To keep and bear arms : the origins of an Anglo-American right

Summary: Joyce Malcolm illuminates the historical facts underlying the current passionate debate about gun-related violence, the Brady Bill, and the NRA, revealing the original meaning and intentions behind the individual right to "bear arms." Few on either side of the Atlantic realize that this extraordinary, controversial, and least understood liberty was a direct legacy of English law. This book explains how the Englishmen's hazardous duty evolved into a right, and how it was transferred to America and transformed into the Second Amendment.

Item details

ISBN: 0674893069 (acid-free paper)
ISBN: 9780674893061 (acid-free paper)
Physical Description: print
xii, 232 p. ; 25 cm.
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1994.

Contents / Notes

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (p. [181]-223) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	1. A people armed -- 2. Bearing arms through war and revolution -- 3. The dissidents disarmed -- 4. The gentleman's game -- 5. Enforcement of arms restrictions -- 6. James II and control of firearms -- 7. Arms for their defence: the making of a "true, ancient, and indubitable right" -- 8. The Second Amendment and the English legacy.