122-500: The Florida Senate Bill 7026 or the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act is a Florida bill to tighten gun control , school security and school safety. The bill bans bump stocks and raises the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21, and enacts red flag laws among other restrictions. It also allows teachers who receive training to be armed. The Florida Senate passed
244-588: A constitutional right of individual self-defense." The individual right interpretation of the Second Amendment first arose in Bliss v. Commonwealth (1822), which evaluated the right to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state pursuant to Section 28 of the Second Constitution of Kentucky (1799). The right to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state was interpreted as an individual right, for
366-494: A crucial role in national expansion. It facilitated expansion into the West by creating an inexpensive, fast, convenient communication system. Letters from early settlers provided information and boosterism to encourage increased migration to the West, helped scattered families stay in touch and provide neutral help, assisted entrepreneurs to find business opportunities, and made possible regular commercial relationships between merchants and
488-534: A few thousand French migrated to Canada; these habitants settled in villages along the St. Lawrence River , building communities that remained stable for long stretches. Although French fur traders ranged widely through the Great Lakes and midwest region, they seldom settled down. French settlement was limited to a few very small villages such as Kaskaskia, Illinois as well as a larger settlement around New Orleans . In what
610-444: A few years, the pioneer added hogs, sheep, and cattle, and perhaps acquired a horse. Homespun clothing replaced the animal skins. The more restless pioneers grew dissatisfied with over civilized life and uprooted themselves again to move 50 or a hundred miles (80 or 160 km) further west. The land policy of the new nation was conservative, paying special attention to the needs of the settled East. The goals sought by both parties in
732-421: A frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line. In the discussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have a place in the census reports." Despite this, the later 1900 U.S. census continued to show the westward frontier line, and his successors continued
854-599: A living inheritance – as a permanent ingredient of this nation's style and culture". Since the founding-era of American Federalist politics, debates regarding firearm availability and gun violence in the United States have been characterized by concerns about the right to bear arms , as found in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution , and the responsibility of the United States government to serve
976-561: A number of years. According to the Huffington Post, "NAGR is the much leaner, more pugnacious version of the NRA. Where the NRA has looked to find some common ground with gun reform advocates and at least appear to be reasonable, NAGR has been the unapologetic champion of opening up gun laws even more." These groups believe any compromise leads to greater restrictions. According to the authors of The Changing Politics of Gun Control (1998), in
1098-468: A one-room log cabin. The main food supply at first came from hunting deer, turkeys, and other abundant game. Clad in typical frontier garb, leather breeches, moccasins, fur cap, and hunting shirt, and girded by a belt from which hung a hunting knife and a shot pouch—all homemade—the pioneer presented a unique appearance. In a short time he opened in the woods a patch, or clearing, on which he grew corn, wheat, flax, tobacco, and other products, even fruit. In
1220-781: A party of 20 soldiers to find the headwaters of the Mississippi. He later explored the Red and Arkansas Rivers in Spanish territory, eventually reaching the Rio Grande . On his return, Pike sighted the peak in Colorado named after him . Major Stephen Harriman Long (1784–1864) led the Yellowstone and Missouri expeditions of 1819–1820, but his categorizing in 1823 of the Great Plains as arid and useless led to
1342-470: A principal trading center for Mississippi River traffic and inland commerce but remained under Spanish control until 1803. Thomas Jefferson thought of himself as a man of the frontier and was keenly interested in expanding and exploring the West. Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the size of the nation at the cost of $ 15 million, or about $ 0.04 per acre ($ 305 million in 2023 dollars, less than 42 cents per acre). Federalists opposed
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#17330943431171464-529: A profitable monopoly; he left the business as a multi-millionaire in 1834. As the frontier moved west, trappers and hunters moved ahead of settlers, searching out new supplies of beaver and other skins for shipment to Europe. The hunters were the first Europeans in much of the Old West and they formed the first working relationships with the Native Americans in the West. They added extensive knowledge of
1586-416: A right to keep and bear arms for their common defense", while rejecting a challenge to a statute prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons. The Arkansas high court declared "That the words 'a well-regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free State', and the words 'common defense' clearly show the true intent and meaning of these Constitutions [i.e., Arkansas and the U.S.] and prove that it
1708-402: A salutary restraint upon the tribes, who would feel that any foray by their warriors upon the white settlements would meet with prompt retaliation upon their own homes. There was a debate at the time about the best size for the forts with Jefferson Davis , Winfield Scott , and Thomas Jesup supporting forts that were larger but fewer in number than Floyd. Floyd's plan was more expensive but had
1830-564: A spirit of nationalism and providing a necessary infrastructure. The army early on assumed the mission of protecting settlers along with the Westward Expansion Trails , a policy that was described by U.S. Secretary of War John B. Floyd in 1857: A line of posts running parallel without frontier, but near to the Indians' usual habitations, placed at convenient distances and suitable positions, and occupied by infantry, would exercise
1952-675: A storekeeper, a minister, and perhaps a doctor; and there were several landless laborers. All the rest were farmers. In the South, frontier areas that lacked transportation, such as the Appalachian Mountains region, remained based on subsistence farming and resembled the egalitarianism of their northern counterparts, although they had a larger upper-class of slaveowners. North Carolina was representative. However, frontier areas of 1700 that had good river connections were increasingly transformed into plantation agriculture. Rich men came in, bought up
