, Scott; Horwitz, Sari (12 January 2013). "How NRA's true believers converted a marksmanship group into a mighty gun lobby". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 13 January 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
- Crewdson, John M. (4 May 1981). "Hard Line Opponent of Gun Laws Wins New Term At Helm of Rifle Association". The New York Times. p. A1. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
- Davidson, Osha Gray (1998). Under Fire: the NRA and the battle for gun control. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 1587290421.
- Gotrich, Lars (22 September 2016). "Review: Drive-By Truckers, 'American Band'". NPR.
- Hardy, David T. (2002). "Orth, Franklin L. (1907-1970)". In Carter, Gregg Lee (ed.). Guns in American society : an encyclopedia of history, politics, culture, and the law. Santa Barbara (Calif.): ABC-CLIO. p. 461. ISBN 1576072681.
- Lambert, Bruce (22 November 1991). "Harlon B. Carter, Longtime Head Of Rifle Association, Dies at 78". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
- Lepore, Jill (23 April 2012). "Battleground America". The New Yorker. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
- Powell, Michael (6 August 2000). "The NRA's Call to Arms". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
- Spitzer, Robert J. (2002). "Carter, Harlon (1913-1991)". In Carter, Gregg Lee (ed.). Guns in American society : an encyclopedia of history, politics, culture, and the law. Santa Barbara (Calif.): ABC-CLIO. pp. 101–102. ISBN 1576072681.
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