Includes information on Aymette v. State, Barron v. Baltimore, Bliss v. Commonwealth, Dred Scott v. Sanford, Houston v. Moore, Luther v. Borden, State v. Buzzard, U.S. v. Avery, U.S. v. Cruikshank, U.S. v. Emerson, U.S. v. Miller, U. S. v. Mitchell, U.S. v. Tot, duels, Fourteenth Amendment, gun control, gun rights, Thomas Jefferson, Ku Klux Klan, Fries,s Rebellion, Shays's Rebellion, Whiskey Rebellion, Bill of Rights, Second Amendment, etc.

Preface --Introduction -- ch. 1. English tyranny versus American liberty : bearing arms in revolutionary America -- ch. 2. A well regulated militia : the origins of the Second Amendment -- ch. 3. "The true palladium of liberty" : Federalists, Jeffersonians, and the Second Amendment -- ch. 4. Militias, mobs, and murder : testing the limits of the right to bear arms -- ch. 5. Rights, regulations, revolution : the antebellum debate over guns -- ch. 6. Individual or collective right : the Fourteenth Amendment and the origins of the modern gun debate -- Conclusion : A new paradigm for the Second Amendment -- Notes -- Index.