Guns

<p><span class="deck">When American colonists sorely needed friends, a Dutch island governor risked political ruin by saluting the rebels’ flag</span></p>

<p>It's the only industrial nation in which the possession of rifles, shotguns, and handguns is lawfully prevalent among large numbers of its population.</p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">The National Rifle Association and the Right to Bear Arms</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">On a warm Florida evening in 1933 a madman with a pistol and a personality profile now all too familiar—“unskilled, unfriendly, unmoneyed, and unwell”—came within inches of altering the course of American history in one of its most critical moments</span> </span></p>

<p>To find out what the Founding generation said about "well-regulated militias" and the right to bear arms, we researched all the colonial and state constitutions enacted before 1791.</p>

<p>Here are the original opinion and dissents in the famous Supreme Court case that defined the modern version of the "right to bear arms." </p>

<p>Here are some amusing -- and some very sad -- images we collected from the archives of <em>American Heritage</em>.</p>

<p>To know what the Framers intended, we need to understand the late-18th century historical context.</p>

<p>One of the best-known advocates of gun rights outlines where he thinks compromise is possible.</p>

<p>The Supreme Court left the door open for reasonable regulations of guns, if Congress has the will to act.</p>

<p>Given the recent tragic shootings, historians should play a role in providing dispassionate facts regarding the history of gun rights and gun control.</p>

<p>After ten years of research into the history of gun rights, it’s clear that most Americans' understanding of the “right to bear arms” is not consistent with historical facts.</p>

<p>Some of the most important essays on gun rights, gun culture, and the meaning of the Second Amendment have appeared in <em>American Heritage </em>over the last 50 years.</p>