The History of US Gun Rights
Chapter 2: The History of US Gun Rights
Early History of Gun Control
The debate over controlling access to weapons is not new.
In the 12th century CE, a debate occurred in Europe over crossbows.
Crossbows were mechanized bows that fired bolts and were deadlier than regular bows.
In 1139, the Second Lateran Council banned the crossbow as "a weapon hateful to God".
Despite the ban, European armies continued to use crossbows.
Modern firearms appeared in the 14th century, originating in China and spreading to the Middle East and Europe.
Early firearms used gunpowder to launch projectiles.
Initially, guns were unreliable, inaccurate, had short ranges, and were time-consuming to load.
Gunpowder required careful handling. If the gunpowder separated the weapon was useless.
Evolution of Guns and Attitudes
For centuries, guns were a fringe technology but inventors continued to improve gun designs and gunpowder preparation.
By the 16th century, pistols and long guns like the harquebus became common, but were still ineffective.
Seasoned warriors viewed gun users as cowards, because using a gun required little skill compared to a blade.
From the 16th to 18th centuries, gun design advanced rapidly.
Muskets with bayonets became essential for armies.
Gun Control in Europe
Guns were largely unacceptable in civilian society.
Wealthy Europeans saw guns as a threat to their power as it would mean the common people could revolt against their rulers.
Queen Elizabeth I of England banned the wheel-lock pistol in 1594 because it was easy to hide and carry loaded.
Gun restrictions were somewhat unnecessary because guns were expensive and difficult to use.
Fear of poor people arising en masse with guns was unrealistic.
Restrictions established a precedent of people in power keeping guns away from the common people.
Guns in North America
Europeans began exploring and colonizing the Americas in the 16th century.
Colonists used guns to drive indigenous peoples off their land.
As wealth grew in the Americas, the cost of guns fell. Gun ownership became a way of life.
Firearms played a role in the conquest of indigenous peoples.
Guns were traded between colonists and American Indians.
Gun Ownership in the British Colonies
By the 18th century, thirteen British colonies existed along the Atlantic coast of North America.
Gun ownership was more widespread in North America than in Europe, where laws restricted firearms to the elite.
British rulers encouraged gun ownership among North American colonists so they could defend themselves without the need for British troops.
Gun ownership was not entirely unregulated.
Men who refused to serve in militias were not allowed to own weapons.
Black slaves and other minorities were prohibited from carrying firearms.
A 1723 Virginia law restricted gun ownership for black people, mixed-race people, and indigenous people, to maintain white people in power.
The American Revolution
The colonies grew self-sufficient and resented British interference, especially higher taxes to pay for the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
Tensions led to fighting in 1775 and the declaration of independence in 1776.
The colonies' gun culture played a major role in the war.
Continental soldiers supplied their own weapons.
Local militias contributed to the fight against the British.
Gun ownership became an act of patriotism.
Guns symbolized the fierce independence of the United States.
Supplying US troops with guns was a constant struggle.
Many weapons were in poor condition.
US troops carried bows, spears, and hatchets due to gun shortages.
Guns imported from Europe helped turn the tide.
Victory came in 1781, and a peace treaty followed in 1783.
Gun Laws in the New Nation
The United States adopted its Constitution in 1787, but many wanted guarantees of personal freedoms.
The Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment protecting gun rights, was added in 1791.
Leaders struggled with gun policy.
Some favored European-style restrictions.
Others argued for unrestricted gun rights for all Americans because of the important role of private citizens in the war.
Debates on Gun Control
Senator Rufus King argued in 1790 against putting arms in the hands of frontier people, fearing they would use them against the United States.
Thomas Jefferson argued that an armed citizenry was an effective way to guard against government oppression.
"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Laws focused more on government's right to arm militias than on personal gun rights.
Evolving Gun Law
For a century after the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment was largely ignored.
Gun technology changed little, but gun violence was common.
Gunfights in the West and duels in the South were frequent.
In 1873, a white mob murdered African Americans protecting a courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana.
Advancements in Gun Technology
The right to own guns went unchallenged for a half century.
Gun technology advanced rapidly with mechanization.
By the 1920s, guns were more accurate and reliable.
Automatic weapons allowed multiple rounds with a single trigger pull.
Early Gun Control Legislation
As criminals armed themselves with powerful weapons, legislators sought to regulate firearms.
The US Congress passed its first law restricting guns in 1927.
The Mailing of Firearms Act outlawed shipping concealable handguns by US mail to slow mail-order gun sales to organized crime groups.
National Firearms Act of 1934
Public fear about organized crime continued into the 1930s.
In 1934, the US Congress proposed the National Firearms Act.
The Act taxed sales of certain weapons, including handguns, short-barreled rifles/shotguns, automatic weapons, silencers, and explosive devices.
It also required registration of such weapons.
The NRA protested the inclusion of handguns, and Congress altered the law, leaving handguns out.
The National Firearms Act of 1934 proved ineffective at controlling gun violence.
Federal Firearms Act of 1938
Congress introduced the Federal Firearms Act of 1938.
The original draft called for gun registration and licenses.
The NRA protested, and Congress stripped down the bill.
The version that passed:
Banned firearm sales to convicted felons and fugitives.
Outlawed transport/shipping of firearms with altered serial numbers.
Barred unlicensed dealers from selling guns across state lines.
