Thaddeus Russell on Gun Control's Racist Roots

From our January 2012 issue, historian Thaddeus Russell reviews the new book Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America. Not only does Gunfight establish that the first gun control organizations in the United States were the posses that terrorized freed slaves after the Civil War, Russell writes, the book also shows how gun control has long gone hand in hand with fear of black people—and of The People.