ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the gun issue as a type of public policy by examining some basic questions about the purposes of government that have been mostly lost in the furor over contemporary gun policy. The chapter thus begins with the nature of public policy in its several types, noting that policy type explains the degree of political controversy. The enduringly controversial nature of gun policy is explained by the fact that it is an instance of “social regulatory policy.” The historic roots of Americans' attachment to guns provides a distinctive feature of the American gun landscape, stretching back to the earliest days of the republic, and extending to the militia/frontier (including the much-misunderstood “Wild West” of the nineteenth century) and hunting/sporting traditions. Both historical traditions frame the modern gun debate.
