9781422273548

By the time of the American Revolution, the vast majority of the population owned firearms.

to own a firearm, one pound of gunpowder, and one pound of bullets for the purpose of the militia . Militia service was mandatory for all property-owning white men (that is, all those who wrote the laws, and all those who had the most to lose). The militia represented a crucial source of community security during the colonial era. Disputes, border raids, and even military campaigns by Native American tribes and rival Europeans threatened both home and hearth. New England alone was estimated to have 150,000 militia members, “capable of shooting a pimple off a man’s nose without hurting them.” The mass ownership of firearms required mass legislation, and the colonies and early states would pass some 600 different

The Right to Bear Arms?

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