America’s Gun Problem: Pilgrims, Confederates, and the NRA

By Carlos Alfonso Chaves

Photograph: Steve Eberhardt/Demotix/Corbis

Amongst a myriad of controversial issues that permeate American politics, few are quite as contentious as the role of the gun in modern American society. But where does this fervent topic come from? Where is gun culture the strongest? How did it become a relevant force in politics? Many of these answers lie 4 score and 7 years ago, and those effects still reverberate to this day. Most importantly, how do these cultural tendencies shackle the modern U.S.A.?

During the early colonization of the Americas, Britain relied heavily upon local colonial militias to maintain and expand their territories, especially considering that these colonies weren’t profitable initially—especially the colonies south of Virginia. Unlike the Spanish colonies, England promoted the idea of social mobility within the colonies. A precursor to the modern “American Dream”. The idea was that any (white, preferably protestant) man could land on the new virgin lands and carve his land for himself with minimal interference from the British motherland. The best example of this libertarian dream coming true is Roger Williams, who after being ousted from the Massachusetts Bay Colony bought his own property and expanded it to form the colony of Rhode Island, built with Roger William’s rules in mind. With minimal interference from Britain. In theory, this looks like the Libertarian Dream, but how does the gun play into all this? In a culture where property rights aren’t just respected but enshrined, people needed a reliable method of keeping what’s yours from others and from an overreaching government. And for that, they needed the gun. In a society where every man had to carve his own destiny, autonomous expansion could only be done through the gun. This was the perfect arrangement for the British Empire, as the colonies were cheap, could defend themselves, and expand on their own, which allowed Britain to focus on other matters. Fast forward to 1776, the colonists were getting uppity for a laundry list of reasons and were threatening outright rebellion. The guns that had once worked so well for Britain had now been turned on them. In an attempt to forcibly quell and weaken the colonies, Britain attempted to take the colonists' guns. As per Stephen P. Hallbrook, legal and political philosopher: “By early 1775, the British began a de facto policy of disarming the colonists".

What was actually going on may be exemplified by the experience of one Thomas Ditson, who was tarred and feathered by British soldiers. In his affidavit, Ditson claimed, “I enquired of some Townsmen who had any guns to sell; one whom I did not know, replied he had a very fine Gun to sell.” Since the one who offered the gun was a soldier, Ditson continued: "There was something not right . . . and left the Gun, and coming away he followed me and urg’d the Gun upon me. . ." When he finally paid money to the soldier, several other soldiers appeared and seized Ditson, whom they proceeded to tar and feather.

Examples of British tyranny such as that of Thomas Ditson were commonplace in the years before the Revolution and were a major issue that the Constitution aimed to fix. This led to the creation of creation arguably the most famous amendment just behind Freedom of Speech: The Right to Bear Arms.

To pin American gun culture on the colonial militias and the Brits would be erroneous at best and disingenuous at worst, and would be ignoring three massive developments of the 19th century. First, would be American Expansion out west. After trouncing Mexico in the Mexican-American War, the U.S. gained a massive amount of territory. The states of California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Utah were made from the territorial concessions made in the War. A total of 525,000 square miles of sparsely populated land was ripe for settlement. And a repeat of the first colonists’ expansion into America had occurred. The gun once again became the best way to expand and protect your property. Considering that the only people who opposed this expansion were the Native Americans, expansion was seen as not just beneficial for the U.S., but a moral imperative to spread civilization to the West. Naturally, the gun filled the role of defending against Native “Savages”.

The second major event regionalized the gun obsession of the U.S.. Throughout the development of the U.S., the question of Slavery dominated the political mainstream through the 1850’s. In this timeframe, the North had begun to move away from agricultural exports and industrialized. Slavery had largely been abolished as the Northern states never needed slavery to run their economy they were more trade-oriented. The North became more abolitionist since there was no need for slaves and they viewed it as a moral abomination. With no lower class to overtly oppress and having no land to “protect from outsiders” (They’d cleared the Natives by the late 16th century, and the North had no fears of a domestic immigrant uprising in places like Boston or NYC), the need for the gun was lessened. The South on the other hand was hellbent on keeping slavery as the premier socioeconomic institution of the South, and as such had a massive underclass to actively oppress. Over the 1800’s, the South became more libertarian regarding property rights. And to clarify, when the Antebellum South refers to “property rights”, they mean ownership of slaves. The gun and the whip were absolutely crucial to enforce the hierarchy present in the South, as there was an omnipresent fear of a total slave revolt. These fears were made flesh by Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in 1831. A local Southerner named Nelson Allyn said this in a correspondence to his brother a short while after the rebellion:

“The insurrection of the blacks have made greate disturbance here every man is armd with a gun by his bed nights and in the field at work a greate many of the blacks have been shot there heads taken of stuck on poles at the forkes of rodes some been hung, some awaiting there trial in several countys, 6 in this county I expect to see them strecht ther trial nex week there is no danger of their rising again here.”

