The Violence Policy Center (VPC) is a national 501(c)(3) corporation and government lobbyist working to prohibit gun ownership in the United States, especially in relation to gun politics. Founded in 1988, the organization approaches violence, and firearms violence in particular, as a broad-based public health issue rather than solely a crime issue.[1]
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The Violence Policy Center is a research-based organization located in Washington, D.C.. Their programming efforts include lobbying the United States Congress to address gun control concerns and pass legislation that would prohibit ownership of firearms in the country. The organization has addressed Congress with gun-related cases by distributing their published research and analysis. Numerous US gun control organizations have used VPC reports and terminology to further local gun control initiatives.[2] Kristen Rand, the legislative director and Josh Sugarman, the executive director, along with the rest of the organization have through the years led to the VPC being joined by the Firearms Policy Project in 1994.[3] Their most common cases have involved pro-gun control legislation, usually backed by the NRA and other national or state gun lobbyists.
Since the VPC has no official membership fee, it relies on donations from the public. The main donor to the VPC is the Joyce Foundation, who additionally supports other pro-gun control organizations, including the Mayors Fund to Advance New York City and the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.[4]
The overall goal of the VPC is to regulate gun control in the United States. Their plan to achieve this is through the easily available research and analysis that they have collected throughout the years, as well as presenting this material in Congress when confronted with pro-gun legislation.
In 2001, the VPC issued a study that detailed "the 50 caliber's threat as an ideal tool for assassination and terrorism, including its ability to attack and cripple key elements of the nation's critical infrastructure—including aircraft and other transportation, electrical power grids, pipeline networks, chemical plants, and other hazardous industrial facilities."[5] The study reported that at least 25 Barrett Firearms Company 50 caliber rifles were sold to the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization. Barrett denied these charges and a subsequent visit to the company by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) turned up no evidence to support the accusations.
In January 2005, the VPC was featured on the CBS news and current affairs program 60 Minutes, which ran a segment on the subject of .50 caliber rifles and the alleged threat to public safety that these weapons posed.[6] The 60 Minutes report drew heavily from the VPC's reports on the .50 BMG cartridge and conducted interviews with both Barrett Firearms' Ronnie Barrett and the VPC's Tom Diaz. Many in the gun rights movement, like the NRA, found the story to be biased in the VPC's favor, and made the oft-repeated claim that a .50 caliber rifle has never been used in the commission of a crime. In response to these claims, the VPC has issued a backgrounder detailing criminal possession of .50 caliber rifles. The report still does not specify any actual commissions of crimes with a .50 caliber firearm, rather it is a list primarily of gun seizures that, coincidentally to the crime committed, happened to include such a weapon.[7] The list does not clarify whether the weapons seized were possessed legally or not. In September 2004, California became the only state to ban 50 caliber rifles.
In 2009, Mexican officials told the U.S. that American assault weapons have fueled the drug-cartel war taking place in Mexico. The VPC sided with the Mexican officials and suggested that the government enforce a 20-year-old federal ban that would restrict the export of American assault rifles to neighboring countries. This ban, created in 1989 and signed by George H. W. Bush, is now being passed down to the Obama administration.
In this case, the VPC research has shown that when the ban was created there were no signs of assault weapon imports from Romania, however, in 2006 it jumped to 53,160 and 37,183 in 2007. The VPC is asking that the ban would be reinforced so that importation and exportation of assault rifles would decrease.[8]