Change Log

07/23/2021: Added Guns on Campus, Academic Questions (December, 2014).

05/01/2021: Added Peace Bonds collection and Statute of Northampton page to primary sources page.

03/02/2018: Added astrophotographs to Astrophotography

12/31/2010: Added vast quantities of articles to the Popular Magazine & Newspaper Articles page for June 1, 2009 through January 1, 2011.

06/20/2009: Added images of State v. Wilburn (Tenn. 1872), Fife v. State (1876), and Wilson v. State (Ark. 1878) and Holland v. State (Ark. 1878) to the right to keep and bear arms decisions page.

05/03/2009: Added the following articles to the Popular Magazine & Newspaper Articles page: The Heller Aftermath," Shotgun News, October 1, 2008, pp. 22-24, "She Can Field Dress A Moose—A Donkey Will Be Easy!", Shotgun News, November 1, 2008, pp. 30-32, "Gun Shows and Public Safety," Shotgun News, December 1, 2008, pp. 20-21, "Big Trouble," Shotgun News, January 1, 2009, pp. 22-24, "A Nation of Marksmen," America's First Freedom, January, 2009, 37-41, "Parks, D.C. Dragging Their Feet," Shotgun News, February 1, 2009, pp. 22-24, "Post-Heller Victories," Shotgun News, March 1, 2009, pp. 20-22, "Is the Militia Obsolete?", America's First Freedom, March 2009, 38-41, "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Video Camera," Shotgun News, April 1, 2009, pp. 20-22, "Poor Mexico: So Far From God, And So Close to the United States," Shotgun News, May 1, 2009, pp. 26-28.

05/02/2009: Added "Spare Tires Cause Flats!", Reason, February 1985, 46, to Popular Magazine & Newspaper Articles page.

04/13/2009: Added "Gun Control: Political Fears Trump Crime Control," Maine Law Review, 61:1[2009] 57-81. Co-authored with Joseph Edward Olson.

A detailed examination of the discrepancy between the stated purpose of the British Firearms Act of 1920--crime control--and what the declassified Cabinet papers and diaries of participants show was the real concern: fear of Bolshevik revolution.

03/28/2009: Added State v. Keet (Mo. 1916) and City of Salina v. Blaksley (Kan. 1905) to the primary sources page.

09/21/2008: Added "The D.C. Suit Parade," Shotgun News, April 1, 2008, pp. 28-29, "The Heller Oral Arguments," Shotgun News, May 1, 2008, pp. 24, 26, "Standards of Review," Shotgun News, June 1, 2008, pp. 22-24, "Are You Clinging To Your Guns?" Shotgun News, July 1, 2008, pp. 22-23, "President Obama and the Heller Decision," Shotgun News, August 1, 2008, pp. 20-21, "The Heller Victory," Shotgun News, September 1, 2008, pp. 24-26 to the Popular Magazine & Newspaper Articles page.

08/29/2008: A major revision of all pages.

04/08/2008: Added "What Did "Bear Arms" Mean in the Second Amendment?" Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, 6:2 [2008] and "Pistols, Crime, and Public Safety in Early America." Willamette Law Review, 44[2008] to the scholarly journal articles page.

03/08/2008: Added "Heroes and Tragedy", "The DC Suit," , and "Is The Militia Obsolete?" to the popular magazine articles page.

12/03/2007: Added "Assault Weapons and Identity Theft," and "Guns, Alcohol, and Laws," to the popular magazine articles page

10/02/2007: Added "Books & Movies," to the popular magazine articles page.

09/12/2007: Added "HR 2640: Sensible Solution or Trojan Horse?" to the popular magazine articles page.

09/10/2007: Added Fife v. State (Ark. 1876), Dunston v. State (Ala. 1900), State v. Gohl (Wash. 1907), and State v. Keet (Mo. 1916) to to the primary sources page.

09/06/2007: Added Dabbs v. State (Ark. 1882), In re Brickey (Ida. 1902), State v. Boone (N.C. 1903), and State v. Burgoyne (Tenn. 1879) to the primary sources page.

08/09/2007: Added a bunch of Shotgun News articles from April 2006 through August 2007 to the popular magazine articles page.

03/22/2007: Added a 1943 Los Alamos document about nuclear weapons to primary sources page.

03/02/2006: Added the following new articles to the popular magazine articles page: "The Perfect Is The Enemy of the Good," Shotgun News, February 1, 2006, pp. 28-29; "Washington State's Open Carry Ban," Shotgun News, March 1, 2006, pp. 26-27. The interesting history of Washington State's ban on open carry, which suggests that it was not intended as a general ban on open carrying of firearms, but a way to prevent the Black Panthers from walking into the statehouse armed.

