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Available for over a year

The problem of US gun ownership, and why the American constitution doesn't actually guarantee a right to bear arms, as examined by broadcaster and journalist Alistair Cooke in 1993. Paddy O'Connell introduces a shortened archive edition of Letter from America first broadcast 19 years ago on 29 October 1993. In this edition, Alistair Cooke took the American nation's temperature on gun control in the midst of that early-90s panic, as Congress was about to pass the Brady Act in 1993, after more than a decade of lobbying by Jim Brady, President Reagan's former press secretary, shot with the President in an assassination attempt in 1981. Alistair Cooke's talks on American life, history and politics - Letter from America - were broadcast weekly on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio from 1946 -2004. Over 920 archive editions are available to listen or download for free on the Radio 4 website. Presenter: Alistair Cooke Introduced by: Paddy O'Connel Archive producer: Zillah Watson.