Thom Hartmann, the most popular progressive radio host in America ... looks at the real history of guns in America and what we can do to limit both their lethal impact and the power of the gun lobby ... Hartmann examines how guns have played important roles throughout American history, from early European settlement to the Revolutionary War and Manifest Destiny, through the use of Slave Patrols in the Deep South (which became the "well-regulated militias" so debated in 1787), to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and recent school massacres. Looking at the present, Hartmann documents how inequality in America and the number of people killed in mass shootings have grown together over the last fifty years. Finally, he identifies a handful of common-sense and powerful solutions that would address the issue at different levels: from getting money out of politics to get the National Rifle Association out of lobbying, to passing laws that would treat gun ownership like car ownership (title, license, insurance), to addressing the social despair and economic inequality that drive violent crime and mass shootings"-- Provided by publisher.

Introduction: The social cost of guns -- The unholy alliance of racism, genocide, and guns -- The sanitized history of America -- The roots of American gun culture in the "discovery" of America -- From Columbus to Jamestown -- From genocide to slavery -- Early hints toward the Second Amendment -- Gun culture's ebb and flow -- How slavery laid the foundation of the Second Amendment -- Gun culture enshrined : the Second Amendment -- A constitutional Rorschach ploy : limits on slavery? -- How Europe's history of mercenaries and military coups shaped the Second Amendment -- How fears of abolition shaped the Second Amendment -- The myth of the well-armed cowboy -- The gunshot that ended Reconstruction -- The failure of Reconstruction and the rise of the Klan -- Racists turn open carry into the new white hood -- Copwatching and its connection to gun control -- One sunny August day in Texas -- 1966 : a turning point in America's gun culture -- Guns, militarism, and the War on Drugs -- Heller : reinterpreting the Second Amendment -- Political corruption underwrites America's gun-control nightmare -- Gun-control activists are confronting only the tip of the iceberg -- Neoliberalism drives inequality; inequality drives mass murder -- Weapons of war on America's streets -- Semiautomatic weapons -- What America learned from cars, and how to apply it to guns -- Gun manufacturing in the 21st century : 3-D printing -- Well-regulated smart guns are here -- Addressing racism to reduce gun violence -- Learning from other nations.