Big Trouble in Little Print
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Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal
Book Review Fall from Grace: Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal James Lindgrent Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. By Michael A. Bellesiles.* New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Pp. 603. $30.00. Bellesiles has dispersed the darkness that covered the gun's early history in America. He provides overwhelming evidence that our view of the gun is as deep a superstition as any that affected Native Americans in the 17th century. -Garry Wills, New York Times' t Stanford Clinton Sr. Professor of Law, Director of the Demography of Diversity Project, Northwestern University School of Law. Chair, AALS Section on Law and Social Science. J.D., University of Chicago; B.A., Yale University; currently Ph.D. student, Sociology, University of Chicago. This Review was funded by the Searle Fund at Northwestern University. I would like to thank the many unnamed people who contributed to my understanding of Arming America, but particularly those whose work is discussed here-Randolph Roth on homicides, Robert Churchill on militia arms and gun censuses, Justin Heather on edge weapons and probate, Eugene Volokh on legal history, and Clayton Cramer on travel accounts, gun ownership restrictions, and other matters. I am also indebted to those who located and carefully examined documents in Contra Costa County-David Golden, Betty Massei, Dean McCloud, Kathy Beals, and Kathleen Mero- and to David Golden and the staff of the History Center for their help during my research visit there. While this Review deals mostly with issues other than probate records, the probate discussion in particular is based on James Lindgren & Justin L. -
Counting Guns in Early America
UC Berkeley Law and Economics Workshop Title Counting Guns in Early America Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8d90006r Author Lindgren, James Publication Date 2002-02-21 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California ABSTRACT Counting Guns in Early America James Lindgren and Justin Lee Heather Northwestern University Probate inventories, though perhaps the best prevailing source for determining ownership patterns in early America, are incomplete and fallible. In this article, the authors suggest that inferences about who owned guns can be improved by using multivariate techniques and control variables of other common objects. To determine gun ownership from probate inventories, the authors examine three databases in detail—Alice Hanson Jones’ national sample of 919 inventories (1774), 149 inventories from Providence, RI (1679-1726), and Gunston Hall Plantation’s sample of 325 inventories from Maryland and Virginia (1740-1810). Also discussed are a sample of 59 probate inventories from Essex County, MA (1636-1650), Gloria L. Main’s study of 604 Maryland estates (1657-1719), Anna Hawley’s study of 221 Surry County, VA estates (1690-1715), and Judith A. McGaw’s study of 250 estates in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (1714-1789). Guns are found in about 50-73% of the male estates in each of the seven databases and in 6-38% of the female estates in each of the first four databases. Gun ownership is particularly high compared to other common items. For example, in 813 itemized male inventories from the 1774 Jones national database, guns are listed in 54% of estates, compared to only 30% of estates listing any cash, 14% listing swords or edge weapons, 25% listing Bibles, 62% listing any book, and 79% listing any clothes. -
Counting Guns in Early America
William & Mary Law Review Volume 43 (2001-2002) Issue 5 Article 2 April 2002 Counting Guns in Early America James Lindgren [email protected] Justin L. Heather [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr Part of the Other Law Commons Repository Citation James Lindgren and Justin L. Heather, Counting Guns in Early America, 43 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1777 (2002), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol43/iss5/2 Copyright c 2002 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr William and Mary Law Review VOLUME 43 No. 5,2002 COUNTING GUNS IN EARLY AMERICA JAMES LINDGREN* & JUSTIN L. HEATHER** ABSTRACT Probate inventories, though perhaps the best prevailing source for determining ownership patterns in early America, are incomplete and fallible. In this Article, the authors suggest that inferences about who owned guns can be improved by using multivariate techniques and control variables of other common objects. To determine gun ownership from probate inventories, the authors examine three databases in detail-Alice Hanson Jones's national sample of 919 inventories (1774), 149 inventories from Providence, * Stanford Clinton Sr. Research Professor of Law, Director of the Demography of Diversity Project, Northwestern University School of Law; Chair, AALS Section on Social Science. J.D., University of Chicago; B.A., Yale University; currently Ph.D. student, Sociology (concentration in Social Statistics), -
Why Gun Violence Continues Its Rampage Across America: a Comparison of American and Australian Firearm Policies Daniel Schaub University of Nebraska-Lincoln
University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Honors Theses, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Honors Program Spring 3-7-2018 Why Gun Violence Continues Its Rampage Across America: A Comparison of American and Australian Firearm Policies Daniel Schaub University of Nebraska-Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/honorstheses Part of the American Politics Commons, Comparative Politics Commons, and the Political Theory Commons Schaub, Daniel, "Why Gun Violence Continues Its Rampage Across America: A Comparison of American and Australian Firearm Policies" (2018). Honors Theses, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 59. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/honorstheses/59 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Program at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses, University of Nebraska-Lincoln by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. WHY GUN VIOLENCE CONTINUES ITS RAMPAGE ACROSS AMERICA: A COMPARISON OF AMERICAN AND AUSTRALIAN FIREARM POLICIES by Daniel Schaub A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The College of Arts and Sciences and the Honors Program University of Nebraska-Lincoln In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts Major: Political Science Under the Supervision of Dr. Patrice McMahon and Dr. Tyler White Lincoln, Nebraska March, 2018 ABSTRACT WHY GUN VIOLENCE CONTINUES ITS RAMPAGE ACROSS AMERICA: A COMPARISON OF AMERICAN AND AUSTRALIAN FIREARM POLICIES Daniel Schaub University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2018 Advisors: Dr. Patrice McMahon, Dr. Tyler White This thesis is a comparative case study between US and Australian firearm policies and gun culture. -
Bellesiles's Arming America Redux
BELLESILES’S ARMING AMERICA REDUX: DOES THE GUNNING OF AMERICA REWRITE AMERICAN HISTORY TO SUIT MODERN SENSIBILITIES? Clayton E. Cramer* I. ARMING AMERICA: AN ALMOST UNPRECEDENTED HISTORICAL FRAUD A. The Scandal In 1996, Professor Michael Bellesiles of Emory University published a startling paper in the Journal of American History, claiming that the traditional view of guns in American history is “all backwards.”1 He insisted that guns were exceptional, that gun violence—except against African Americans and Indians—was rare, that few Americans owned guns, and that gun possession was tightly controlled.2 He further claimed that only clever marketing and aggressive governmental efforts to sell surplus guns immediately before and after the Civil War created a “gun culture” in America.3 In 2000, Bellesiles wrote another lengthy exploration of these claims: Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture.4 * Adjunct History Faculty, College of Western Idaho. Mr. Cramer is the author of CONCEALED WEAPON LAWS OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC: DUELING, SOUTHERN VIOLENCE, AND MORAL REFORM (1999) (cited by Justice Breyer in McDonald v. City of Chi., 561 U.S. 742, 933 (2010) (Breyer, J., dissenting)), and ARMED AMERICA: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF HOW AND WHY GUNS BECAME AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE (2006), and co-author of, among other articles, Clayton E. Cramer & Joseph Edward Olson, What Did “Bear Arms” Mean in the Second Amendment?, 6 GEO. J.L. & PUB. POL’Y 511 (2008) (cited by Justice Scalia in D.C. v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 588 (2008)), and Clayton E. Cramer, Nicholas J. Johnson & George A.