Geographically, the United States and Canada inherited very similar landscapes but culturally, socially, and politically, they have taken quite different paths into the 21st century. Initially, the land and its indigenous people necessitated the use of firearms for protection and food. The U.S. was born of rebellion. Canada emerged as the natural outcome of colonies becoming independent through maturation and petition. Each chose a quite different philosophical approach to society, politics, and government; and it is these differences that help us explain why America remains committed to its personal possession of firearms, with all its consequences, while Canada has chosen to foster a policy of strict and limited gun control. America’s relationship with firearms developed out of English Common Law and the English Bill of Rights which guaranteed the right to bear arms as a fundamental and, therefore, an inalienable human right and was guaranteed in the U.S. Bill of Rights. Canada’s Fathers of Confederation chose to exclude this fundamental right from its Constitution and its Bill of Rights for reasons that can now only be described as elitist and racist. To own and bear arms in Canada is a privilege and not a right. The right to own firearms is neither guaranteed nor defended by the founding documents of the nation. In fact, the laws governing firearms are part of the Canadian Criminal Code. This omission, since 1867, and the inclusion of firearms regulations within the Criminal Code, since 1892, has served to differentiate America from Canada and has permitted Canada to implement some of the most restrictive gun laws to govern law-abiding citizens in a free and democratic nation.

From the École Polytechnique shootings of 1989 to the political controversy surrounding the elimination of the federal long-gun registry, the issue of gun control has been a subject of fierce debate in Canada. But in fact, firearm regulation has been a sharply contested issue in the country since Confederation. Arming and Disarming offers the first comprehensive history of gun control in Canada from the colonial period to the present. In this sweeping, immersive book, R. Blake Brown outlines efforts to regulate the use of guns by young people, punish the misuse of arms, impose licensing regimes, and create firearm registries. Brown also challenges many popular assumptions about Canadian history, suggesting that gun ownership was far from universal during much of the colonial period, and that many nineteenth century lawyers – including John A. Macdonald – believed in a limited right to bear arms. Arming and Disarming provides a careful exploration of how social, economic, cultural, legal, and constitutional concerns shaped gun legislation and its implementation, as well as how these factors defined Canada’s historical and contemporary ‘gun culture.’

A physician's "provocative" (Boston Globe) and "timely" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times Book Review) account of how right-wing backlash policies have deadly consequences -- even for the white voters they promise to help. In election after election, conservative white Americans have embraced politicians who pledge to make their lives great again. But as physician Jonathan M. Metzl shows in Dying of Whiteness, the policies that result actually place white Americans at ever-greater risk of sickness and death. Interviewing a range of everyday Americans, Metzl examines how racial resentment has fueled progun laws in Missouri, resistance to the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee, and cuts to schools and social services in Kansas. He shows these policies' costs: increasing deaths by gun suicide, falling life expectancies, and rising dropout rates. Now updated with a new afterword, Dying of Whiteness demonstrates how much white America would benefit by emphasizing cooperation rather than chasing false promises of supremacy. Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award

A Diplomacy of Hope is the first comprehensive survey of the history of Canadian diplomacy in the area of arms control and disarmament. Taking much of their information from Canadian archival sources, Albert Legault and Michel Fortmann cover all major negotiations on arms control and disarmament in which Canada has participated since 1945.

A provocative, timely, and deeply-researched history of gun culture and how it reflects race and power in the United States

When it comes to the gun control debate, there are two kinds of data: data that's accurate, and data that left-wing billionaires, liberal politicians, and media want you to believe is accurate. In The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies, nationally-renowned economist John R. Lott, Jr. turns a skeptical eye to well-funded anti-gun studies and stories that perpetuate false statistics to frighten Americans into giving up their guns. In this, his latest and most important book, The War on Guns, Lott offers the most thorough debunking yet of the so-called “facts,” “data,” and “arguments” of anti-gun advocates, exposing how they have repeatedly twisted or ignored the real evidence, the evidence that of course refutes them on every point. In The War on Guns, you’ll learn: Why gun licenses and background checks don’t stop crime How “gun-free” zones actually attract mass shooters Why Stand Your Ground laws are some of the best crime deterrents we have Women now hold over a quarter of concealed handgun permits How big-money liberal foundations and the federal government are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into “public health” studies, the sole purpose of which is to manufacture false data against guns How media bias and ignorance skew the gun debate—and why it will get worse From 1950-2010, not a single mass public shooting occurred in an area where general civilians are allowed to carry guns