Patrick J. Charles

Vote Gun by Patrick J Charles is an interesting look at how an issue that had never been particularly partisan became so.

The early history will likely be what surprises some readers who have grown up in a partisan environment. Gun rights and regulation were largely local and state issues and each locality tended to have their own comfort zone, with politicians on both sides of the aisle as likely to support or oppose regulation.

Like so many elements in US history, race plays a role in how this became a partisan issue. As opposition to civil rights took a state's rights position, it joined forces with the gun rights faction that, after JFK's assassination, arose in opposition to federal regulation. This joining of forces, along with the Dixiecrats migrating to the party that supported segregation made both civil rights and gun control partisan issues.

While Charles points out that the California legislation was not introduced in direct response to the Black Panthers, he acknowledges that its passage was expedited because of them. In other words, race played an issue in why it became law sooner and with less debate. It was not simply about second amendment and police support, even prior to the Black Panthers. It was introduced because white groups, largely vigilante in nature, were forming in neighborhoods around the state. It was when Black groups might start forming that the passage was guaranteed and expedited.

What I found most interesting were the various cartoons and political advertisements, and even the business ads that used gun rights/regulation as part of their message. It is in these artifacts that the society of the period comes through the most. It isn't debate in either academic halls or government legislatures, it is what people and organizations feel comfortable putting out there for all to see. What is passing as accepted public commentary shows far more clearly the type of society that exists, then as today.

Highly recommended for those interested in both the rise of the NRA as we know it today and the history of gun policy as a whole. With the inclusion of the advertisements, this also becomes valuable for those with an interest in social history.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (mais)