ABSTRACT

It is worth considering, in view of the overwhelming liberal and left-wing support for gun controls today, the very different perspective of radicals at the turn of the last century. Self-sovereignty but also equality, freedom and social solidarity - the bond of trust and common interest that unites a people - grew with the arming of the citizen. The specific characteristics of the United States ensured a relationship between gun ownership and citizenship, despite the country's lack of enthusiasm for the socialist revolutionism expressed by Liebknecht. In relation to policy, the target of gun control campaigns remains, as previous gun control attempts during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did, specific groups of people. In the past, gun controls were aimed at African Americans, socialists or immigrants. Liebknecht's futuristic conception of citizenry was, in some ways, a logical extension of the concept of the armed citizen being necessary for the maintenance of the Republic.