First Freedom Page 28

  Two years after the Heller decision, the Supreme Court, in McDonald v. City of Chicago, struck down a similar handgun ban, this one passed on a state level. Five justices concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment protects against state infringement of the same individual right that is protected from federal infringement by the Second Amendment. Although these two decisions would be extraordinarily important for gun rights advocates, they certainly didn’t put all gun-related issues to bed. There would be an array of cases and tactics employed to impose gun control in the coming years. How far can the state go in banning felons and the mentally ill from owning guns? How far can they go in banning firearms in “sensitive places” such as schools and government buildings? How far can they go in banning weapons “not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes”? What kind of gun is “typical”? These are just a few of the debates that would soon emerge. The fight is not ending anytime soon.

  President Barack Obama might have told gun owners, “I’m not looking to disarm you,” and claimed to have supported the Heller decision in his first campaign, but by the time he was elected in 2008, the former Illinois legislator already had a long history of supporting the most draconian gun control in the country—including a full ban on handguns in Chicago. His initial political positioning was a reflection of how much ground Second Amendment advocates had gained over the previous decade. After every tragic mass shooting, the president renewed his commitment to more gun control, whether such controls would have stopped the murderer or not. His appeals became increasingly emotional. (“It is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book” was a contention Obama made that no rational person could ever possibly believe.) A slew of regulations attempted to inhibit the use of ammunition and hunting. By the end of the president’s second term, Democrats had ratcheted up the rhetoric, comparing Republicans to ISIS terrorists. They drafted bills to allow the state to deprive those on any government watch list of their Second Amendment right without any due process.

  This was 2016, not 1968, however, and there was a slim to no chance that there would be enough support for any kind of restrictive legislation. Rather, every time Democrats engaged in a new gun control push, there was a massive counterreaction. In 2016 a trade association for firearms manufacturers found that the gun industry had gone from $19 billion in 2008 to near $50 billion by 2015. In 2008, around 160,000 Americans worked in the gun industry. By 2015 it was 288,000. During Obama’s eight years as president, the FBI processed 157,233,157 firearm checks, which was 61 million more than they had the previous decade. In 2016 they ran 27,538,673. Four million more than the previous year.

  Every time there is an effort to weaken the protections of the Second Amendment, there is a resurgence both in gun ownership and the idealism that surrounds it. Every time there is an effort to dismiss the vibrant and important role the gun has played in our history, a movement rises to reclaim it. There are more guns in America today than there are people. A lot more. A recent Gallup poll found that 47 percent of adults reported having a gun in their home. It is likely that even more Americans own guns and aren’t inclined to tell a pollster about it. Yet, because of the divisive political realities of the age, we often hear the term “gun culture” being thrown around as invective. “Gun culture” is no less part of American life than “religious culture” or “speech culture.” As our history unambiguously illustrates, gun culture is inextricably tied to American culture. One cannot exist without the other.

  GLOSSARY

  Rod and gun from Canadian Forestry Association

  Automatic gun: A firearm that continuously fires as long as the trigger is pressed and there is ammunition in the magazine or clip.

  Ballistics: The study of propulsion, flight, and the performance of projectiles.

  Barrel: A tube, sealed at the breech of the firearm, where pressure forms from ignited propellant that forces the ball, bullet, or shell through the bore at a high velocity.

  Bayonet: A knife meant for spearing that is mounted at the muzzle of a rifle or musket.

  Black powder: A propellant that typically consists of 75 percent saltpeter, 15 percent charcoal, and 10 percent sulfur.

  Blunderbuss: A short smoothbore gun, typically with a flared muzzle that looks something like a bell-bottom.

  Bore: The interior surface of a gun’s barrel.

  Breech: The end of the barrel where the powder charge is ignited.

  Breech-loading gun: A firearm in which the cartridge is loaded into a chamber at the rear portion of the barrel.

  Brown Bess: Nickname for the Long Land Service musket, alternatively known as the King’s musket and the Tower musket. It was a flintlock, .75-caliber barrel-loading musket, and it would become the standard firearm for British soldiers from 1722 to 1838.

  Bullet: The projectile fired from a rifle or handgun; often confused with a “cartridge” or “round.”

  Butt: The rear portion of the stock.

  Caliber: The measurement of the approximate diameter of the barrel or the diameter of the projectile that is placed in the barrel. A “.36-caliber” gun has a barrel diameter of 0.36 inches. A “9mm” gun has a barrel diameter of 9 millimeters.

  Carbine: A long gun with a shorter barrel than a traditional musket or rifle.

  Cartridge: Ammunition for a firearm that most often bundles a bullet, gunpowder, and primer in a metallic case.

  Centerfire cartridge: A cartridge in which the primer is located at the center of the head. Centerfire cartridges have overtaken “rimfire” cartridges in most modern firearms.

  Chamber: An area at the breech end of a barrel where the cartridge is inserted before a gun is fired.

  Clip: A device that holds together rounds of ammunition, typically to prepare for insertion into a magazine.

  Derringer: A small, single-shot, large-bore gun.

  Double-action: Allows a revolver to be used in “single action”—cocking the hammer and then squeezing the trigger one shot at a time—or by simply squeezing the trigger to fire, thus the “double action.”

