According to a recent report by the Media Research Center, television news stories calling for stricter gun laws outnumbered newscasts opposing such laws by a ratio of 10 to 1. In other words, we are hearing only one side of the story. No wonder so few people are equipped to debate the issue of guns intelligently.The 7 Myths of Gun Control is a readable, easy-to-use guide for people confused and frustrated by the blizzard of anti-gun propaganda. It details the seven most common arguments used by gun prohibitionists, debunking each one with a wealth of statistical and legal data gleaned from top experts in the field of guns and gun rights. Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Richard Poe distills the pro-gun arguments into readable, bite-sized chunks designed to appeal to a mass audience. The seven myths that Poe exposes are (1) guns increase violent crime, (2) pulling a gun on a criminal endangers you more than the criminal, (3) guns pose a special threat to children, (4) the Second Amendment applies only to militiamen, (5) the Second Amendment is an obsolete relic of the frontier era, (6) we should treat guns the same w

Each book in this series offers all the statutes, legal opinions, and studies a student needs to structure a cohesive argument on a given controversial topic. Issues are presented from multiple points of view; sidebars cite law and opinions to aid in critical analysis; paratextual questions encourage reader engagement; and all sources are fully documented and grouped by the side of the argument. Analyzes the controversy over gun ownership in America: How does the Second Amendment's right to bear arms fit into the modern world? Does the state have an interest in restricting the licensing or sale of firearms to the public?

Thoroughly updated and greatly expanded from its original edition, this three-volume set is the go-to comprehensive resource on the legal, social, psychological, political, and public health aspects of guns in American life. The landmark 2002 edition of Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law was acclaimed for helping readers get beyond the sometimes overheated rhetoric and navigate the overwhelming amount of unbiased academic research on gun-related issues. Now, in light of the steady rate of gun violence and several high-profile shooting incidents, this extraordinary three-volume work returns in a timely and thoroughly updated edition. With over 100 new entries, the latest edition of Guns in American Society is the most current resource available on all aspects of the gun issue, including rates of violence, gun control, gun rights, regulations and legislation, court decisions, pro- and anti-gun organizations, gun ownership, hunters and collectors, public opinion toward guns, and much more. With expert contributions from the fields of criminology, history, law, medicine, politics, and social science, it gives students, journalists, policymakers, and researchers a foundation for their own investigations, while helping readers of all kinds make decisions as family members, potential gun owners, and voters.

The US government makes 350 pages of new laws each day, including directives of policy that limit what an individual may do at home alone or with consenting adults. Such laws are intended to make people safer, healthier, or more productive, but they often violate the Five Rights because they sacrifice personal choices to some presumed greater good. Directives of policy may include laws that violate the rights to privacy or free speech; laws restricting abortion or physician-assisted suicide; restrictions on gun rights; prohibitions on unhealthy foods, cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs; laws that discriminate against gays; and laws that violate property rights. Drug prohibition laws have been the most damaging. Over the past 40 years, the US population grew 50 percent while its prison population grew 1,000 percent, due mostly to antidrug laws. There are now two million Americans in jail, half of whom didn’t harm, coerce, or defraud anyone. The land of the free has one twentieth of the world’s population and one fifth of its prison population. Our incarceration rate is seven times that of European countries. No democracy has ever had such a large percentage of its people behind bars. Legalization of marijuana and decriminalization of other drugs would free hundreds of thousands of individuals, end prison overcrowding, and save billions of dollars now spent trying to enforce unenforceable laws. There would be less need for spying, wiretapping, and breaking down doors. Americans could stop thinking of the police as the enemy and vice-versa, permitting a renewal of respect for the Five Rights.

The conclusion of this professor-historian (emeritus) is that our gun culture had its uses in establishing American civilization, as slavery did. But we came to recognize (after a bloody civil war) that slavery was a gigantic mistake, and now I think it’s time to realize that our gun culture was a similarly gigantic mistake, though of a different kind. And we need to do what we can to minimize its horrible impacts and move on to a more positive development of a humane civilization.

