(Reviewed by JD Jung)
“The militias referred to in the Second Amendment were intended as a means for white people to eliminate Indigenous communities in order take their land, and for slave patrols to control Black people.”
American historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argues that understanding the history and reasoning behind the Second Amendment is crucial in understanding today’s dangerous gun culture and the rise of white nationalism.
Dunbar-Ortiz looks at centuries of American history in relation to popular culture and guns. How did violent outlaws such as Jesse James and Belle Starr become folk heroes? And why did folk singers like Woody Guthrie and Joan Baez celebrate old Confederate guerillas?
She isn’t afraid to explore sensitive issues either. She maintains that modern-day law enforcement stems from the old slave patrols. Though she gives convincing arguments, I would have to do more research on that subject to say if I agree with her assessment or not.
Loaded also analyzes recent mass shootings—the book was written after the Las Vegas shooting but before the Parkland school shooting. Dunbar-Ortiz doesn’t just make statements; she provides multiple examples and in-depth analysis of each theory in order to prove her point. Among them is why gun control works in other countries that also tried to eradicate indigenous people, like Australia. She who herself is from the Midwest also thinks that citizens in rural America feel that the only power they have left is the Second Amendment.
In addition to her exhaustive research, I appreciate that she spends much of the book dissecting other theories on gun violence by prominent researchers and what she agrees and disagrees with.
I highly recommend this book to all Americans to better understand our destructive gun culture. Hopefully that will better enable us to find solutions. However, I was hoping to find some in this book, keys to reversing this increase in gun violence. Unfortunately, that was not the point of the book. In fact after reading Loaded, I felt defeated. However that helplessness was short-lived and was replaced by my usual anger. Let’s never give up!