01/22/2006: Added "Drugs, Guns, & Commerce" Shotgun News, August 1, 2005, pp. 26-27; "Replacing Justice O'Connor" Shotgun News, September 1, 2005, pp. 20-21; "Defending Self-Defense" Shotgun News, October 1, 2005, pp. 20-21; "Lord of the Flies, Cajun Style"Shotgun News, November 1, 2005, pp. 20-21; "Odds & Ends"Shotgun News, December 1, 2005, pp. 20-21; and  "A Tale of Two Referendums," Shotgun News, January 1, 2006, pp. 20-21 to the popular magazine articles page.

06/25/2005: Added "Gun Safety Regulation in Early America," to the popular magazine articles page.

06/23/2005: Added the following new articles to the popular magazine articles page: "Concealed Carry on University Campuses," Shotgun News, July 10, 2004, p. 11.   "Take Him To Detroit!" Shotgun News, August 1, 2004, p. 11.  "Lawsuits Against Concealed Carry," Shotgun News, August 20, 2004, p. 11.  "Publishing Lists of Permitholders,"Shotgun News, September 1, 2004, pp. 20-21. "New Jersey Concealed Weapon Permits," Shotgun News, October 1, 2004, p. 9. "The Henry Family of Gunsmiths,"Shotgun News, October 20, 2004, p. 9.  "After The Election," Shotgun News, November 10, 2004, p. 9. "Persuading Other Gun Owners,"Shotgun News, December 1, 2004, p. 9. "The Hatred After the Election," Shotgun News, December 20, 2004, p. 9.  "Illinois Does Two Things Right," Shotgun News, January 1, 2005, pp. 22-23. "Showing Their True Colors," Shotgun News, February 1, 2005, pp. 20-21.  "The Department of Justice Issues an Opinion," Shotgun News, March 1, 2005, pp. 20-21. "Integrity & Real History,"Shotgun News, April 1, 2005, pp. 22-23.  "Counting Gunsmiths in Early America," Shotgun News, May 1, 2005, pp. 24-25.

06/21/2005: Added two new articles "Duty to Retreat," and "What Is A Felony?" to the popular magazine articles page.

12/11/2004: Added a new section titled Astronomy on the main page, and a product announcement here.

10/30/2004: The link to "A Tale of Three Cities" on My Law Reviews & Other Scholarly Journal Articles page was broken.

07/10/2004: Added a bunch of Pennsylvania militia statutes for 1777 and 1780, as well as Pennsylvania's 1777 Test Act under primary sources pages.

06/21/2004: Added a bunch of articles starting with "All For the Want of a Nail," to the popular magazine articles page.

05/18/2004: A number of links to the Colonial Connecticut Records website were no longer valid on the primary sources pages.  I have fixed these.

05/02/2004: Added West New Jersey and East New Jersey sodomy and bestiality statutes to the primary sources pages.

05/01/2004: Added 1668 and 1679 militia statutes to the Militia Laws section.  Added a 1675 ban on sales of guns and ammunition to the Indians to Race-Specific and Religion-Specific Gun Control Statutes section.

04/30/2004: Added a 1729 North Carolina law about slaves hunting to Race-Specific and Religion-Specific Gun Control Statutes section.  Added a whole bunch of colonial sodomy and bestiality statutes to primary sources pages, along with reworking that whole discussion.

03/30/2004: Added "Victory in Missouri, Again--Sort Of" at Popular Magazine articles.

02/23/2004: Added "Victory in Ohio" at Popular Magazine articles.

02/02/2004: Added a bunch of articles from Shotgun News for June, 2003 through February, 2004, at Popular Magazine articles.

01/28/2004: Added link to Delaware State Archives collection of slavery documents, on the Slavery section  of the primary sources page.

07/26/2003: Added  a chapter from George Bancroft's History of the United States of America from the Discovery of the Continentto the primary sources page to show you how history used to be written.

07/24/2003: Added colonial sodomy laws to the primary sources pages.

06/15/2003: Added "How to Become Wealthy" series from my weblog, packaged up neatly at http://www.claytoncramer.com/rich/BecomeWealthy.html.

06/06/2003: Added May 1, 2003 Shotgun News article about Two New Shall-Issue States.

06/02/2003: Added 1778 and 1784 Georgia militia statutes at primary sources pages; updated the "One Nation, Under God" item at primary sources page with some more information about Delaware's 1776 Constitutional Convention.  Added a shopping list from 1737 Georgia because it gives pricing information on guns, among other items.

04/28/2003: Added Pennsylvania laws regulating trial of blacks, including a ban on carrying of weapons, at Race-Specific and Religion-Specific Gun Control Statutes page, and under the Slavery section.  Added 1756 and 1757 Pennsylvania militia statutes to primary sources pages.

04/24/2003: Added Rhode Island militia statutes of 1699 and 1718 to the primary sources pages.  Added the 1756 Georgia statute prohibiting Acadians from possessing guns, except on their master's plantation to what is now the Race-Specific and Religion-Specific Gun Control Statutes page.