Licensing cost was a paltry dollar.
Quiet Period and Re-emergence of Debate
In the 1930s, Americans struggled during the Great Depression (1929-1942).
The United States joined World War II (1939-1945) in 1941.
Organized crime declined, and the gun-control debate quieted for twenty years.
Civil War Union officers William Church and George Wingate formed the National Rifle Association in 1871.
The early NRA promoted rifle shooting and marksmanship.
In 1934, the NRA formed a legislative affairs division to fight against attacks on Second Amendment rights.
Through the late 1960s, the NRA supported some gun control; passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968 created a rift.
By the mid-1970s, opposition to all gun control prevailed.
By 2017, the NRA claimed a national membership of five million people and wielded enormous political influence.
The debate reemerged in 1963:
Senator Thomas Dodd blamed easy access to cheap imported handguns for youth crime and proposed heavily taxing them.
Dodd's home state was a gun manufacturing hub, and his proposal would have helped US gun manufacturers.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald using an inexpensive Italian rifle ordered after seeing an advertisement in the NRA's magazine, the American Rifleman.
Dodd widened his bill to include mail-order rifles and handguns, but Congress defeated it.
Gun Control Act of 1968
Passed in response to violent urban riots and political assassinations (Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy).
Severely restricted gun and ammunition sales across state lines.
Required gun dealers to keep detailed records of every sale.
Banned the import of guns not used for sports.
Established the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
First comprehensive gun legislation.
Some felt it infringed on Second Amendment rights.
The NRA divided, and the group eventually took a position opposing almost all gun control.
Political Tug-of-War
Gun control became more politicized.
The NRA grew into a large and powerful political force, lobbying for eased restrictions on gun sales.
In elections, the NRA supported conservative gun-rights candidates, dividing conservatives and liberals.
In the early 1980s, controversy surrounded armor-piercing bullets.
Congress introduced bills to ban the sales of such bullets.
Congress reached a compromise in the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act of 1985:
The law forbade US manufacture and import armor-piercing ammunition except for government use.
Firearm Owners’ Protection Act
In 1986, the US Congress passed the Firearm Owners' Protection Act due mostly to NRA persistence.
This law scaled back many of the 1968 restrictions on gun dealers.
Lifted the ban on interstate sales.
Narrowly defined the term gun dealer.
Allowed licensed dealers to sell at gun shows.
Banned machine guns made after 1986 (as a compromise).
Undetectable Firearms Act
The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988, intending to ban all-plastic guns, never came to a vote.
Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (1987)
Stemmed from the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
James Brady, Reagan's press secretary, was permanently injured.
Brady and his wife led a campaign for gun control.
Proposed a seven-day waiting period for gun purchases to prevent impulsive crimes and allow background checks.
Provisions of the Law when Passed
The NRA protested as it would only make it harder for law-abiding gun owners to purchase guns.
The Brady Act finally passed in 1993 (with alterations).
The seven-day waiting period shrank to five days.
The waiting-period requirement would expire in 1998.
The FBI would set up an instant background check system.
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (1994)
Banned many of the world's most common assault weapons, listing them by name.
The federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004, and Congress did not renew it.
District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)
Residents of Washington, DC, challenged the city's gun-control law, which banned handgun ownership and required firearms to be unloaded/disassembled/locked.
The Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for self-defense within the home.
Justices Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens said that the amendment does not protect an absolute right to gun ownership.
Mass Shootings
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (2012): Twenty children and six adults killed.
Orlando Nightclub shooting (2016): Forty-nine people killed.
Las Vegas shooting (2017): Fifty-nine people (including himself) killed and almost one thousand injured.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (2018): Seventeen people killed.
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting (2018): Eleven people gunned down.
Columbine Shooting (1999)
Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed one teacher and twelve students and injured another twenty-one students.
They were too young to purchase firearms legally, so an older friend bought a semiautomatic rifle and two shotguns for them at a gun show.
The Columbine shootings marked the beginning of a dark new era in gun violence.
Political Reactions to Mass Shootings
President Obama wept at a press conference after the Sandy Hook shooting.
Waves of protest and calls for changes to gun laws came after each shooting.
Parkland shooting survivors led a teen-led movement demanding change (March for Our Lives protests).
President Donald Trump initially advocated further gun laws but later addressed the NRA, saying their Second Amendment rights were under siege.
Some states beefed up their gun restrictions.
Those who opposed new gun laws argued that mass shootings were a mental health issue, not a gun issue.
Democrats proposed further gun restrictions, but the Republican-controlled Congress and White House blocked the way.
Trayvon Martin Shooting (2012)
Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a community watch leader, in Sanford, Florida.
Zimmerman claimed self-defense under Florida's stand-your-ground law.
Many felt the shooting was racially motivated.
Zimmerman was cleared of all charges.
Pulse Nightclub Shooting (2016)
A shooter claiming allegiance to a radical Islamic organization killed fifty people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
The shooter used a Sig MCX, a semiautomatic assault-style rifle that resembles the AR-15.
Gun-control supporters called for further restriction on such assault rifles.
Gun-rights supporters countered that banning this type of weapon would not stop mass shootings.
Continued Debate
Polls show that the divide between those who want laws to control gun ownership and those who want to protect the right to own guns has narrowed significantly.
The debate rages on about drawing the line between individual rights and the safety of society.