First Freedom Read online

  11 Pyle, Ernie, Brave Men (University of Nebraska Press, 2001), p. 394.

  12 Lanning, Col. Michael Lee, Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam (Ballantine Books, 1998), p. 59.

  13 For more on the history of sniping schools, see Lanning, Michael Lee, Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam (Ballantine, 2013).

  14 For Cass’s story, see Dockery, Kevin, Stalkers and Shooters: A History of Snipers (Dutton Caliber; reprint edition, 2007).

  15 Haskew,The Sniper at War, p. 107.

  16 Plaster, Major John, History of Sniping and Sharpshooting (Paladin Press, 2008), p. 202.

  17 Distinguished Service Cross, Adelbert F. Waldron, https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=4500.

  20: Peace Dividends

  1 Hanson, Victor Davis, “The World’s Most Popular Gun: The Long Road to the AK-47,” New Atlantis, no. 32 (Summer 2011), pp. 140–47.

  2 Noble, Holcomb B., “Eugene Stoner, 74, Designer of M-16 Rifle and Other Arms,” New York Times, April 27, 1997.

  3 Rose, American Rifle, p. 267.

  4 Hallahan, William H., Misfire: The History of How America’s Small Arms Have Failed Our Military (Scribner, 1994), p. 467.

  5 Coffey, Patrick, American Arsenal: A Century of Weapon Technology and Strategy (Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 243.

  6 Gibson, James William, The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam (Atlantic Monthly, 2000), p. 130.

  7 Bartocci, Christopher R., “AR-15/M16: The Rifle That Was Never Supposed to Be,” Gun Digest, July 16, 2012.

  8 “Report of the M16 Rifle Review Panel,” June 1, 1968, http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a953117.pdf.

  9 Hallock, Richard R. (Colonel U.S. Army (Retired), “M-16 Rifle Case Study,” Prepared for the Chairman of the President’s Blue Ribbon Defense Panel, March 16, 1970, http://pogoarchives.org/labyrinth/09/02.pdf.

  10 Chivers, The Gun, p. 404.

  11 Reuters, “AK-47 Inventor: U.S. Troops in Iraq Prefer My Rifle to Theirs,” April 17, 2006.

  12 Neuman, Scott, “Letter: Kalashnikov Suffered Remorse over Rifle He Invented,” National Public Radio online, Jan. 13, 2014.

  13 Ibid.

  14 Heintz, Jim, “Gun Designer: ‘Blame Nazis’ for creation of the AK-47,” Associated Press, Dec. 23, 2013.

  21: The Great Argument

  1 Duffy, Peter, “100 Years Ago, a Killing That Spurred a Gun Law,” New York Times, Jan. 24, 2011, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05EED7123EF937A15752C0A9679D8B63.

  2 Article 265—NY Penal Law. http://ypdcrime.com/penal.law/article265.htm.

  3 Frye, Brian L., at the University of Kentucky College of Law, “The Peculiar Story of United States v. Miller,” NYU Journal of Liberty and Law 3, no. 48 (2008), p. 58, http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1263&context=law_facpub.

  4 Ibid.

  5 Doherty, Brian, Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle over the Second Amendment (Cato Institute, 2009), pp. 16–17.

  6 Latzer, Brian, The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America (Encounter, 2016), p. 75.

  7 Ibid., p. 119.

  8 Congressional Record, vol. 114, part 3, p. 3732.

  9 Coleman, Arica, L., “When the NRA Supported Gun Control,” Time, July 29, 2016, http://time.com/4431356/nra-gun-control-history/.

  10 Doherty, Brian, Gun Control on Trial, p. 46.

  11 Wilson, Robert L., Ruger and His Guns: A History of the Man, the Company & Their Firearms (Chartwell Books, 2008), p. 11.

  12 National Firearm Museum, Bill Ruger Prototype Semi-Auto Rifle, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXg5bWyTsVI.

