The NRA is the only lobbying organization in Washington with half a constitutional amendment emblazoned across the front of its building. The NRA systematically deletes the phrase "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state," from the often-quoted second phrase, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." There is an extensive body of legal authority that interprets the amendment to guarantee the collective right of the States rather than an individual right to own guns. The gun lobby, particularly the NRA, persists in interpreting the amendment as guaranteeing an individual right, without any court decision to support this interpretation. Many Americans have apparently been persuaded that the NRA is correct in its interpretation of the Second Amendment. A recent Hears Corporation poll found that half of those surveyed believed the Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to own a handgun. In 1986 the Congress passed the first Federal ban on any type of firearm when it banned the sale to private persons of machine guns manufactured after May 19, 1986. This new law would have been the first opportunity to challenge the concept of a federally imposed ban on a class of firearm. Why did not the gun lobby file suit to challenge the ban as a direct violation of individual Second Amendment rights? It knew that the U.S. Supreme Court would follow legal precedent in its interpretation of the Second Amendment to apply only to a well-regulated State militia. The gun lobby did not want the publicity of a modern Supreme Court decision to persuade the American people that the NRA has been deceiving them about the authoritative interpretation of the Second Amendment. There is no constitutional barrier to a ban on the private possession of handguns, and such a ban could dramatically reduce the deaths caused by this one class of weapon.