2074-527: Is a political and not an individual right, and, of course, that the State, in her legislative capacity, has the right to regulate and control it: This being the case, then the people, neither individually nor collectively, have the right to keep and bear arms." Joel Prentiss Bishop 's influential Commentaries on the Law of Statutory Crimes (1873) took Buzzard's militia-based interpretation, a view that Bishop characterized as
2196-510: Is famous for classifying and painting in minute details 500 species of birds, published in Birds of America . The most famous of the explorers was John Charles Frémont (1813–1890), an Army officer in the Corps of Topographical Engineers. He displayed a talent for exploration and a genius at self-promotion that gave him the sobriquet of "Pathmarker of the West" and led him to the presidential nomination of
2318-523: Is now New York state the Dutch set up fur trading posts in the Hudson River valley, followed by large grants of land to rich landowning patroons who brought in tenant farmers who created compact, permanent villages. They created a dense rural settlement in upstate New York, but they did not push westward. Areas in the north that were in the frontier stage by 1700 generally had poor transportation facilities, so
2440-584: The American Revolution , there was neither the ability nor political desire to maintain a standing army in the American colonies. Since at least the time of the Glorious Revolution , English political ideology was strongly opposed to the idea of a standing army . Therefore, the armed citizen-soldier carried responsibility. Service in colonial militia, including providing one's own ammunition and weapons,
2562-564: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) as described by Title II . In United States v. Miller (1939) the Court did not address incorporation, but whether a sawn-off shotgun "has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia." In overturning the indictment against Miller, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas stated that
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#17330943431172684-410: The D.C. Circuit became the first federal appeals court to strike down a gun control law on Second Amendment grounds. Smart guns only fire when in the hands of the owner, a feature gun control advocates say eliminates accidental firings by children, and the risk of hostile persons (such as prisoners, criminal suspects, an opponent in a fight, or an enemy soldier) grabbing the gun and using it against
2806-568: The Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 (AWB or AWB 1994), which defined and banned the manufacture and transfer of "semiautomatic assault weapons " and "large capacity ammunition feeding devices. " According to journalist Chip Berlet , concerns about gun control laws along with outrage over two high-profile incidents involving the ATF ( Ruby Ridge in 1992 and the Waco siege in 1993) mobilized
2928-720: The Firearm Owners Protection Act . It was supported by the National Rifle Association because it reversed many of the provisions of the GCA. It also banned ownership of unregistered fully automatic rifles and civilian purchase or sale of any such firearm made from that date forward. The assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981 led to enactment of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Brady Law) in 1993 which established
3050-524: The Gunpowder Incident and a face-off between Patrick Henry and hundreds of militia members on one side and the Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, and British seamen on the other. The Gunpowder Incident was eventually settled by paying the colonists for the powder. According to historian Saul Cornell , states passed some of the first gun control laws, beginning with Kentucky's law to "curb
3172-590: The Louisiana Purchase , giving rise to the expansionist attitude known as " manifest destiny " and historians' " Frontier Thesis ". The legends, historical events and folklore of the American frontier, known as the frontier myth , have embedded themselves into United States culture so much so that the Old West, and the Western genre of media specifically, has become one of the defining features of American national identity. Historians have debated at length as to when
3294-701: The Midwest and American South , though no longer considered "western", have a frontier heritage along with the modern western states. Richard W. Slatta, in his view of the frontier, writes that "historians sometimes define the American West as lands west of the 98th meridian or 98° west longitude ," and that other definitions of the region "include all lands west of the Mississippi or Missouri rivers." Key: States Territories Disputed areas Other countries In
3416-688: The National Academy of Sciences arrived at nearly identical conclusions in 2004. In September of that year, the Assault Weapons Ban expired due to a sunset provision . Efforts by gun control advocates to renew the ban failed, as did attempts to replace it after it became defunct. The NRA opposed bans on handguns in Chicago, Washington D.C., and San Francisco while supporting the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 (also known as
3538-535: The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control , then run by Mark L. Rosenberg , including research authored by Arthur Kellermann . In October 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report on the effectiveness of gun violence prevention strategies that concluded "Evidence was insufficient to determine the effectiveness of any of these laws." A similar survey of firearms research by
3660-667: The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its offshoot the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), and the Second Amendment Sisters (SAS), often take stronger stances than the NRA and criticize its history of support for some firearms legislation, such as GCA. The National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) has been an outspoken critic of the NRA for
3782-479: The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution , as well as in their views on the role of firearms in public safety, their impact on public health, and their relationship to crime rates at both national and state levels. Since the early 21st century, private firearm ownership in the United States has been steadily increasing, with a notable acceleration during and after 2020. According to
