Guns and Gun Control | Topic Guide: Books & Ebooks

This book provides an overview of prior judicial treatment of the Second Amendment, with a focus on the litigation of Colombia versus Heller and the potential impact of its outcome. Heller marks the first time in almost 70 years that the Supreme Court has agreed to consider the nature of the right conferred by the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S. Respondent Heller, a DC special policeman, applied to register a handgun he wished to keep at home, but the District refused. The District Court dismissed the suit, but the DC Circuit reversed, holding that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to possess firearms.

Thoroughly updated and greatly expanded from its original edition, this three-volume set is the go-to comprehensive resource on the legal, social, psychological, political, and public health aspects of guns in American life. * 450 alphabetically organized entries, including 100 new for this edition, covering key issues (suicide, video games and gun violence, firearm injury statistics) and events (workplace shootings, the Virginia Tech massacre) * 102 expert contributors from all academic fields involved in studying the causes and effects of gun violence * A chronology of pivotal moments and controversies in the history of firearm ownership and use in the United States * An exhaustive bibliography of print and online resources covering all aspects of the study of guns in the United States * Appendices on federal gun laws, state gun laws, and pro- and anti-gun-control organizations

In the United States more than thirty thousand deaths each year can be attributed to firearms. This book on the history of guns in America examines the Second Amendment and the laws and court cases it has spawned. The author's thorough and objective account shows the complexities of the issue, which are so often reduced to bumper-sticker slogans, and suggests ways in which gun violence in this country can be reduced. Briggs profiles not only protagonists in the national gun debate but also ordinary people, showing the ways guns have become part of the lives of many Americans. Among them are gays and lesbians, women, competitive trapshooters, people in the gun-rights and gun-control trenches, the NRA's first female president, and the most successful gunsmith in American history. Balanced and painstakingly unbiased, Briggs's account provides the background needed to follow gun politics in America and to understand the gun culture in which we are likely to live for the foreseeable future.

Guns are everywhere: three quarters of a billion guns - from pistols to machine guns - exist in the world today. And guns are everything: a hard-won symbol of individual freedom, an index of crime and disorder, a whole industry legitimately contributing to an economy, a popular piece of sports equipment, and an object of desire, endlessly duplicated by toys, video games and films. Open Fire presents a broad analysis of the social, cultural and political significance of firearms and the worlds they create. Illustrated with a wide range of case material - from North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa - Open Fire explores and questions this global icon of our times. Why do guns proliferate? What does it mean to shoot or to be shot? Who owns guns and who does not? How is a firearm, a manufactured thing, very different from any other object? Is there such a thing as a "gun psychology"? How are firearms regarded in places where they are largely non-existent? Is a gun a different thing when held by a white man?