The Second Amendment and Gun Control ─ Freedom, Fear, and the American Constitution

The Second Amendment, by far the most controversial amendment to the US Constitution, will soon celebrate its 225^th anniversary. Yet, despite the amount of ink and, indeed, blood spilled over this controversy, the debate continues on into the 21^st century. Initially written with a view towards protecting the nascent nation from more powerful enemies and preventing the tyranny experienced during the final years of British rule, the Second Amendment has since become central to discussions about the balance between security and freedom. It features in election contests and informs cultural discussions about race and gender.

This book situates discussion about gun controls within contemporary debates about culture, philosophy and foreign policy as well as in the more familiar terrain of politics and history. It features experts on the Constitution as well as chapters discussing the symbolic importance of Annie Oakley, the role of firearms in discussions of the Black Panthers, and filmic representations of armed Hispanic girl gangs. It asks about the morality of gun controls and of not imposing them.

The collection presents a balanced view between those who favor more gun controls and those who would prefer fewer of them. It is infused with the belief that through honest and open debate the often bitter cultural divide on the Second Amendment can be overcome and real progress made. It contains a diverse range of perspectives including, uniquely, a European perspective on this most American of issues.

Kevin Yuill is Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Sunderland. His research and teaching interests are broad and interdisciplinary. His concentration is on intellectual history of the United States. He has written on gun control in A Cultural History of Firearms in an Age of Empire (Ashgate Press, pp. 211-230) and in journalistic articles. His monographs include Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action: The Pursuit of Racial Equality in an Era of Limits (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006) and, more recently, Assisted Suicide: The Liberal, Humanist Case Against Legalization (Palgrave, 2013).

Joe Street is Senior Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Northumbria. His work focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area in the postwar period and African American radicalism in the 1960s and 1970s. His publications include: ‘The Shadow of the Soul Breaker: Solitary Confinement, Cocaine, and the Disintegration of Huey P. Newton’, Pacific Historical Review 84, 3, (August 2015) and ‘The Historiography of the Black Panther Party’ Journal of American Studies 44, (2010). His latest book, entitled, Dirty Harry’s America: Clint Eastwood, Harry Callahan and the Conservative Backlash, will be published with the University Press of Florida in 2016.