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3904-752: The West Coast . Enormous popular attention was focused on the Western United States (especially the Southwest ) in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, from the 1850s to the 1910s. Such media typically exaggerated the romance, anarchy, and chaotic violence of the period for greater dramatic effect. This inspired the Western genre of film, along with television shows , novels , comic books , video games , children's toys, and costumes. As defined by Hine and Faragher, "frontier history tells
4026-494: The Wild West , encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last few contiguous western territories as states in 1912. This era of massive migration and settlement was particularly encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson following
4148-621: The colonial era , before 1776, the west was of high priority for settlers and politicians. The American frontier began when Jamestown , Virginia, was settled by the English in 1607. In the earliest days of European settlement on the Atlantic coast, until about 1680, the frontier was essentially any part of the interior of the continent beyond the fringe of existing settlements along the Atlantic coast. English , French , Spanish , and Dutch patterns of expansion and settlement were quite different. Only
4270-566: The militia movement of citizens who feared that the federal government would begin to confiscate firearms. Though gun control is not strictly a partisan issue, there is generally more support for gun control legislation in the Democratic Party than in the Republican Party . The Libertarian Party , whose campaign platforms favor limited government regulation, is outspokenly against gun control. The National Rifle Association (NRA)
4392-545: The pre-incorporation era , the U.S. Supreme Court consistently ruled that the Second Amendment (and the Bill of Rights) restricted only Congress, and not the States, in the regulation of guns. Scholars predicted that the Court's incorporation of other rights suggested that they may incorporate the Second, should a suitable case come before them. The first major federal firearms law passed in
4514-468: The "Arkansas doctrine," as the orthodox view of the right to bear arms in American law. The two early state court cases, Bliss and Buzzard , set the fundamental dichotomy in interpreting the Second Amendment, i.e., whether it secured an individual right versus a collective right. In the years immediately following the Civil War , the question of the rights of freed slaves to carry arms and to belong to
4636-445: The 1600s to the 1900s (decades) with occasional movements north into Maine and New Hampshire, south into Florida, and east from California into Nevada. Pockets of settlements would also appear far past the established frontier line, particularly on the West Coast and the deep interior, with settlements such as Los Angeles and Salt Lake City respectively. The " West " was the recently settled area near that boundary. Thus, parts of
4758-462: The 1790–1820 era were to grow the economy, avoid draining away the skilled workers needed in the East, distribute the land wisely, sell it at prices that were reasonable to settlers yet high enough to pay off the national debt, clear legal titles, and create a diversified Western economy that would be closely interconnected with the settled areas with minimal risk of a breakaway movement. By the 1830s, however,
4880-564: The 1840s called for low-cost land for free white farmers, a position enacted into law by the new Republican Party in 1862, offering free 160 acres (65 ha) homesteads to all adults, male and female, black and white, native-born or immigrant. After winning the Revolutionary War (1783), American settlers in large numbers poured into the west. In 1788, American pioneers to the Northwest Territory established Marietta, Ohio , as
5002-437: The 1887 Chicago anarchist Haymarket affair case, Spies v. Illinois ": Though originally the first ten Amendments were adopted as limitations on Federal power, yet in so far as they secure and recognize fundamental rights – common law rights – of the man, they make them privileges and immunities of the man as citizen of the United States... Since the late 19th century, with three key cases from
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5124-638: The 20th century was the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. It was passed after Prohibition -era gangsterism peaked with the Saint Valentine's Day massacre of 1929. The era was famous for criminal use of firearms such as the Thompson submachine gun (Tommy gun) and sawed-off shotgun . Under the NFA, machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and other weapons fall under the regulation and jurisdiction of
5246-596: The Appalachian Mountains included the Connecticut River valley, and northern New England (which was a move to the north, not the west). Settlers on the frontier often connected isolated incidents to indicate Indian conspiracies to attack them, but these lacked a French diplomatic dimension after 1763, or a Spanish connection after 1820. Most of the frontiers experienced numerous conflicts. The French and Indian War broke out between Britain and France, with
5368-504: The Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment, to limit the powers of the State governments, stating that the Second Amendment "has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the national government." Akhil Reed Amar notes in The Yale Law Journal , the basis of common law for the first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which would include the Second Amendment, "following John Randolph Tucker 's famous oral argument in
5490-470: The British plan to set up a Native state in U.S. territory south of the Great Lakes. They explained the American policy toward the acquisition of Native lands: The United States, while intending never to acquire lands from the Indians otherwise than peaceably, and with their free consent, are fully determined, in that manner, progressively, and in proportion as their growing population may require, to reclaim from
5612-746: The Court to argue the case. The Court only heard argument from the federal prosecutor. In its ruling, the Court overturned the trial court and upheld the NFA. The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) was passed after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy , Senator Robert Kennedy , and African-American activists Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. The GCA focuses on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers, and importers. It also prohibits selling firearms to certain categories of individuals defined as "prohibited persons." In 1986, Congress passed
5734-699: The Fourteenth Amendment after the Civil War also concentrated on what the Southern States were doing to harm the newly freed slaves. One particular concern was the disarming of former slaves. The Second Amendment attracted serious judicial attention with the Reconstruction era case of United States v. Cruikshank which ruled that the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not cause
5856-544: The French making up for their small colonial population base by enlisting Native war parties as allies. The series of large wars spilling over from European wars ended in a complete victory for the British in the worldwide Seven Years' War . In the peace treaty of 1763 , France ceded practically everything, as the lands west of the Mississippi River, in addition to Florida and New Orleans, went to Spain. Otherwise, lands east of
5978-621: The Homestead Law of 1862, with a moderated pace that gave settlers 160 acres free after they worked on it for five years. The private profit motive dominated the movement westward, but the federal government played a supporting role in securing the land through treaties and setting up territorial governments, with governors appointed by the President. The federal government first acquired western territory through treaties with other nations or native tribes. Then it sent surveyors to map and document
6100-576: The Jacksonian Era, the first collective right (or group right) interpretation of the Second Amendment arose. In State v. Buzzard (1842), the Arkansas high court adopted a militia-based, political right, reading of the right to bear arms under state law, and upheld the 21st section of the second article of the Arkansas Constitution that declared, "that the free white men of this State shall have
6222-671: The Mississippi River and what is now Canada went to Britain. Regardless of wars, Americans were moving across the Appalachians into western Pennsylvania, what is now West Virginia, and areas of the Ohio Country , Kentucky, and Tennessee. In the southern settlements via the Cumberland Gap , their most famous leader was Daniel Boone . Young George Washington promoted settlements in West Virginia on lands awarded to him and his soldiers by
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#17330943431176344-539: The Missouri River, and such principal stream of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean; whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable communication across the continent for commerce". Jefferson also instructed the expedition to study the region's native tribes (including their morals, language, and culture), weather, soil, rivers, commercial trading, and animal and plant life. Entrepreneurs, most notably John Jacob Astor quickly seized
6466-449: The National Firearms Act of 1934, "offend[ed] the inhibition of the Second Amendment to the Constitution." The federal government then appealed directly to the Supreme Court. On appeal the federal government did not object to Miller's release since he had died by then, seeking only to have the trial judge's ruling on the unconstitutionality of the federal law overturned. Under these circumstances, neither Miller nor his attorney appeared before
6588-622: The National Firearms Survey of 2021, the largest and most comprehensive study of U.S. firearm ownership, privately owned firearms are involved in approximately 1.7 million defensive use cases annually. The survey also indicates a rise in the diversity of firearm owners, with increased ownership rates among females and ethnic minorities compared to previous years. U.S. gun politics is increasingly influenced by demographic factors and political party affiliation , with notable differences observed in gender, age, and income levels as reported by major social surveys. Firearms in American life begin with
6710-434: The Northeast, there was little competition on the western frontier for Transylvania University , founded in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1780. It boasted of a law school in addition to its undergraduate and medical programs. Transylvania attracted politically ambitious young men from across the Southwest, including 50 who became United States senators, 101 representatives, 36 governors, and 34 ambassadors, as well as Jefferson Davis,
6832-404: The Northwest terrain, including the important South Pass through the central Rocky Mountains. Discovered about 1812, it later became a major route for settlers to Oregon and Washington. By 1820, however, a new "brigade-rendezvous" system sent company men in "brigades" cross-country on long expeditions, bypassing many tribes. It also encouraged "free trappers" to explore new regions on their own. At
6954-517: The Preservation of Firearms Ownership, and the Pink Pistols . New groups have also arisen, such as the Students for Concealed Carry , which grew largely out of safety-issues resulting from the creation of gun-free zones that were legislatively mandated amidst a response to widely publicized school shootings . In 2001, in United States v. Emerson , the Fifth Circuit became the first federal appeals court to recognize an individual's right to own guns. In 2007, in Parker v. District of Columbia ,
7076-464: The Royal government in payment for their wartime service in Virginia's militia. Settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains were curtailed briefly by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , forbidding settlement in this area. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) re-opened most of the western lands for frontiersmen to settle. The nation was at peace after 1783. The states gave Congress control of the western lands and an effective system for population expansion
7198-422: The School Safety And Law Enforcement Improvement Act), which strengthened requirements for background checks for firearm purchases. The GOA took issue with a portion of the bill, which they termed the "Veterans' Disarmament Act." Besides the GOA, other national gun rights groups continue to take a stronger stance than the NRA. These groups include the Second Amendment Sisters, Second Amendment Foundation, Jews for
7320-399: The Second Amendment's restrictions are incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and thereby apply to state as well as federal law, and most recently in the NYSRPA v. Bruen (2022). As emphasized in Bruen , the Second Amendment makes an "unqualified command" that the "individual-right" of firearms ownership, as opposed to the collective or militia-based theory of
7442-412: The United States Gun politics in the United States is characterized by two primary opposing ideologies regarding private firearm ownership . Advocates of gun control support increasingly restrictive regulations on gun ownership, while proponents of gun rights oppose such restrictions and often support the liberalization of gun ownership. These groups typically differ in their interpretations of
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#17330943431177564-478: The United States has become increasingly subject to federal judicial interpretation of the Constitution. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." In 1791, the United States adopted the Second Amendment, and in 1868 adopted the Fourteenth Amendment . The historical tradition bounded by these two amendments has been
7686-416: The United States, only smart guns may be sold in the state. Some gun safety advocates worry that by raising the stakes of introducing the technology, this law contributes to the opposition that has prevented smart guns from being sold anywhere in the United States despite availability in other countries. American frontier The American frontier , also known as the Old West , and popularly known as
7808-407: The West and wholesalers and factories back east. The postal service likewise assisted the Army in expanding control over the vast western territories. The widespread circulation of important newspapers by mail, such as the New York Weekly Tribune , facilitated coordination among politicians in different states. The postal service helped to integrate already established areas with the frontier, creating
7930-517: The West was filling up with squatters who had no legal deed, although they may have paid money to previous settlers. The Jacksonian Democrats favored the squatters by promising rapid access to cheap land. By contrast, Henry Clay was alarmed at the "lawless rabble" heading West who were undermining the utopian concept of a law-abiding, stable middle-class republican community. Rich southerners, meanwhile, looked for opportunities to buy high-quality land to set up slave plantations. The Free Soil movement of
8052-411: The Wilderness Road. Kentucky at this time had been depopulated—it was "empty of Indian villages." However raiding parties sometimes came through. One of those intercepted was Abraham Lincoln 's grandfather, who was scalped in 1784 near Louisville. The War of 1812 marked the final confrontation involving major British and Native forces fighting to stop American expansion. The British war goal included
8174-430: The advance of American settlement westward, explain American development." Through treaties with foreign nations and native tribes , political compromise, military conquest, the establishment of law and order, the building of farms, ranches, and towns, the marking of trails and digging of mines, combined with successive waves of immigrants moving into the region, the United States expanded from coast to coast, fulfilling
8296-471: The age of 45—with some exceptions—who are not members of the National Guard or Naval Militia, as codified in 10 U.S.C. § 246 . Closely related to the militia tradition is the frontier tradition, with the need for self-protection pursuant to westward expansion and the extension of the American frontier . Though it has not been a necessary part of daily survival for over a century, "generations of Americans continued to embrace and glorify it as
8418-410: The archetypical Old West or "Wild West" such as violent conflict arising from encroaching settlement into frontier land, the removal and assimilation of natives, consolidation of property to large corporations and government, vigilantism, and the attempted enforcement of laws upon outlaws. In 1890, the Superintendent of the Census, William Rush Merriam stated: "Up to and including 1880 the country had
8540-469: The bill 20–18 in March 2018, three weeks after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting . The Florida House of Representatives passed the bill 67–50, with House Republicans voting 57–19 and House Democrats voting 10–31. The bill was signed into law by Governor Rick Scott on March 9, 2018. This article relating to law in the United States or its constituent jurisdictions is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Gun control in
8662-434: The case of a concealed sword cane. This case has been described as about "a statute prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons [that] was violative of the Second Amendment". The first state court decision relevant to the "right to bear arms" issue was Bliss v. Commonwealth . The Kentucky court held that "the right of citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State must be preserved entire,..." Also during
8784-721: The coalition of hostile Native tribes. Meanwhile, General Andrew Jackson ended the Native military threat in the Southeast at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 in Alabama. In general, the frontiersmen battled the Natives with little help from the U.S. Army or the federal government. To end the war, American diplomats negotiated the Treaty of Ghent , signed towards the end of 1814, with Britain. They rejected
8906-505: The colonial militias fanned what had been a smoldering resentment of British interference into the fires of war. These two incidents were the attempt to confiscate the cannon of the Concord and Lexington militias, leading to the Battles of Lexington and Concord of April 19, 1775, and the attempt, on April 20, to confiscate militia powder stores in the armory of Williamsburg, Virginia, which led to
9028-739: The creation of an Indian barrier state under British auspices in the Midwest which would halt American expansion westward. American frontier militiamen under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creeks and opened the Southwest, while militia under Governor William Henry Harrison defeated the Native-British alliance at the Battle of the Thames in Canada in 1813. The death in battle of the Native leader Tecumseh dissolved
9150-534: The earliest attempts to settle and colonize the United States. Firearms were made, imported and provided for agrarian, hunting, defense and diplomatic purposes. A connection between shooting skills and survival among American men in the colonial expanses was often a necessity, and could serve as a ' rite of passage ' for those entering manhood. Today, the figures of the settler colonist, hunter and outdoorsman survive as central to American gun culture, regardless of modern trends away from hunting and rural life. Prior to
9272-417: The edge of a line of settlement. Theorist Frederick Jackson Turner went deeper, arguing that the frontier was the scene of a defining process of American civilization: "The frontier," he asserted, "promoted the formation of a composite nationality for the American people." He theorized it was a process of development: "This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward...furnish[es]
9394-678: The end of the gathering season, the trappers would "rendezvous" and turn in their goods for pay at river ports along the Green River , Upper Missouri, and the Upper Mississippi. St. Louis was the largest of the rendezvous towns. By 1830, however, fashions changed and beaver hats were replaced by silk hats, ending the demand for expensive American furs. Thus ended the era of the mountain men , trappers, and scouts such as Jedediah Smith , Hugh Glass , Davy Crockett , Jack Omohundro , and others. The trade in beaver fur virtually ceased by 1845. There
9516-473: The established frontier line. The U.S. Census Bureau designated frontier territory as generally unoccupied land with a population density of fewer than 2 people per square mile (0.77 people per square kilometer). The frontier line was the outer boundary of European-American settlement into this land. Beginning with the first permanent European settlements on the East Coast , it has moved steadily westward from
9638-400: The expansion, but Jeffersonians hailed the opportunity to create millions of new farms to expand the domain of land-owning yeomen ; the ownership would strengthen the ideal republican society, based on agriculture (not commerce), governed lightly, and promoting self-reliance and virtue, as well as form the political base for Jeffersonian Democracy . France was paid for its sovereignty over
9760-420: The fact is proved, without all redemption. In the years prior to the American Revolution , the British, in response to the colonists' unhappiness over increasingly direct control and taxation of the colonies, imposed a gunpowder embargo on the colonies in an attempt to lessen the ability of the colonists to resist British encroachments into what the colonies regarded as local matters. Two direct attempts to disarm
9882-769: The first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory . In 1775, Daniel Boone blazed a trail for the Transylvania Company from Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. It was later lengthened to reach the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville . The Wilderness Road was steep and rough, and it could only be traversed on foot or horseback, but it was the best route for thousands of settlers moving into Kentucky . In some areas they had to face Native attacks. In 1784 alone, Natives killed over 100 travelers on
10004-527: The forces dominating American character." Turner's ideas since 1893 have inspired generations of historians (and critics) to explore multiple individual American frontiers, but the popular folk frontier concentrates on the conquest and settlement of Native American lands west of the Mississippi River , in what is now the Midwest , Texas , the Great Plains , the Rocky Mountains , the Southwest , and
10126-622: The frontier era began, when it ended, and which were its key sub-periods. For example, the Old West subperiod is sometimes used by historians regarding the time from the end of the American Civil War in 1865 to when the Superintendent of the Census, William Rush Merriam , stated the U.S. Census Bureau would stop recording western frontier settlement as part of its census categories after the 1890 U.S. Census . His successors however continued
10248-482: The funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control." This language was added to prevent the funding of research by the CDC that gun rights supporters considered politically motivated and intended to bring about further gun control legislation. In particular, the NRA and other gun rights proponents objected to work supported by
10370-560: The good land, and worked it with slaves. The area was no longer "frontier". It had a stratified society comprising a powerful upper-class white landowning gentry, a small middle-class, a fairly large group of landless or tenant white farmers, and a growing slave population at the bottom of the social pyramid. Unlike the North, where small towns and even cities were common, the South was overwhelmingly rural. The seaboard colonial settlements gave priority to land ownership for individual farmers, and as
10492-458: The highest estimated number of guns per capita in the world, at 120.5 guns for every 100 people. In the summer of 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia , leaders of the settlement came together to pass the first gun law: That no man do sell or give any Indians any piece, shot, or powder, or any other arms offensive or defensive, upon pain of being held a traitor to the colony and of being hanged as soon as
10614-452: The ideology of Manifest Destiny. In his "Frontier Thesis" (1893), Turner theorized that the frontier was a process that transformed Europeans into a new people, the Americans, whose values focused on equality, democracy, and optimism, as well as individualism , self-reliance, and even violence. The frontier is the margin of undeveloped territory that would comprise the United States beyond
10736-559: The industry from the misuse of its products used in shooting incidents. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence began in 1974 as Handgun Control Inc. (HCI). Soon after, it formed a partnership with another fledgling group called the National Coalition to Ban Handguns (NCBH) – later known as the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV). The partnership did not last, as NCBH generally took a tougher stand on gun regulation than HCI. In
10858-792: The land. By the 20th century, Washington bureaucracies managed the federal lands such as the United States General Land Office in the Interior Department, and after 1891, the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. After 1900, dam building and flood control became major concerns. Transportation was a key issue and the Army (especially the Army Corps of Engineers) was given full responsibility for facilitating navigation on
10980-616: The late 1970s, the NRA changed its activities to incorporate political advocacy. Despite the impact on the volatility of membership, the politicization of the NRA has been consistent and the NRA-Political Victory Fund ranked as "one of the biggest spenders in congressional elections" as of 1998. According to the authors of The Gun Debate (2014), the NRA taking the lead on politics serves the gun industry's profitability. In particular when gun owners respond to fears of gun confiscation with increased purchases and by helping to isolate
11102-647: The militia came to the attention of the federal courts. In response to the problems freed slaves faced in the Southern states, the Fourteenth Amendment was drafted. When the Fourteenth Amendment was drafted, Representative John A. Bingham of Ohio used the Court's own phrase "privileges and immunities of citizens" to include the first Eight Amendments of the Bill of Rights under its protection and guard these rights against state legislation. The debate in Congress on
11224-465: The mountains for the proposed transcontinental railroad, but his expedition ended in near-disaster when it became lost and was trapped by heavy snow. His reports mixed narrative of exciting adventure with scientific data and detailed practical information for travelers. It caught the public imagination and inspired many to head west. Goetzman says it was "monumental in its breadth, a classic of exploring literature". While colleges were springing up across
