Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America [Hardcover]

Adam Winkler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2011

A provocative history that reveals how guns—not abortion, race, or religion—are at the heart of America's cultural divide.

Gunfight promises to be a seminal work in its examination of America's four-centuries-long political battle over gun control and the right to bear arms. In the tradition of Gideon's Trumpet, Adam Winkler uses the landmark 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller, which invalidated a law banning handguns in the nation's capital, as a springboard for a groundbreaking historical narrative. From the Founding Fathers and the Second Amendment to the origins of the Klan, ironically as a gun control organization, the debate over guns has always generated controversy. Whether examining the Black Panthers' role in provoking the modern gun rights movement or Ronald Reagan's efforts to curtail gun ownership, Winkler brilliantly weaves together the dramatic stories of gun rights advocates and gun control lobbyists, providing often unexpected insights into the venomous debate that now cleaves our nation. 20 black-and-white illustrations

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America, Adam Winkler tells the remarkable story of the rag-tag group of libertarian lawyers who challenged nearly a century of lower-court precedent to bring a clear-cut Second Amendment case to the Supreme Court.

This is an engaging and provocative legal drama about the six-year courtroom journey of District of Columbia v Heller and a fascinating survey of the misunderstood history of guns and gun control in America.” (Wall Street Journal )

“A succinct and fascinating introduction to the legal and historical issues at the heart of the gun debate.” (Eric Arnesen, professor of history at George Washington University and fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars - Chicago Tribune )

About the Author

Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been featured on CNN and in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New Republic. A columnist for the Daily Beast, he lives in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 361 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (September 19, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393077411
• ISBN-13: 978-0393077414
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #56,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Law > Legal History
  • #46 in Books > Law > Constitutional Law
  • #63 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Civil Rights & Liberties

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The winner in Gunfight is the reader January 15, 2012

By Richard Burt

Format:Hardcover

This is a highly informative account, and expert analysis, of the tension between the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (the right to keep and bear arms) and gun control. Adam Winkler, the author, is a constitutional law professor who is able to explain important legal principles in a way that makes them easy for the non-expert to understand. More important, however, he knows how to engage the reader and make a book about a policy debate fascinating.

Winkler starts with case of District of Columbia v. Heller as it is about to be announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008, and he then describes how the case was conceived, litigated, and finally decided. District of Columbia v. Heller is the case in which the Supreme Court held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects individual ownership of firearms and in which the District of Columbia's prohibition on private ownership of handguns was struck down as unconstitutional. As Winkler goes through the history of the case, he weaves in valuable historical context for the adoption of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and early gun control measures, why they were adopted, and the development of the NRA's policy on the Second Amendment (its vociferousness is recent, dating to the late seventies).

The book is devoid of the aspersions on one faction or another that are so common in books on gun control. Winkler so fairly and accurately outlines the point of view of each faction in the debate over gun control that when he describes your point of view (whatever that may be) you can say "Yeah, he got that right!" and when he describes that of those you don't agree with, you can say it again....

Of course, if you get upset when a book doesn't come down squarely in favor of your position in the debate (and savage the other side for its obvious idiocy), save yourself some grief. For everyone else, if you have any interest at all in constitutional law or the gun control debate, you will find this book entertaining and worthwhile. Read more ›

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read January 2, 2013

By Patrick

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you've been looking for an analysis on gun control in America from an all-too-rare neutral viewpoint then Gun Control hits the spot. I'll leave it to the others to go more in depth concerning the details; however, I'd like to point something out concerning the those who wrote negative reviews. Most are clearly from the anti-gun control side who consider this book to the pro-gun control. I find it difficult to come to that conclusion. The whole point of the book (made time and time again) is to demonstrate that for as long as people have had guns there has been gun control laws proposed and/or in effect. Whether these laws were rational or effective isn't the, really, the point. Instead, it is to give some idea of the history and logic used to form those laws. If you consider this information to be an endorsement of gun control laws, well, I can't help you there.

Really, Winkler walks on eggshells the whole book not to come down on one side or the other concerning this debate. It's pretty hard to contort the information in this book into a recommendation for gun control. To say that such an analysis screams of bias in an understatement.

P.S. This review was written by an owner of multiple firearms (of the extremely "tactical" variety).

63 of 89 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting point of view written very well September 11, 2011

By Mike in PDX

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been a serious student of the gun control debate for over thirty years so I was anxious to read Adam Winkler's "Gun Fight."

I know all the arguments by heart, so I wasn't reading to learn the history. It may seem odd, but I wanted to know what Winkler, a defacto "Liberal" in my mind, due to his being a law professor at UCLA, had to say about this issue that fascinates me and polarizes society. Was he a closet gun lover? There are Liberal gun rights advocates - quite a few actually.

I enjoyed the storyline, which intersperses scenes from the Heller case in the Supreme Court with short history lessons. Most of the history seemed pretty accurate to me, although I did not take the time to do a Bellesiles check and look up his many footnoted references.

For much of the book it was hard to tell if the author was a liberal gun grabber or a conservative gun nut. He did a great job of skewering both the pro and anti-gun lobbies evenly. The one thing that tipped me off was a consistent thread in his attitude about gun laws.

Whenever he commented on a legislative stalemate or victory for the gun rights lobby, he seemed sad that no gun control laws were passed. If we could just work together, we could pass some nice new gun laws. He also frequently used terms like "reasonable gun safety laws" that are straight out of the gun grabber dictionary.

While Winkler briefly mentions the fact that current gun laws are ineffective, he does not seem at all bothered by it. He admits that guns aren't going to go away in America, but he seems certain that a magical law to render them safe is just around the corner if we will stop fighting and be reasonable....

Winkler seems oblivious to the complete and utter failure of gun control laws to provide any real, measurable, public benefit whenever they have been enacted.

This failure to make the logical connection is the biggest flaw in the book, but I would still recommend it to anyone who wants a fun and fast read on the history of the gun control debate in America. Read more ›

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read regardless of which side of gun control you are on January 18, 2013

By RWW

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Whether you are for or against gun legislation, this book is for you. Be forewarned, there will be times it looks like the book is supporting one side, then other times where it seems to be supporting the other. It's not going to change your opinion, but that's not really the intent of the book. Rather, it helps to make your views better informed by showing the history of the changes in attitudes over the years, and their causes. The book uses the recent Supreme Court case dealing with the handgun ban in Washington D.C. to guide you through America's history starting with Pre-Revolution to present day. It will show how the Second Amendment, and laws and government attitudes since it's ratification, support both controls and liberties. It's not a tit-for-tat presentation. In other words, the book will not say if you look at this it shows support for individual rights but if you look at this it shows support for stricter laws. Rather, it looks at one period at a time and how it influences American views at the time. I definitely recommend this book to everybody, because whatever your stance, it will educate you on our history, and make you better informed on both sides of the argument.