This rebellion fed into a fear of the black underclass and what they’d do should their chains be broken, now the gun didn’t just protect your property, it kept your property in line. This fear would lead to increasingly hanus atrocities. Yankee-Dixie tensions reached a boiling point with Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the elections. When Lincoln was sworn into office, most of the South had already seceded. They cited the need for and the North’s hostility towards slavery as the main reason for secession. For the South, an attack on slavery was an attack on the ability to own property. Another “overreaching” government had come to strip them of their rights. The already militant South, who’d already engaged in violent behavior in respect to keeping the blacks in line had now turned their guns on the Federal Government and started the American Civil War. Luckily for the rest of America, the South proceeded to lose the Civil War.

The final development was a relatively minor one when it was first established but metastasized into a massive political force in the modern day. That being the establishment and politicization of the National Rifle Association. Established in 1871 by Union veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate, who wanted to “promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis”. In essence, the NRA was created to promote firearm safety and good marksmanship. They did this by hosting major marksman competitions and promoting other marksman sports, which would in turn teach about professionalism around weapons. Following the many assassinations of the 1960s, the Gun Control Act was signed, leading to a split within NRA leadership. Each side bickering to no avail, this state of affairs would change in 1971, during the event known as the Revolt at Cincinnati. Led by former NRA President Harlon Carter and Gun Rights activist Neal Knox, a massive splinter group democratically ousted the standing president and shifted the NRA toward the Republican Party. Up to the modern day, the NRA’s numbers have swelled to around 4.3 Million people, and have become a premier lobbying force. Thanks to the NRA, gun culture in America had gained a face and an authoritative voice in politics.

Throughout its history, Gun Culture exhibits a few aspects on American society:

1. Gun Rights are inherently tied to Property Rights.

2. The new property to be taken both in the original 13 Colonies and in the expansion out

   West exacerbated a need for rifles to defend property

3. Thanks to Slavery, property rights were sacred in the South, and with it came a more

   militarized society, culminating in the Civil War.

4. The NRA turning into a lobbying powerhouse gave gun culture a formal say in Politics.

The prevalence of guns in the American South (And other Republican States) is something that could’ve been rooted out given time and legislation. A Democrat president signed the previously mentioned Gun Control Act. But once the tough-on-crime Republican Richard Nixon came into power, he wanted an outright ban on handguns. As per the Associated Press:

““I don’t know why any individual should have a right to have a revolver in his house,” Nixon said in a taped conversation with aides. “The kids usually kill themselves with it and so forth.” He asked why “can’t we go after handguns, period?””

“Nixon went on: “I know the rifle association will be against it, the gun makers will be against it.” But “people should not have handguns.””

Even though a Republican President has stood for gun control, the NRA had been able to for all intents and purposes, purchase government policy. Which would allow them to stifle future attempts at gun control. But despite everything listed above, what are the tangible effects of the origins and promulgation of gun culture in America?

The map above is Business Insider’s map of gun deaths by state per 100k people. As shown by the map, a much higher rate is demonstrated by the states of the Deep South. Furthermore, states with stricter gun laws like California and New York consistently show lower firearm death rates. This map correlates nicely with Social Sciences grad Kathy Morris’ 2022 map, showing general gun friendliness by state.

In that same article, it was stated that in the U.S. there were 393,347,000 guns. In 2022, the population of America was 333.3 Million. Meaning that there were 1.18 guns for every person in America. Just further showing the stranglehold that guns have over America. Above was an explanation for the gun culture in America and more specifically the Dixie South, it wasn’t a sentencing. America has proven time and time again to break past cultural and political roadblocks, but to get there, politicians would need to fight against centuries of legislature and culture for the greater good. The existence of such a dominant gun culture not only harms America’s citizens but actively impedes the nation from creating a more perfect union.