Would banning firearms reduce murder and suicide? A review of international and some domestic evidence

Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Spring, 2007 by Don B. Kates, Gary Mauser

(105.) For collections of many of the relevant laws, see Clayton E. Cramer, Gun Control in Colonial New England, (unpublished manuscript, available at http://www.claytoncramer.com/GunControlColonialNewEngland.PDF) (last visited Nov. 19, 2006); Clayton E. Cramer, Gun Control in Colonial New England, Part II (unpublished manuscript, available at http://www.claytoncramer.com/ GunControlColonialNewEngland2.PDF) (last visited Nov. 19, 2006); Clayton E. Cramer, Gun Control in the Middle & Southern Colonies, (unpublished manuscript, available at http://www.daytoncramer.com/MiddleSouthemColonialGunControl.PDF) (last visited Nov. 19, 2006); Clayton E. Cramer, Militia Statutes, http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary.html#MilitiaLaws (last visited Nov. 19, 2006).

(106.) JOHN MORGAN DEDERER, WAR IN AMERICA TO 1775, at 116 (1990).

(107.) LANE, supra note 64, at 48, 59-60.

(108.) Id. at 344.

(109.) The enthusiasm modern gun advocates express for the ancient militia far exceeds the enthusiasm felt by the Englishmen and Americans who were actually subject to the obligations involved. Guns were expensive items even for those owners who were supplied them by the colonies since they were required to pay the colonies back over time. And the duty of militia drill was a constant source of irritation to men who had little time for leisure and urgent need to devote their time to making a living for themselves and their families. By the turn of the nineteenth century, at the earliest, the universal militia was in desuetude and replaced in the 1840s by colorfully garbed volunteer formations whose activities were more social than military.

(110.) Revolver inventor Samuel Colt's first business failed in 1840. It revived itself only with sales to officers and the military during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and sustained itself through the 1850s with sales to wealthy Americans and Europeans. See JOSEPH G. BILBY, CIVIL WAR FIREARMS 157 (1996); LEE KENNETT & JAMES LAVERNE ANDERSON, THE GUN IN AMERICA 90 (1975); LANE, supra note 65, at 109. Colt's sales flourished as foreign armies adopted his revolver and wide sales took place in the commercial market across Europe, KENNETT & ANDERSON, supra, at 90, especially after Colt's prize-winning exhibit at the 1851 Great Industrial Exhibition in London. See generally JOSEPH G. ROSA, COLONEL COLT LONDON 13-29 (1976).

(111.) See generally BILBY, supra note 110, at 157-72. The revolvers involved were by no means all Colts: "[T]he Federal government also purchased large numbers of Remington, Starr and Whitney revolvers, as well as the guns of other [American] makers, including the bizarre looking Savage, with its second 'ring trigger' which cocked the arm, and the sidehammer Joslyn." Id. at 158. Vast numbers of guns were also purchased in Europe where, in the first 15 months of the war, the Union bought over 738,000 firearms (including long arms as well as revolvers). ALLAN R. MILLETT & PETER MASLOWSKI, FOR THE COMMON DEFENSE: A MILITARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 216 (1984). Some Union infantry units were issued revolvers and many enlisted infantrymen in other units bought their own. BILBY, supra note 110, at 160.