  Flintlock: A lock that uses a flint in the hammer to strike a spark to ignite the primer powder in the flashpan.

  Frizzen: Typically an L-shaped piece of steel at the rear of a flintlock action that is hit by a flint-tipped hammer to create sparks and ignite the primer powder.

  Gauge: Typically the diameter of the bore in a shotgun.

  Hammer: A device that strikes the firing pin or primer.

  Harquebus: The Dutch name for a widely used sixteenth-century heavy musket typically rested on a forked pole.

  Lever action: A type of action that is used to load a new cartridge into the chamber of the barrel by working a lever located around (or part of) the trigger guard.

  Lock: The mechanism of the gun that allows it to fire, e.g., “matchlock” and “flintlock.” Referred to as a lock because the early mechanisms resembled door locks.

  Long rifle: More popularly known as the Kentucky rifle or Pennsylvania rifle, one of the first widely used rifles in North America for hunting and warfare.

  Magazine: A storage device that feeds ammunition into the firearm.

  Magnum: A nonscientific term used to describe large cartridges.

  Match: A long braided cord sometimes soaked in a solution of saltpeter that burns slowly at around four to five inches an hour, used to ignite the primer powder in a matchlock firearm.

  Matchlock: One of the earliest locks where the priming powder is ignited by a slow match.

  Nipple: A small protrusion in the breech end of a percussion-cap gun.

  Percussion cap: A cylinder of copper or brass containing a shock-sensitive explosive that is placed over a metal ”nipple” at the breech end of the gun barrel.

  Pistol: A handheld gun in which the chamber is part of the barrel.

  Recoil: The rearward movement of a firearm caused by the momentum of firing.

  Revolver: A repeating handgun featuring a r
evolving cylinder with multiple chambers for cartridges.

  Rifle: A long-barreled firearm featuring a pattern of grooves cut into the bore walls to allow more precise long-range shooting.

  Rimfire: A cartridge that is shot after the firing pin ignites the powder when striking the rim, rather than the center, of the base.

  Safety: A mechanism that prevents the inadvertent firing of the gun.

  Semiautomatic gun: A type of firearm that fires one cartridge with one trigger squeeze but prepares the gun for the next shot.

  Shell: A cartridge containing multiple metallic projectiles designed to be fired in a shotgun.

  Shotgun: A smoothbore long gun that fires shells and is shot from the shoulder.

  Single-action: A gun that can be fired only by cocking the hammer and then squeezing the trigger one shot at a time.

  Smoothbore gun: A firearm, like many of the early muskets and contemporary shotguns, that features a barrel without any rifling.

  Stock: Sometimes referred to as the gunstock or buttstock, it is the part of the long gun or rifle that a person holds when aiming and shooting.

  Wheellock gun: A firearm with a rotating steel wheel that creates sparks, like some cigarette lighters, igniting the primer powder.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The posse that attacked Christie’s fort on November 3, 1892

  No matter whose name appears on the front cover, writing a book is always a collaborative project. I’m grateful to my indefatigable agents, Keith Urbahn and Matt Latimer, and everyone else at Javelin, for helping me transform my passion into a book.

  I doubt that anyone could have brought the project to fruition with more deftness than my editor, Natasha Simons, who showed preternatural patience while keeping me focused and helping me mold a surprisingly complicated narrative. Thanks as well to Hannah Brown, Caitlyn Reuss, Jon Karp, Al Madocs, Kristen Lemire, Lewelin Polanco, and everyone else at Threshold Editions for their support and unmatched professionalism.

  Of course, though the folks above repeatedly saved me from myself, any mistakes in First Freedom are all my own.

  Thanks, as well, to Ben Shapiro and David Limbaugh for reading the book and offering kind words. The same goes for Charles Cooke, who not only helped me ponder the role of guns in American life with his insightful writings on the Second Amendment but sparked my interest in peculiar early-nineteenth-century firearms over drinks.

  My gratitude also goes out to John Ealy, Phil and Karen Myers, and Harris Vederman, and everyone else who let me bounce ideas off of them while writing First Freedom.

  Thanks to my colleague Mollie Hemingway for her counsel and friendship. My bosses at The Federalist, Ben Domenech and Sean Davis, have allowed me to participate in some of the most raucous political debates of our time. For that I’m grateful. Working with them, Joy Pullmann, Madeline Osburn, Rachel Stoltzfoos, Mary Katherine Ham, Bre Payton, David Marcus, John Daniel Davidson, Mark Hemingway, and Robert Tracinski, and all the other smart people who write for The Federalist, has been a joy.

  I also appreciate the efforts of those who edit my work elsewhere and help me be a better writer: David Yontz and Alissa Stevens at Creators Syndicate, Jason Steorts at National Review, and Seth Mandel at the New York Post.

  The folks who work at the National Rifle Association’s National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia, greatly enhanced my understanding of the history of the gun. (Everyone should visit if they have the chance.) Even more, the passionate amateur historians I met and overheard on my visits were equally enlightening. Thanks also to the National Archive and American Antiquarian Society for their assistance.

