How the Gun Made America Great

The Daily Signal ^ | October 19, 2018 | Rob Bluey

[Perseverando]

Author and columnist David Harsayni joined the Oct. 15 Daily Signal podcast to discuss his new book “First Freedom: A Ride Through America’s Enduring History with the Gun.” This is a lightly edited transcript of that interview.

Rob Bluey: We’re here to talk about your book and America’s history with guns. What inspired you to write this book?

David Harsanyi: I grew up in an area in New York where most people didn’t have guns; perhaps criminals mostly had the guns. And my whole life—then moved later to Colorado—and my whole life I’ve been very curious about gun culture. So obviously I’m involved in the debate over the Second Amendment and the ideological aspects of it.

But I was interested more in the cultural aspect: Why do people treat guns the way they do? What’s unique about the American experience with the gun? So that’s what this book is about.

Ginny Montalbano: David, I want to ask you a very broad question. Could you explain to us, how are firearms linked to America’s rights?

Harsanyi: Well, in every way imaginable almost. First off, it’s important to know that as a philosophical matter, the right to bear arms—or to defend yourself, your property, your family—goes back farther in British law and history than the freedom of religion or freedom of speech, or anything like that. It’s one of the oldest rights.

So right away, the people who were coming here, from England at least, had that embedded in their thinking. And obviously that immediately became, as a practical matter, it became important in survival and in defending yourself from people who were already here, but also for hunting and defending yourself from the French or the Spanish or whoever

[MileHi]

I have enjoyed Harsaynis work since his days at the long defunct Rocky Mtn News.