HI 115 - Guns in America

America has a complicated relationship with guns. The right to bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, guns are prevalent in entertainment (from movies to video games), and the rate of gun ownership is the highest in the world. Guns have also been tools for survival and sport for many Americans. At the same time, despite a recent Supreme Court case, reasonable people disagree over how to interpret the Constitutional right, fewer Americans than ever hunt for sport or survival, and the rate of mass shootings and the likelihood that a person will be murdered by a handgun are both dramatically high in the United States. This course explores this complicated relationship by examining the place of firearms in the history of the United States. It devotes considerable attention to the origins of the Second Amendment and then explores the ways that Americans interpreted and applied that constitutional right from the 19th to the 21st centuries. It also explores guns’ place in the popular imagination, especially in movies, video games, and popular music.

Note: Meets Historical Reasoning Learning Outcome (HIST)

Four credits.