03/12/2003: Added "One Nation, Under God" to the primary sources page.

02/01/2003: Added Watson v. Stone (Fla. 1941) to http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#RKBADecisions.

01/05/2003: Added some post-Civil War right to keep and bear arms decisions to http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#RKBADecisions.  I will be adding more over the next few days.

01/02/2003: Added "Praise the Lord! & Pass the Ammunition," an article in America's First Freedom, January, 2003, 36-37, to http://www.claytoncramer.com/popularmagazines.htm.  This article examines colonial laws requiring you to bring your gun to church--and requiring church elders in some colonies to search you, to make sure that you were armed.

12/27/2002: Added a review of Non Campus Mentis to the book review page.

12/22/2002: Added a 1655 New York (okay, actually New Amsterdam) militia law exempting Jews from service, and taxing them instead.

11/25/2002: "Ballistic Fingerprinting,"Shotgun News, December 16, 2002, 20-22.

10/31/2002: Signed Arithmetic -- Basic Four Operations: how to teach your kids to do positive and negative arithmetic without excesses of theory and pain.

10/21/2002:  "Gun Laws Under The Influence," Shotgun News, November 18, 2002, 20-22, on http://www.claytoncramer.com/popularmagazines.htm.  This article is about California's new firearms product liability law, and why even those who don't live in the West Coast "open ward" need to be worried.

10/13/2002: I added a picture of my new car (well, new to me) at the bottom of my home page; and I added Hening 1:226-227 to the http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html page.  These include two separate items: a law requiring "all persons except negroes to be provided with arms and amunition" (apparently an obligation imposed on masters and fathers), which is both a militia law and a race-based arms law, and an act which makes it a felony to trade arms and ammunition with the Indians.

09/23/2002: I added "What Caliber Do You Use For Your Dragons?", Shotgun News, October 14, 2002, 21-22, a movie review of Reign of Fire, on http://www.claytoncramer.com/popularmagazines.htm.

09/10/2002: I added  "Caesar's Wife,"Shotgun News, September 16, 2002, 18-19 on http://www.claytoncramer.com/popularmagazines.htm, about how to lose the battle for gun rights by how you say what you say.  I have also added a weblog.  ("All the cool kids are doing it!")

08/21/2002: I added a link to the draft of Professor James Lindgren's "Fall from Grace: Arming America and the Bellesiles Scandal," 111 Yale Law Journal 2195-2249 [June 2002] on Miscellaneous Unpublished Stuff.

08/20/2002: I did a little reorganizing of the http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html page so that it now has a table of contents.

08/11/2002: I have added a link to the The Plymouth Colony Archive Project at the University of Virginia on my http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html page.  I have also reorganized the somewhat miscellanous collection of links at the beginning of this page to be chronological.

08/03/2002: Books and Culture put my review of Joyce Malcolm's new book on their web site, so I changed the link to on http://www.claytoncramer.com/popularmagazines.htm so that it now points to their copy.

07/28/2002: Added "Checking Sources,"Shotgun News, August 19, 2002, on http://www.claytoncramer.com/popularmagazines.htm, about why you shouldn't believe every amazing or wonderful quote from history that someone sends you.

07/20/2002: More updates about my sinus surgery at http://www.claytoncramer.com/SinusSurgery.htm. I can no longer do a passable cow impression!  Not enough resonance!

07/18/2002: More updates about my sinus surgery at http://www.claytoncramer.com/SinusSurgery.htm.

07/13/2002: Added Shotgun News articles about the Ohio Court of Appeals decision striking down Ohio's concealed weapons law "Good News from Ohio" and "The Justice Department Discovers the 2nd Amendment," on http://www.claytoncramer.com/popularmagazines.htm. My review (on http://www.claytoncramer.com/popularmagazines.htm) of Joyce Malcolm's new book appeared in Books & Culture: A Christian Review.

A few more additions to my gruesome sinus surgery description are at http://www.claytoncramer.com/SinusSurgery.htm.

07/08/2002: The joys of sinus surgery!  My personal experience can be found at http://www.claytoncramer.com/SinusSurgery.htm.  I would expect most people will be reading this because they are considering having it done themselves.

I have also added a link to Partial Transcription of INWARD SLAVE MANIFESTS 1818 to 1860: Port of New Orleans, Record Group 36, United States Customs Service Collector of Customs at New Orleans; Microfilm Rolls 1-3, 12 of 25 Rolls Housed at National Archives, Washington, D.C.under http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#Slavery.

