thefilmarchive.org July 26, 2012 Gun politics in the United States has long been among the most controversial issues in American politics.[1] For the last several decades, the debate regarding both the restriction and availability of firearms within the United States has been characterized by a stalemate between an individual right to bear arms based on the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and the responsibility of government to prevent crime, maintain order and protect the wellbeing of its citizens.[2][3] In District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 US 570 (2008), the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Second Amendment protects the right of an individual to own a firearm for the purposes of self defense within the home, while at the same time reaffirming the constitutionality of a wide range of long standing gun control laws.[4] Repeated polling has found that a majority of Americans believe the constitution ensures their right to own a gun,[5][6] and a majority also supports stricter enforcement of current laws.[7] The gun has long been a symbol of power and masculinity.[17] In popular literature, frontier adventure was most famously told by James Fenimore Cooper, who is credited by Petri Liukkonen with creating the archetype of an 18th century frontiersman through such novels as "The Last of the Mohicans" (1826) and "The Deerslayer" (1840).[18] In the late 19th century, cowboy and Wild West imagery entered the collective imagination. The first ...