—_———$— TECHNOLOGY ann CULTURE a Guns and Gun Culture 4 Ex Inthe eal 1800s sme Amica plod an imag othr ountynen a expat marksmen: A popuar song alrbuted tho American victory at tho Bato of Now Oroans in 115 tho shrpshootng skis ofthe Kenly ma ot Ane Jackoon who com tmanded Anrcan frees in tho bat, thought ctor woo, and torn have aged wih Nm. Accurato gone ware th excoptonn 1815 and for docades afr ward, Bal oxted,stooth-bore muskets. at unpre ditablo angles anc started to tbl after fy or Sty yard. 1886 Jackson meet, now presen, became {enfin of another fect of gue: oi Una ‘A wouldbe assassin fed two shg-ahot psa at Jackeon at pont blank ang, Both mistied it was not st the hnccuray and unlabiy of ging. What mado the sword. and bajonetprotered Mreapore in att. Gus ware expensive. A gunsiih ould court inset fortunate ho cou urn ot twenty 1 yu altho Gat of How Orleans, les than ono ‘Gun Machinory During the 18505 machinery greatly ancelrato the production of guns: town hore ae a mactine fr making gn stocks anda jgitg machine. Te iggina machina had a large rovoving wea to wich were atlached ferent cutting tools used 8 ape the gun ck frames, of the Kentucky militia had any guns let alone guns that worked. ‘Basing that the safety ofthe republic depended on ‘awoll-armed mila, Thomas Jefferson was keenly inter. ested in finding ways to manufacture guns more rapidly. ‘As president-elect in 1801 he witnossad a demonstration by Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton ain, of guns manufactured on tho new principle of interchangeabla parts. Ifeach part of a gun could be méchine-made and ‘then fitted smoothly into the finall product, there would be no need for tho laborlous mathods of the skiled gun- ‘imith. In delferson’s presence, Whitney successful ft- ted ten different gun locks, one after another, 19 one musket, using only a screwdriver Eager to stavo off the Imperiding bankruptoy of his ccotton-gin business, Whitney had already accepted a federal contract to manufacture ten thousand muskets by 1800. His demonstration persuaded Jefferson that, although Whitney had yet.to deliver any muskets, he could doth job. What Jeiferson did not know was that Whitriey cheated on the test: he akeady had hand-fled each lock so that it ‘would fit. it would be. another eight years before Whitney tnally delivered the muskets ‘Whitney's probiom was that as late as 1820 ‘no machines existed that could make gun parts with suificientpecision to be interchangeable. Curing tho 1820s. and. 1830s, however, John Hall, a Maine. gunsmith, began to construct such machines a the federal arsonal at Harpers Ferry, Viginia. Hall devised new machinas for iling cast-steol qun bares, a variety of lag? ‘and small drop hammors for pounding pies ‘of metal into shape, and new tools for cutra ‘otal (called miing machines). With improve ments by others during tho 1840s and 19505 these machine too's, made it possbie '@ achieve noar uniformity, and hence Inter changeabilty, in the parts of guns. 3 At first, Hall's innovations had little effect: singe the army was scaling | back its demand {guns in the 1830s, The outbreak of war wi ‘Mexico, in. 1846. marked a. turning point. Ts years ‘etl, Connecticut inventor, i |Colt, had secured a patent for a repeating pistol with a rotating chambered-breech, usually called a revolver. At the start of the Méxicai-American War, Golt won a federal contract to provide the army with one thousand revolvers. ‘These proved to be of neglgilo value during tho wa, but Colt, a masterful publicist, was soon traveling the globe and tong al that his revolvers had won the war. Eager to heightei the rovolver's appeal to Americans, Catt made use of a facent invention, called a gramma- graph, that engraved the same design repeatedly on steel. On the cylinders of his revolvers he impressed images of frontiersmen using thei Colt pistols to heroical- ly protect their wives and children from savage Indians. In contrast {0 Hall, a man more interested in making ‘than salting guns, Colt hada genius for popularizing gun ownership, not just on the frontier but also among respectable citizens in the East. He gave away scores of spocially engraved! ‘revolvers to politicians and War Department officials, and he invited western heroes to dine at’ his Hartford, Connecticut, mansion. New England quickly becanie the center of a flourishing ‘American gui ilistry. By 1860 nearly 85 percent ofall ‘American guns were manufactured there. By 1859 Colt hhad out the price of a new revolver from fifty dollars to nineteen dollars. ‘As guns became, less expensive, they became the. ‘weapon of choiod for both the military and street toughs. A the Astor Place Riot in 1849 (discusséd late), soldiers from New, York's Seventh Regiment fired a volley that kiled twenty-two people, the first time that militia fred on tnarmed citizens. Murderers, who traditionally had gone ‘bout their business with knives and clubs, increasingly turned to guns. In tho 1850s a surge in urban homicides usually caused by guns ted to calls for gun control. In 1857 Baltimore became the frst city to allow its police to se firearms. Confronted with an outbreak of gang war- fare the samo year, some New York police captains authorized their men to carry guns. No longer a luxury, Guns could be purchased by ordinary citizens in new. slores that sold only guns and accessories, forerunners of the modem gun supermarket. Most siates had laws barring blacks from owning ‘uns. Women rarely purchased. thom. But for white ‘American men, owning guns and knowing how to use thom inereasingly became a mark of manly self-reliance. Samuel Cot did all he could to encourage this attitude. When the home of a Hartford clergyman was burglarized 'n 1861, Cott prompty sent the clergyman *a copy of my ‘test work on ‘Moral Roform,'" a Colt revolver. Two Years earlier Dan Sickles, a Neve York congressman, had Sreated a sensation by waylaying his wite's lover, Phil Barton Key (he son of the author of the "Star-Spangled Banner), across the street from the White House. Armed Es) Cals Lat Poptn Po tarde aanisvonns Pox WS nored Sickls’s marriage bed, Sickieé sl Key four times in front of several withasse ental, Sickles was acquted of murder Sumnds of “temporary insanity.” He contiivod _ fader of poliesand in 1069 he led a eg