  13 Wilson, Ruger and His Guns, p. 4.

  14 Brown, Aaron, “Behind America’s Gun Boom: Inside the Comeback at Sturm, Ruger,” Forbes, Nov. 5, 2012, https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2012/10/17/behind-americas-gun-boom-inside-the-comeback-at-sturm-ruger/.

  15 Gallup News Trends: Guns, http://news.gallup.com/poll/1645/Guns.aspx.

  16 General Social Survey Final Report, “Trends in Gun Ownership in the United States, 1972–2014,” NORC at the University of Chicago, March 2015.

  17 United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “Firearms Commerce in the United States, 2016,” https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/docs/2016-firearms-commerce-united-states/download.

  18 Krouse, William J., Specialist in Domestic Security and Crime Policy, “Gun Control Legislation,” Congressional Research Service, Nov. 14, 2012, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32842.pdf.

  CONCLUSION: Molon Labe

  1 Tucker, St. George. Blackstone’s Commentaries: With Notes of Reference to the Constitution and Laws of the Federal Government of the United States and of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Amendment II Document, http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendIIs7.html.

  2 W. H. Sumner to John Adams, 3 May 1823, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-7811.

  3 Volokh, Eugene, UCLA Law School, “State Constitutional Rights to Keep and Bear Arms,” Texas Review of Law & Politics 191, 2006, http://www2.law.ucla.edu/volokh/beararms/statecon.htm.

  4 Curtis, Michael Kent, No State Shall Abridge: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights (Duke University Press, 1990), p. 111.

  5 Great Speeches by American Women (Dover, 2007), p. 61.

  6 Johnson, Nicholas, Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms (Prometheus, 2014), p. 132.

  7 Halbrook, Stephen P., and Richard E. Gardiner, “NRA and Law Enforcement Opposition to the Brady Act: From Congress to the District Courts,” Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development 10, no. 1, article 2 (September 1994).

  8 “Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment,” Michigan Law Review 82, no. 204 (1983).

  9 Neily, Clark, “District of Columbia v. Heller: The Second Amendment Is Back, Baby,” Cato Supreme Court Review (2008), p. 132.

  10 Liptak, Adam, “Carefully Plotted Course Propels Gun Case to Top,” New York Times, Dec. 3, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/us/03bar.html.

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/>
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  INDEX

  A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

  NOTE: Bold page numbers refer to pictures.

  Aberdeen Proving Ground (Maryland): gun tests at, 218

  accuracy, 13, 29, 94, 117. See also marksmanship; sharpshooters

  Adams, Abigail, 33

  Adams, John, 33, 56, 63, 75–76, 240

  Adams, John Quincy, 103

  Adams, Robert, 138

  Adams, Samuel, 38, 44, 45, 50, 74, 77–78

  Adams, Samuel (printer): murder of, 96–97

  Afghanistan, 205

  Ager, Wilson, 162

  Ain Jalut, Battle of (1260), 5

  Air Force, U.S.: and AR-15 rifles, 220

  air rifles, 90–91

  AK-47 (Chinese), 215

  AK-47 (Kalashnikov), 215–17, 222–24

  al-Hassan, Ahmad, 5

  Alden, John: musket of, 21–22

  Algonquin Indians, 11, 13–14

  Allin, Erskine, 131

  Allison, Clay, 136

  American Revolution

  American enlistments in, 71

  American militia in, 53

  armories during, 88–89

  beginning of, 33, 35

  and British confiscation of guns, 44–45, 46–47, 50, 52, 240

  British force during, 47

  and British image of American soldiers, 46

  and cannons, 40

  and civil rights, 47

  Cornwallis surrender in, 70

  events leading to, 42–53

  first American victory in, 41

  formation of Continental Army for, 52

  French role in, 39, 41, 61, 64, 68–69

  and gunpowder, 31–41, 31, 45, 46

  histories of, 238–39

  Kentucky rifles in, 86