“This brief, provocative, and accessible book offers snapshots of seven pernicious myths in military history that have been perpetrated on unsuspecting students, readers, moviegoers, game players, and politicians. It promotes awareness of how myths are created by 'the spurious misuse and ignorance of history' and how misleading ideas about a military problem, as in asymmetric warfare, can lead to misguided solutions. “Both scholarly and engaging, this book is an ideal addition to military history and historical methodology courses. In fact, it could be fruitfully used in any course that teaches critical thinking skills, including courses outside the discipline of history. Military history has a broad appeal to students, and there’s something here for everyone. From the so-called 'Western Way of War' to its sister-myth, technological determinism, to the ‘academic party game’ of once-faddish ‘Military Revolutions,’ the book shows that while myths about history may be fun, myth busting is the most fun of all.” —Reina Pennington, Norwich University

What are individual rights? What is freedom? How are they related to each other? Why are they so crucial to human life? How do you protect them? These are some of the questions that A Declaration and Constitution for a Free Society answers. The book uses Objectivist philosophy—the philosophy of Ayn Rand—to analyze subjective, intrinsic, and objective theories of rights and show why rights and freedom are objective necessities of human life. This knowledge is then used to make changes to the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. Through these changes, the book shows the fundamental legal requirements of a free society and why we should create such a society. It demonstrates why a free society is morally, politically, and economically beneficial to human beings.

The revised third edition of the landmark Guns in American Society provides an authoritative and objective survey of the history and current state of all gun-related issues and areas of debate in the United States. Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law is a comprehensive and evenhanded three-volume reference resource for understanding all of the political, legal, and cultural factors that have swirled around gun rights and gun control in America, past and present. The encyclopedia draws on a vast array of research in criminology, history, law, medicine, politics, and social science. It covers all aspects of the issue: gun violence, including mass shootings in schools and other public spaces; gun control arguments and organizations; gun rights arguments and organizations; the firearms industry; firearms regulation, legislation, and court decisions; gun subcultures (for example, hunters and collectors); leading opinion-shapers on both sides of the gun debate; technological innovations in firearm manufacturing; various types of firearms, from handguns to assault weapons; and evolving public attitudes toward guns. Many of these entries place the topics in both historical and cross-cultural perspective.

The US is facing enormous challenges as it enters the second decade of the twenty-first century. Some of these major issues are environmentalism and its claim of global warming; the danger from terrorism generated by Islamic fundamentalism; and affordable, quality health care. Additionally, education in America remains an unresolved dilemma contributing to America's lack of economic competitiveness. Andrew Bernstein argues that the US government is pushing the nation toward socialism in its attempt to resolve America's problems. The government's increasing control of the banking industry, its massive bailouts of auto makers, and its proposal of emissions legislation are also examples of the expansion of government's power. Bernstein argues that whatever the intentions of the government, or its illusions about the workability of its proposals, morally upright and practical solutions can only come from moving to the opposite end of the political-economic spectrum: the establishment of laissez-faire capitalism. In Atlas Shrugged, and in her non-fiction works, Ayn Rand developed a systematic body of thought, a comprehensive philosophy she dubbed "Objectivism." This philosophy has been neglected by most professional intellectuals, but it is now beginning to be seriously studied in academic philosophy departments. Objectivism provides the moral and philosophic validation of the political-economic principles of individual rights and free markets. Analysis of today's gravest social and political issues within this philosophic framework, as undertaken by Bernstein in this volume, constitutes a unique way of identifying rational solutions to these pressing issues.

A provocative history that reveals how guns—not abortion, race, or religion—are at the heart of America's cultural divide. Gunfight is a timely work examining America’s four-centuries-long political battle over gun control and the right to bear arms. In this definitive and provocative history, Adam Winkler reveals how guns—not abortion, race, or religion—are at the heart of America’s cultural divide. Using the landmark 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller—which invalidated a law banning handguns in the nation’s capital—as a springboard, Winkler brilliantly weaves together the dramatic stories of gun-rights advocates and gun-control lobbyists, providing often unexpected insights into the venomous debate that now cleaves our nation.