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powder, or any other arms offensive or defensive, upon pain of being held a traitor to the colony and of being hanged as soon as the fact is proved, without all redemption.” The first colonists feared to lose their technological monopoly over the Native population that still relied on arrows made of sharpened stone and hardened wood for hunting and warfare. Native American arrows were, in fact, superior to European firearms in terms of both firing accuracy and speed. Firearms’ explosive display of power, however, would make them a trade good of tremendous value for Native populations during the history of colonization and expansion in the United States. What’s more, the law failed to prevent colonists and traders from France, Spain, the Netherlands, and even Sweden from supplying Native American tribes with firearms. Foreigners were not the only threat to the colonies. By 1637, the Massachusetts colony enacted a law stating that those who had “opinions & revelations [that] seduced & led to dangerous errors many of the people” would have to turn in “guns, pistols, swords, powder shot, & match,” barring them from the ability to “buy or borrow” until a court declared them capable. The Guns of the Colonies By the time of the American Revolution, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the vast majority of the population owned firearms, and the few who did not would nevertheless know how to use them. Most Americans at the time of the Revolution were farmers who relied on muskets, rifles, and fowling pieces for hunting or for keeping wolves away from their livestock. A North Carolina hunting law established in 1768 required all men to have a license, and being caught without one led to the forfeiture of a gun and a fine of five pounds—almost a year’s wages for a manual laborer at that time. What’s more, some states, like Massachusetts, had explicit laws requiring men

Chapter 1: The Colony, the Militia, and the Gun

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