1989

• The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence establishes the Legal Action Project to take the fight against gun violence into the courts.

• After a schoolyard massacre in Stockton, California passes the first assault weapons ban in the nation, the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapon Act.

• Florida adopts the nation's first "Child Access Prevention" law, which requires adults to store guns so that they are inaccessible to children or use a device to lock the gun.

• Pete Shields retires as Chair of HCI; Sarah Brady becomes Chair.

1988

• Maryland becomes the first state in the nation to ban the sale of Saturday Night Specials.

• With HCI's support, Congress passes a bill to ban handguns that cannot be detected by airport x-ray machines ("plastic" handguns).

1986

• HCI successfully lobbies Congress to ban armor-piercing, "cop-killer" bullets that can puncture bullet-proof vests worn by police officers.

1985

• Sarah Brady, Jim Brady's wife, joins the fight for sensible gun control laws.

1983

• The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (CPHV), an educational outreach organization dedicated to reducing gun violence, is founded as a sister organization to HCI.

1981

• March 30: Jim Brady, press secretary to President Ronald Reagan, is shot and seriously wounded during an assassination attempt on the President.

1980

• The National Council to Control Handguns is renamed Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI).