"[T]he Second Amendment and the ongoing love affair of Americans with private firearms ownership have endured for well over two centuries. If some politicians and judges are mystified by the meaning of the words `the right of the people to ... bear arms,` most Americans are not. The Bill of Rights is not just ten commandments that tell the government what it cannot do, but is a testament to instruct the people as to their rights so they can protect them."

From Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?, p. 10 (hardback edition).
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#therighttobeararmshalbrook #rightofthepeople #shallnotbeinfringed #2ahistory #constitutionalright ...

"After Nat Turner’s slave revolt in 1831, Virginia law was amended to provide: `No free negro or mulatto shall be suffered to keep or carry any firelock of any kind, any military weapon, or any powder or lead….` It repealed the prior law that authorized justices of the peace `to permit slaves to keep and use guns or other weapons,` and that also authorized courts “`o grant licenses to free negroes and mulattoes to keep or carry any firelock of any kind, any military weapon, or any
powder or lead….`

"Such laws, as applied to free persons of color, were upheld partly on the basis that they were not citizens. The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld that state’s ban on the ground that `the free people of color cannot be considered as citizens….` Georgia’s high court held: `Free persons of color have never been recognized here as citizens; they are not entitled to bear arms, vote for members of the legislature, or to hold any civil office.`

These state laws were bolstered by the U.S. Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), which notoriously held that African Americans were not citizens and had no rights that must be respected. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that if African Americans were considered citizens, `it would give them the full liberty of speech…; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.`”

From Halbrook, America`s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15, pgs. 132-133.

Image: "The Discovery of Nat Turner" by William Henry Shelton (1882)
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#natturnerrebellion #dredscott #2ahistory #gunrightsmatter #AmericasRifleTheCaseForTheAR15 ...

On this date in 1871, U.S. President Grant warned the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina that martial law would be declared if the KKK did not disperse. Later that year, "numerous South Carolina Klansmen were indicted under the Enforcement Act for conspiring to violate the rights of blacks to assemble, keep and bear arms, and vote, and their freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. . . . The trial proceedings are significant both as an interpretation of the Second, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments, and because they document the Klan`s systematic efforts to disarm blacks."

From Halbrook, Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, p. 121.
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#presidentulyssesgrant #kukluxklanhistory #enforcementact #gunrightsmatter #securingcivilrights ...

After the Civil War ended in 1865, several firearms manufacturers turned to toy production to keep their factories running as demand for weapons declined. Among their creations were cap guns, which used small gunpowder caps to produce a loud bang without firing a projectile. They quickly became popular with young cowboys and cowgirls.

Over the decades, cap guns evolved in both materials and mechanisms, from early cast-iron models to wooden, metal-alloy, and plastic designs, with firing systems ranging from single-shot to rapid-fire. The technology changed, but cap guns are still made today.

Photo source: The NC Museum of Dolls, Toys & Miniatures, Spencer, North Carolina. https://ncmdtm.org
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#capgun #capguns #cowboyfun #nostalgictoys #toyguns ...

The meaning of a "well regulated militia" and of the "arms" the people had the right to bear, was particularized during debates on the federal Militia Act of 1792. Rep. Roger Sherman "conceived it to be the privilege of every citizen, and one of his most essential rights, to bear arms, and to resist every attack upon his liberty or property, by whomsoever made."

From 14 Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, pgs. 92-93. (Quoted in Halbrook, The Founders` Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, p. 305.)
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#militiaact #federalmilitiaact #rogersherman #righttobeararms #thefounderssecondamendment ...

In his autobiography, German WWI Fighter Ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as "The Red Baron," wrote: "On days when I was off duty I indulged in my favorite pastime, game shooting. The forest of La Chaussee gave me ample opportunities. When going for a ride I had noticed that there were wild pigs about and I tried to find out where I could shoot them at night. Beautiful nights, with a full moon and snow, came to my aid....I built a shelter seat in a tree, at a spot where the pigs passed, and waited there at night....Auntie Pig appeared at midnight....I shot her while she was still swimming and she would have been drowned had I not succeeded at the last moment in seizing her by the leg.

