The Best Longreads on Gun Violence and Policy

The Secret History of Gun Rights 
Adam Winkler, The Atlantic

The Ku Klux Klan, Ronald Reagan, and, for most of its history, the NRA all worked to control guns. The Founding Fathers? They required gun ownership—and regulated it. And no group has more fiercely advocated the right to bear loaded weapons in public than the Black Panthers—the true pioneers of the modern pro-gun movement. In the battle over gun rights in America, both sides have distorted history and the law, and there’s no resolution in sight.

12 Facts About Guns in the U.S.
Ezra Klein, The Washington Post

Eleven of the 20 worst mass shootings of the past 50 years happened in America, and more disturbing facts.

Glock: America’s Gun
Paul Barrett, Businessweek

How Gaston Glock—a former curtain-rod maker from Austria whose company manufactured the pistols used in Tucson and Killeen—managed to dominate not just the American handgun market, but America's gun consciousness.

How the NRA Spread a Radical Gun Law Nationwide 
Adam Weinstein, Mother Jones

The killing of Jordan Davis—like Trayvon Martin before him—has raised troubling questions about the rise of "Stand Your Ground."

The Case for More Guns (And More Gun Control) 
Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic

How do we reduce gun crime and Aurora-style mass shootings when Americans already own nearly 300 million firearms? Maybe by allowing more people to carry them.

Putting the Second Amendment Second
Akhil Reed Amar, Slate

Reframing the constitutional debate over gun control.

The Age of Treason
Justine Sharrock, Mother Jones

Glenn Beck loves them. Tea Partiers court them. Congressmen listen to them. Meet the fastest-growing "patriot" group that's recruiting soldiers to resist the Obama administration. 

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