  To Mom and Dad, who taught us about liberty (among many other things), your support has been invaluable. Thanks to the rest of the Harsanyi clan: Boaz, Oren, Mary Kate, Anne, Hannah, Szerena, Noah, Sadie, and Grayson. To Jim and Eva, Paul and Theresa, and Paul Jr., thank you for your support.

  My greatest debt is to my family. Leah and Adira, who listened to their father prattle on about matchlock muskets and the life of Sam Colt for months, are always supportive. But I could never have written this book—or done any of the things I do—without the patience, backing, and love of my wife, Carla. Thank you.

  About the Author

  COURTESY OF JENNY BOSAK

  DAVID HARSANYI is a senior editor at The Federalist and a nationally syndicated columnist. His work appears regularly in National Review, the New York Post, and many other publications.

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  NOTES

  The New Hampshire Sharp-Shooters

  PROLOGUE: From Prey to Predator

  1 Nicolas, Wade, Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors (Penguin, 2007), p. 151.

  2 Ibid.

  3 Crosby, Alfred W., Throwing Fire: Projectile Technology Through History (Cambridge Press, 2010), p. 15.

  4 de Lazaro, Enrico, “Stone Tools Hint at 71,000-Year-Old Advanced Lethal Technology,” Science News, Nov. 8, 2012.

  5 Huley, Vic, Arrows Against Steel: The History of the Bow and How It Forever Changed Warfare (Cerberus Books, 2011), p. 14.

  6 Morgan, Edmund S., “In Love With Guns,” New York Review of Books, Oct. 19, 2000.

  7 Hacker, Barton C., “Gunpowder and Firearms: Warfare in Medieval India, and Warfare and Weaponry in South Asia 1000–1800,” Technology and Culture 46, no. 4 (Oct. 2005).

  8 For more on the first battle to use both the longbow and the gun, see de Wailly, Henri, Crécy, 1346: Anatomy of a Battle (Sterling, 1987).

  9 Partington, J. R., A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), p. 98.

  10 Hogg, Ian V., Artillery: Its Origin, Heyday, and Decline (Archon, 1970), p. 41.

  11 Ibid, p. 4.

  12 Norris, John, Artillery: A History (History Press, 2012), p. 29.

  13 Crosby, Throwing Fire, p. 113.

  14 Ambrogi, Stefano, “Site of Britain’s First Ever Gunbattle Revealed,” Reuters, Dec. 2, 2010.

  15 Pauly, Roger, Firearms: The Life Story of a Technology (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 16.

  1: First Contact

  1 Jennings, Francis, The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire: The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes with English Colonies (W. W. Norton; reprint edition, 1990), p. 41.

  2 Hearn, Kelly, “First Known Gunshot Victim in Americas Discovered,” National Geographic News, June 19, 2007.

  3 Rose, Alexander, American Rifle (Delta, 2009), p. 3.

  4 Champlain, Samuel de, The Works of Samuel de Champlain (University of Toronto, 1922), p. 129, https://archive.org/details/worksofsamueldec02chamuoft.

  5 The story is relayed in John Smith’s “The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles,” written in 1624, http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/smith/smith.html.

  6 Champlain, The Works of Samuel de Champlain, p. 99.

  2: Pilgrim’s Progress

  1 Johnson, Caleb, Of Plymouth Plantation: Along with the Full Text of the Pilgrims’ Journals (Xlibris, 2006), p. 119.

  2 For more on the Pilgrims’ first meeting with the Indians, see Philbrick, Nathaniel, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (Penguin Books, 2007), pp. 56–77.

  3 Bunker, Nick, Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their New World; A History (New York: Knopf, 2010), p. 37.


  4 Boorstin, Daniel J., “The Therapy Of Distance,” American Heritage 27, no. 4 (June 1976).

  5 Goldstein, Karin, “Arms & Armor of the Pilgrims,” Curator of Collections, Pilgrim Society, http://www.pilgrimhall.org/pdf/Arms_Armor_of_Pilgrims.pdf.

  6 Cramer, Clayton, Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie (Thomas Nelson, 2009), p. 4.

  7 Malcolm, Joyce, To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right (Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 139.

  8 Cramer, Armed America, p. 17.

  9 Alden, Ebenezer, Memorial of the Descendants of the Hon. John Alden, Member of the American Antiquarian Society, New England Historic Genealogical Society, &c. Published for the family: 1867.

  10 Peterson, Harold Leslie, Arms and Armor in Colonial America, 1526–1783 (Bramhall House, 1956), p. 38.

  11 As of this writing, the remnants of the pistol are on display at the Historic Jamestowne Museum in Jamestown, Virginia.

  12 Greener, W. W., The Gun and Its Development (Skyhorse; 9th edition, 2013), p. 97.

  13 Pauly, Firearms, p. 51.

  14 Falkner, James, Marlborough’s War Machine, 1702–1711 (Pen and Sword Military, 2014), p. 87.

  15 Johnson, Samuel, The Sayings of Doctor Johnson, (Duckworth Overlook, 1911), p. xvi, https://archive.org/details/sirsaiddrjohnson00john.

  16 Malcolm, To Keep and Bear Arms, p. 12.