"At another time, I was riding with my servant along a narrow path. Suddenly I saw several wild pigs crossing it. Immediately I jumped from the horse, grasped my servant`s carbine and rushed several hundred yards ahead. At the end of the procession came a mighty boar. I had never yet seen such a beast and was surprised at its gigantic size. Now it ornaments my room and reminds me of my encounter." [Quotes from Manfred von Richthofen, The Red Fighter Pilot.]

From a young age, Von Richthofen hunted birds, elk, deer, wild boar, rams, and European bison. He considered becoming a big-game guide in Africa after the war, but he was killed in action at the age of 25.

Photo: Von Richthofen with his hunting rifle and a stag he shot, fall 1917. (Photo from www.meettheredbaron.com/pictures-only)
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#ManfredvonRichthofen #theredbaron #wwihistory #famoushunters #wwifighterace ...

"Thomas Jefferson attributed American successes in part to their superior marksmanship. He sent to Giovanni Fabbroni a list of the number of enemy casualties beginning with Lexington in April 1775 through November 1777, explaining he could not enclose comparable data on the Americans but that:

" `...[I]t has been about one half the numbers lost by them, in some instances more, but in others less. This difference is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his infancy.`

"The War for Independence might be considered as a people`s war in which the armed populace defeated the world`s greatest empire. In theory and in practice, the American Revolution had both as an objective and as an indispensable means the right to keep, bear, and use arms to check governmental oppression."

From Halbrook, The Founders` Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, p. 123.

Painting: "Patriot`s Farwell" by David Wright. As a long-standing member of the Contemporary Longrifle Association, Wright is highly regarded for his accurate depictions of early American frontier life and weapons.
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#americanrevolutionarywar #thomasjeffersonletter #armedcitizens #thefounderssecondamendment #davidwrightartist ...

[ENGLISH BELOW] “No dia 4 de outubro de 1938, a poucas semanas da Noite dos Cristais (Reichskristallnacht), a polícia de Berlim prendeu Alfred Flatow. Seu crime: ser judeu e ter posse legal de armas de fogo. A polícia sabia que ele possuía armas de fogo, pois ele aceitara registrá-las em 1932, sob o decreto de Weimar. Antecipando o pogrom que seria realizado, a liderança nazista lançou uma campanha para desarmar os judeus. Flatow foi um dos muitos que foram detidos e entregues à Gestapo. Mais tarde, ele seria deportado para morrer em um campo de concentração.”

Do relatório de prisão de Flatow: "“O judeu Alfred Flatow foi encontrado na posse de 1 revólver com 22 cartuchos de munição, 2 pistolas de bolso, 1 adaga e 31 socos-ingleses. Armas nas mãos de judeus representam um perigo à segurança pública”.
[assinado] Primeiro Sargento da Polícia Weiser
As armas foram registradas na 13ª Delegacia de Polícia em 26 de janeiro de 1932...."

De Halbrook, Hitler e o Desarmamento, págs. 189, 193.

Flatow foi um ginasta que conquistou o ouro pela Alemanha nas Olimpíadas de 1896.
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"On October 4, 1938, just weeks before the Night of the Broken Glass (Reichskristallnacht), Berlin police arrested Alfred Flatow. His crime: being a Jew in lawful possession of firearms. The police knew he possessed firearms because he dutifully registered them in 1932 under the Weimar decree. In anticipation of the coming pogrom, the Nazi leadership launched a campaign to disarm Jews. Flatow was one of many who were arrested and turned over to the Gestapo. He would eventually be deported and die in a concentration camp."

From Flatow`s arrest report: "The Jew Alfred Flatow was found to be in possession of 1 revolver with 22 rounds of ammunition, 2 pocket pistols, 1 dagger, and 31 knuckledusters. Arms in the hands of Jews are a danger to public safety.
[signed] Police First Sergeant Colisle
The arms were registered at Police Station 13 on January 26, 1932...."

From Halbrook, Gun Control in the Third Reich, pgs. 145, 148.

Flatow was a gymnast who won the gold for Germany at the 1896 Olympics.

#nazigermany #firearmsregistration #controledearmas #guncontrolinthethirdreich #HitlereoDesarmamento ...