Weapons of Mississippi
Weapons of Mississippi

Author: Kevin Dougherty

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2010-09-30

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1604734523

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Mississippians have long found the need for an arsenal of interesting, lethal, and imaginative weapons. Native Americans, frontier outlaws, antebellum duelists, authorities and protestors in the civil rights struggle, and present-day hunters have used weapons to survive, to advance causes, or to levy societal control. In Weapons of Mississippi, Kevin Dougherty examines the roles weapons have played in twelve phases of state history. Dougherty not only offers technical background for these devices, but he also presents a new way of understanding the state's history-through the context and development of its weapons. Chapters in the book bring the story of Mississippi's weapons up to date with a discussion of the modern naval shipbuilders on the Coast and interviews with hunters keen to pass on family traditions. As Mississippi progressed from a sparsely populated wilderness to a structured modern society, management of weaponry became one of the main requirements for establishing centralized law and order. Indians, outlaws, runaway slaves, secessionists, and night riders have all posed challenges to the often better-armed authorities. Today, weapons unite Mississippians in the popular pastime of hunting deer, turkey, dove, rabbit, and even bear. In the state's social and cultural character, a shared lore and knowledge of hunting crosses age, racial, and economic lines. Weapons, once used for mere survival, have transformed into instruments masterfully crafted for those harvesting the state's abundant game.

Atomic Testing in Mississippi
Atomic Testing in Mississippi

Author: David Allen Burke

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2012-11-05

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 0807145831

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In Atomic Testing in Mississippi, David Allen Burke illuminates the nearly forgotten history of America's only nuclear detonations east of the Mississippi River. The atomic tests, conducted in the mid-1960s nearly 3,000 feet below ground in Mississippi's Tatum Salt Dome, posed a potential risk for those living within 150 miles of the site, which included residents of Hattiesburg, Jackson, Gulfport, Biloxi, Mobile, and New Orleans. While the detonations provided the United States with verification methods that helped limit the world's nuclear arsenals, they sparked widespread public concern. In 1964 and 1966 the Atomic Energy Commission conducted experiments at the salt dome -- code-named Dribble -- surrounded by a greater population density than any other test site in the United States. Although the detonations were not weapons tests, they fostered a conflict between regional politicians interested in government-funded science projects and a population leery of nuclear testing near their homes. Even today, residents near the salt dome are still fearful of long-term negative health consequences. Despite its controversy, Project Dribble provided the technology needed to detect and assess the performance of distant underground atomic explosions and thus verify international weapons treaty compliance. This technology led to advanced seismological systems that now provide tsunami warnings and detect atomic activity in other nuclear nations, such as Pakistan and North Korea.

Weapons of Mississippi
Weapons of Mississippi

Author: Kevin Dougherty

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2010-09-30

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1496801962

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Mississippians have long found the need for an arsenal of interesting, lethal, and imaginative weapons. Native Americans, frontier outlaws, antebellum duelists, authorities and protestors in the civil rights struggle, and present-day hunters have used weapons to survive, to advance causes, or to levy societal control. In Weapons of Mississippi, Kevin Dougherty examines the roles weapons have played in twelve phases of state history. Dougherty not only offers technical background for these devices, but he also presents a new way of understanding the state’s history-through the context and development of its weapons. Chapters in the book bring the story of Mississippi’s weapons up to date with a discussion of the modern naval shipbuilders on the Coast and interviews with hunters keen to pass on family traditions. As Mississippi progressed from a sparsely populated wilderness to a structured modern society, management of weaponry became one of the main requirements for establishing centralized law and order. Indians, outlaws, runaway slaves, secessionists, and night riders have all posed challenges to the often better-armed authorities. Today, weapons unite Mississippians in the popular pastime of hunting deer, turkey, dove, rabbit, and even bear. In the state’s social and cultural character, a shared lore and knowledge of hunting crosses age, racial, and economic lines. Weapons, once used for mere survival, have transformed into instruments masterfully crafted for those harvesting the state’s abundant game.

Weapons and Tools in Rock Art
Weapons and Tools in Rock Art

Author: Ana M. S. Bettencourt

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2021-03-31

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1789254930

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Weapons and tools are frequently found depicted in rock art in many parts of the globe and different periods and in varying social contexts. This collection of papers by leading rock art specialists examines the subjective and metaphorical value of weapons and tools in art, the actions that created them, and their contexts. It also takes into account that such representations incorporate and transmit some kind of understanding about the world and the relationship between objects and humans. Contributors analyse objects and weapons as status symbols, as evidences of cultural contacts, as ideological devices, etc. Divided into regional sections which, for once, do not focus on Scandinavia, chapters deal with the representations of weapons and certain kinds of tools (such as axes and sickles) in different prehistoric, protohistoric and traditional community contexts all over the world. Attention focuses on rock art, but also looks at stelae and statue-menhirs, as well as other kinds of ‘container’ or vehicle for this kind of depiction. The major concern is to discuss the possible meanings of these embodied signs in different areas and periods, since meanings are permeable both to time and space. Papers either centre their attention in broader approaches based on a specific area, region or people, or focus on particular case studies.

The Horse at Gettysburg
The Horse at Gettysburg

Author: Chris Bagley

Publisher: Gettysburg Publishing

Published: 2021-08-03

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1734627638

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Horses are one of the many unsung heroes of the American Civil War. These majestic animals were impressed into service, trained, prepared for battle, and turned into expendable implements of war. There is more to this story, however. When an army’s means and survival is predicated upon an animal whose instincts are to flee rather than fight, a bond of mutual trust and respect between handler and horse must be forged. Ultimately, the Battle of Gettysburg resulted in thousands of horses killed and wounded. Their story deserves telling, from a time not so far removed.

