"From Colonial times Americans have been conditioned to regard arms-bearing by private citizens as a right rather than as a privilege subject to strict government control. Only in the twentieth century, with the emergence of an urban society, have the old attitudes been challenged and the debate opened over the 'right' to bear arms: first, by the restrictive legislation of the 1930s, and more recently, by the events of the [1960s] which resulted in the legislation of 1968. [This book] explains why the key to understanding America's present 'gun problem' lies in its past. The basic contention of authors Lee Kennett and James Anderson is that the role of firearms in American history is unparalleled by the experience of other countries, largely because of the unique origins of American society. Since settlement and expansion took place in an often hostile environment, the population was compelled to defend itself by the most practical means then available--the gun. Ideologically, eighteenth-century philosophers encouraged the notion that the citizen-soldier was the best guarantor of his own freedom. This idea became embodied in the myth of the Minuteman and enshrined in the Second Amendment to the Constitution. During the nineteenth century, Westward expansion without the protection of a militarized frontier, along with the distinctly American idea that wildlife resources were an inexhaustible public property, further perpetuated the permissive attitude toward firearms. And soon the American firearms industry gained international repute through its technological achievements. The approach of [this book] is essentially historical and chronological, steering a course between the heavily technical and the sensational. Kennett and Anderson do not propose to explain why an American is inclined to do bodily harm to his neighbor, but they do show why he is historically conditioned to reach for a gun, and why one is at hand."--Dust jacket.