11346-537: The national background check system to prevent certain restricted individuals from owning, purchasing, or transporting firearms. In an article supporting passage of such a law, retired chief justice Warren E. Burger wrote: Americans also have a right to defend their homes, and we need not challenge that. Nor does anyone seriously question that the Constitution protects the right of hunters to own and keep sporting guns for hunting game any more than anyone would challenge
11468-676: The needs of its citizens and to prevent crime and deaths . Firearms regulation supporters say that indiscriminate or unrestricted gun rights inhibit the government from fulfilling that responsibility, and causes a safety concern. Gun rights supporters promote firearms for self-defense – including security against tyranny , as well as hunting and sporting activities . Gun control advocates state that restricting and tracking gun access would result in safer communities, while gun rights advocates state that increased firearm ownership by law-abiding citizens reduces crime and assert that criminals have always had easy access to firearms. Gun legislation in
11590-460: The new Republican Party in 1856. He led a series of expeditions in the 1840s which answered many of the outstanding geographic questions about the little-known region. He crossed through the Rocky Mountains by five different routes and mapped parts of Oregon and California. In 1846–1847, he played a role in conquering California. In 1848–1849, Frémont was assigned to locate a central route through
11712-679: The opportunity and expanded fur trading operations into the Pacific Northwest . Astor's " Fort Astoria " (later Fort George), at the mouth of the Columbia River, became the first permanent white settlement in that area, although it was not profitable for Astor. He set up the American Fur Company in an attempt to break the hold that the Hudson's Bay Company monopoly had over the region. By 1820, Astor had taken over independent traders to create
11834-432: The opportunity for commercial agriculture was low. These areas remained primarily in subsistence agriculture, and as a result, by the 1760s these societies were highly egalitarian , as explained by historian Jackson Turner Main: The typical frontier society, therefore, was one in which class distinctions were minimized. The wealthy speculator, if one was involved, usually remained at home, so that ordinarily no one of wealth
11956-557: The owner. Gun rights advocates fear mandatory smart gun technology will make it more difficult to fire a gun when needed. Smith & Wesson reached a settlement in 2000 with the administration of President Bill Clinton, which included a provision for the company to develop a smart gun. A consumer boycott organized by the NRA and NSSF nearly drove the company out of business and forced it to drop its smart gun plans. The New Jersey Childproof Handgun Law of 2002 requires that 30 months after "personalized handguns are available" anywhere in
12078-548: The population grew they pushed westward for fresh farmland. Unlike Britain, where a small number of landlords owned most of the land, ownership in America was cheap, easy and widespread. Land ownership brought a degree of independence as well as a vote for local and provincial offices. The typical New England settlements were quite compact and small, under a square mile. Conflict with the Native Americans arose out of political issues, namely who would rule. Early frontier areas east of
12200-414: The possession of lands more than they can cultivate, and more than adequate to their subsistence, comfort, and enjoyment, by cultivation. If this is a spirit of aggrandizement, the undersigned are prepared to admit, in that sense, its existence; but they must deny that it affords the slightest proof of an intention not to respect the boundaries between them and European nations, or of a desire to encroach upon
12322-426: The practice of carrying concealed weapons in 1813." There was opposition and, as a result, the individual right interpretation of the Second Amendment began and grew in direct response to these early gun control laws, in keeping with this new "pervasive spirit of individualism." As noted by Cornell, "Ironically, the first gun control movement helped give birth to the first self-conscious gun rights ideology built around
12444-450: The practice until the 1920 Census . Others, including the Library of Congress and University of Oxford , often cite differing points reaching into the early 1900s; typically within the first two decades before American entry into World War I . A period known as "The Western Civil War of Incorporation" lasted from the 1850s to 1919. This period includes historical events synonymous with
12566-401: The practice. By the 1910 U.S. census however, the frontier had shrunk into divided areas without a singular westward line of settlement. An influx of agricultural homesteaders in the first two decades of the 20th century, taking up more acreage than homestead grants in the entirety of the 19th century, is cited to have significantly reduced open land. A frontier is a zone of contact at
12688-571: The president of the Confederacy. Most frontiersmen showed little commitment to religion until traveling evangelists began to appear and to produce "revivals". The local pioneers responded enthusiastically to these events and, in effect, evolved their populist religions, especially during the Second Great Awakening (1790–1840), which featured outdoor camp meetings lasting a week or more and which introduced many people to organized religion for
12810-431: The president. Then when the population reached 100,000 the territory applied for statehood. Frontiersmen typically dropped the legalistic formalities and restrictive franchise favored by eastern upper classes and adopting more democracy and more egalitarianism. In 1810, the western frontier had reached the Mississippi River . St. Louis, Missouri , was the largest town on the frontier, the gateway for travel westward, and
12932-544: The region getting a bad reputation as the "Great American Desert", which discouraged settlement in that area for several decades. In 1811, naturalists Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859) and John Bradbury (1768–1823) traveled up the Missouri River documenting and drawing plant and animal life. Artist George Catlin (1796–1872) painted accurate paintings of Native American culture. Swiss artist Karl Bodmer made compelling landscapes and portraits. John James Audubon (1785–1851)