A Well-Regulated Militia
A Well-Regulated Militia

Author: Saul Cornell

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008-08-04

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0199712441

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Americans are deeply divided over the Second Amendment. Some passionately assert that the Amendment protects an individual's right to own guns. Others, that it does no more than protect the right of states to maintain militias. Now, in the first and only comprehensive history of this bitter controversy, Saul Cornell proves conclusively that both sides are wrong. Cornell, a leading constitutional historian, shows that the Founders understood the right to bear arms as neither an individual nor a collective right, but as a civic right--an obligation citizens owed to the state to arm themselves so that they could participate in a well regulated militia. He shows how the modern "collective right" view of the Second Amendment, the one federal courts have accepted for over a hundred years, owes more to the Anti-Federalists than the Founders. Likewise, the modern "individual right" view emerged only in the nineteenth century. The modern debate, Cornell reveals, has its roots in the nineteenth century, during America's first and now largely forgotten gun violence crisis, when the earliest gun control laws were passed and the first cases on the right to bear arms came before the courts. Equally important, he describes how the gun control battle took on a new urgency during Reconstruction, when Republicans and Democrats clashed over the meaning of the right to bear arms and its connection to the Fourteenth Amendment. When the Democrats defeated the Republicans, it elevated the "collective rights" theory to preeminence and set the terms for constitutional debate over this issue for the next century. A Well Regulated Militia not only restores the lost meaning of the original Second Amendment, but it provides a clear historical road map that charts how we have arrived at our current impasse over guns. For anyone interested in understanding the great American gun debate, this is a must read.

Firearms control
Firearms control

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-12-20

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 9780215555663

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The Home Affairs Committee reports that well-designed legislation which regulates and restricts the legal supply of firearms can help to reduce gun crime. The committee recognises that thousands of people use firearms responsibly for recreation and in their work. It has no intention of restricting such activity. However, the committee today concludes that interpreting and applying the current 34 pieces of legislation governing the control of firearms places an "onerous burden" on the police and on members of the public who wish to abide by the law, because it is "so complex and confused". In particular, the committee recommends introducing one licensing system to cover all firearms which require a licence and identifies age restrictions on firearms use as a particular area of uncertainty. Although the majority of firearms-related crimes are not committed with licensed firearms, the committee is also concerned about the use of legally-owned weapons in domestic shootings, including those related to domestic abuse. The Committee has several recommendations including: a review of the minimum age limits on the use of firearms and eligibility for firearms certificates; recommends tighter restrictions and clearer guidance to the police on the granting of firearms and shotgun licences to individuals who have engaged in criminal activity; considering requiring the police to consult the domestic partners of licence applicants in making the decision as to whether to grant a licence; suggests that the Government considers requiring advocates raising the fees charged to applicants so that it covers the costs of licensing, to ensure that police spending cuts do not jeopardise the rigour of the licensing process. Finally, the committee was concerned at evidence of the significant criminal threat posed by reactivated and converted firearms, in response to tighter regulations on genuine lethal weapons.

Thundersticks
Thundersticks

Author: David J. Silverman

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2016-10-10

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0674974743

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The adoption of firearms by American Indians between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries marked a turning point in the history of North America’s indigenous peoples—a cultural earthquake so profound, says David Silverman, that its impact has yet to be adequately measured. Thundersticks reframes our understanding of Indians’ historical relationship with guns, arguing against the notion that they prized these weapons more for the pyrotechnic terror guns inspired than for their efficiency as tools of war. Native peoples fully recognized the potential of firearms to assist them in their struggles against colonial forces, and mostly against one another. The smoothbore, flintlock musket was Indians’ stock firearm, and its destructive potential transformed their lives. For the deer hunters east of the Mississippi, the gun evolved into an essential hunting tool. Most importantly, well-armed tribes were able to capture and enslave their neighbors, plunder wealth, and conquer territory. Arms races erupted across North America, intensifying intertribal rivalries and solidifying the importance of firearms in Indian politics and culture. Though American tribes grew dependent on guns manufactured in Europe and the United States, their dependence never prevented them from rising up against Euro-American power. The Seminoles, Blackfeet, Lakotas, and others remained formidably armed right up to the time of their subjugation. Far from being a Trojan horse for colonialism, firearms empowered American Indians to pursue their interests and defend their political and economic autonomy over two centuries.

Naval Weapons of World War One
Naval Weapons of World War One

Author: Norman Friedman

Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Published: 2011-12-12

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 1848321007

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Although the Great War might be regarded as the heyday of the big-gun at sea, it also saw the maturing of underwater weapons – the mine and torpedo – as well as the first signs of the future potency of air power. Between 1914 and 1918 weapons development was both rapid and complex, so this book has two functions: on the one hand it details all the guns, torpedoes, mines, aerial bombs and anti-submarine systems employed during that period; but it also seeks to explain the background to their evolution – how the weapons were perceived at the time and how they were actually used. This involves a discussion of tactics and emphasises the key ‘enabling’ technology of fire control and gun mountings. In this respect the book treats the war as a transition from naval weapons which were essentially experimental at its outbreak to a state where they pointed directly to what would be used in World War Two. Based largely on original research, this sophisticated book is more than a catalogue of the weapons, offering insight into some of the most important technical and operational factors influencing the war at sea. In this respect it is more broadly significant than its title might suggest.