13054-463: The right to own and keep fishing rods and other equipment for fishing – or to own automobiles. To 'keep and bear arms' for hunting today is essentially a recreational activity and not an imperative of survival, as it was 200 years ago. ' Saturday night specials ' and machine guns are not recreational weapons and surely are as much in need of regulation as motor vehicles. A Stockton, California, schoolyard shooting in 1989 led to passage of
13176-450: The right, is protected from all restriction unless a government authority can demonstrate their law is with the Nation's historical tradition of firearms regulation. In 2018 it was estimated that U.S. civilians own 393 million firearms , and that 40% to 42% of the households in the country have at least one gun. However, record gun sales followed in the following years. The U.S. has by far
13298-603: The rivers. The steamboat, first used on the Ohio River in 1811, made possible inexpensive travel using the river systems, especially the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries. Army expeditions up the Missouri River in 1818–1825 allowed engineers to improve the technology. For example, the Army's steamboat " Western Engineer " of 1819 combined a very shallow draft with one of the earliest stern wheels. In 1819–1825, Colonel Henry Atkinson developed keelboats with hand-powered paddle wheels. The federal postal system played
13420-421: The state of nature, and to bring into cultivation every portion of the territory contained within their acknowledged boundaries. In thus providing for the support of millions of civilized beings, they will not violate any dictate of justice or humanity; for they will not only give to the few thousand savages scattered over that territory an ample equivalent for any right they may surrender, but will always leave them
13542-505: The story of the creation and defense of communities, the use of the land, the development of crops and hotels, and the formation of states." They explain, "It is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival, persistence, and the merging of peoples and cultures that gave birth and continuing life to America." Turner himself repeatedly emphasized how the availability of "free land" to start new farms attracted pioneering Americans: "The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and
13664-497: The subject of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), where the Court affirmed for the first time that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to possess firearms for traditionally lawful purposes (such as self-defense within the home), independent of service in a state militia, in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), where the Court ruled that
13786-400: The support of settlers and the general public who preferred that the military remain as close as possible. The frontier area was vast and even Davis conceded that "concentration would have exposed portions of the frontier to Native hostilities without any protection." Government and private enterprise sent many explorers to the West. In 1805–1806, Army lieutenant Zebulon Pike (1779–1813) led
13908-406: The territories of Great Britain. [...] They will not suppose that that Government will avow, as the basis of their policy towards the United States a system of arresting their natural growth within their territories, for the sake of preserving a perpetual desert for savages. As settlers poured in, the frontier districts first became territories, with an elected legislature and a governor appointed by
14030-407: The territory in terms of international law. Between 1803 and the 1870s, the federal government purchased the land from the Native tribes then in possession of it. 20th-century accountants and courts have calculated the value of the payments made to the Natives, which included future payments of cash, food, horses, cattle, supplies, buildings, schooling, and medical care. In cash terms, the total paid to
14152-504: The tribes in the area of the Louisiana Purchase amounted to about $ 2.6 billion, or nearly $ 9 billion in 2016 dollars. Additional sums were paid to the Natives living east of the Mississippi for their lands, as well as payments to Natives living in parts of the west outside the Louisiana Purchase. Even before the purchase, Jefferson was planning expeditions to explore and map the lands. He charged Lewis and Clark to "explore
14274-490: The wake of the 1980 murder of John Lennon , HCI saw an increase of interest and fundraising and contributed $ 75,000 to congressional campaigns. Following the Reagan assassination attempt and the resultant injury of James Brady , Sarah Brady joined the board of HCI in 1985. HCI was renamed in 2001 to Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. In 1996, Congress added language to the relevant appropriations bill which required "none of
14396-432: Was a resident. The class of landless poor was small. The great majority were landowners, most of whom were also poor because they were starting with little property and had not yet cleared much land nor had they acquired the farm tools and animals which would one day make them prosperous. Few artisans settled on the frontier except for those who practiced a trade to supplement their primary occupation of farming. There might be
14518-533: Was developed. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 abolished slavery in the area north of the Ohio River and promised statehood when a territory reached a threshold population, as Ohio did in 1803 . The first major movement west of the Appalachian mountains originated in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina as soon as the Revolutionary War ended in 1781. Pioneers housed themselves in a rough lean-to or at most
14640-561: Was founded to promote firearm competency and natural conservation in 1871. The NRA supported the NFA and, ultimately, the GCA. After the GCA, more strident groups, such as the Gun Owners of America (GOA), began to advocate for gun rights. According to the GOA, it was founded in 1975 when "the radical left introduced legislation to ban all handguns in California." The GOA and other national groups like
14762-404: Was mandatory for all men. Yet, as early as the 1790s, the mandatory universal militia duty evolved gradually to voluntary militia units and a reliance on a regular army . Throughout the 19th century the institution of the organized civilian militia gradually declined. The unorganized civilian militia under current U.S. law consists of all able-bodied males at least seventeen years of age and under
14884-425: Was wide agreement on the need to settle the new territories quickly, but the debate polarized over the price the government should charge. The conservatives and Whigs, typified by the president John Quincy Adams , wanted a moderated pace that charged the newcomers enough to pay the costs of the federal government. The Democrats, however, tolerated a wild scramble for land at very low prices. The final resolution came in
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