06/05/2002: I have added all the antebellum right to keep and bear arms decisions that I know of [Bliss v. Commonwealth (Ky. 1822), State v. Mitchell (Ind. 1831), Simpson v. State (Tenn. 1833), Aymette v. State (Tenn.1840), Reid v. State (Ala. 1840), State v. Buzzard (Ark. 1842), State v. Huntly (N.C. 1843), State v. Newsom (N.C. 1844), Nunn v. State (Ga. 1846), Cooper and Worsham v. City of Savannah (Ga. 1848), State v. Chandler (La. 1850), State v. Smith (La. 1856), State v. Jumel (La. 1858), Owen v. State (Ala. 1858), Cockrum v. State (Tex. 1859)] at http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#RKBADecisions.

I also added Ely v. Thompson, 3 A.K. Marshall (Ky.) 70, 75 (1820), a decision that recognized that free blacks had a right to self-defense, under http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#Slavery.

05/04/2002: I added "Rights and Revolution" (which I consider the finest short essay that I have ever written) and "Secure Your Guns" to the popular magazine articles page.  Added 1755 and 1758 Georgia militia laws; also the 1757 Georgia slave patrols law, and the 1759 Savannah night watch (slave patrol) law under http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#GaMilitiaLaws.  The 1755 Georgia slave law is at http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#Slavery.

04/16/2002: Added the 1740 Lewes, Delaware militia statute, and the 1742 Delaware militia statute to http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#MilitiaLaws.  Also, the 1742 Delaware militia statute could be read as prohibiting slaves and perhaps free blacks from having guns.  See http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#RaceGunControlStatutes.

04/15/2002: Added the 1746 North Carolina, 1716 New Hampshire, and 1703 New Jersey militia statutes to http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#MilitiaLaws.

04/14/2002: Added the 1715 North Carolina militia statute to http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#MilitiaLaws.

04/11/2002: Added some interesting materials about the coup d'etat plot (if that's what it was) against President Franklin Roosevelt,
in which Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler was to play a prominent role.  This is under http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html.

04/09/2002: Added some travel accounts that Professor Bellesiles seems to have "misread" to the primary sources page.

04/06/2002: Added several more articles that were published recently: "Aiming High: Guns as Fireworks in American History", "Gun Control on the Ropes", "The Final Chapter of Arming America?" all of which are on the Popular Magazine Articles page.

03/31/2002: The link to my article in Ideas on Liberty needed updating; my house is now pending sale, and the realtor has changed.

03/25/2002: Added several articles that were published a few months back: "Another Victory" against negligent marketing suits; "America's First Firearms Product Liability Suit?" all on the Popular Magazine Articles page.

03/19/2002: Added a few new articles about the Bellesiles scandal to the Unpublished page, where the Arming America scandal stuff is, including National Public Radio's coverage, which means he is toast.

03/19/2002: I have gotten a bit behind in adding popular magazine articles to my website, but here are a few new ones: "Talking to Gun Control Advocates", Shotgun News, February 1, 2002; "Values Have Value", Shotgun News, March 1, 2002, 20-21;  "The Emerson Decision: What It Means For Gun Owners", Handguns, March, 2002, 18-21, 67, all with appropriate links on the Popular Magazine Articles page.  Also added a link to Johnny Pate's site concerning British gun control laws on the Other Useful Web Pages page.

03/11/2002: Fixed a problem with the volume numbers for the Maryland militia statutes (nothing else changed, just the volume numbers in http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html.  Added a Maryland race-specific gun control law.  Also added a link to the Archives of Maryland website.

03/02/2002: Added a number of links to recent newspaper articles under http://www.claytoncramer.com/unpublished.htm#ArmingAmerica about the Bellesiles controversy.

02/10/2002: Added a whole bunch of stuff to the http://www.claytoncramer.com/unpublished.htm#ArmingAmerica page about the Bellesiles controversy.

02/06/2002: Added links to the paper I submitted to the Journal of the Early Republic and their snotty rejection letter.

01/17/2002: Fixed a link error on http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html because the link for Hening 2:405 was pointing to the wrong page.

01/14/2002: Added entry on http://www.claytoncramer.com/unpublished.htm listing reviewers of Arming America who have either admitted that they were hoodwinked by it, or at least are admitting that there are some serious questions about its accuracy.

12/25/2001: Added ad for my house in California.

12/23/2001: I have removed my request for a new job from my web page, since I now have a job in Boise!  I also changed the mail link to contact me.

11/19/2001: There was an error in the publication date of de Tocqueville's Journey to America in my Gun Scarcity in the Early Republic? paper.  This has been corrected.

09/28/2001: Added an article (and link to it) from Ideas on Liberty (http://www.claytoncramer.com/journals.htm); added my most recent National Review article to http://www.claytoncramer.com/popularmagazines.htm, but not the article or a link to it.

09/23/2001: Added some more statutes for Plymouth (http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#PlymouthMilitiaLaws).

09/20/2001: Discovered a requirement to go armed to church on Archives of Maryland 1:103, and added description of into http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#MDMilitiaLaws; added some more material for Plymouth (http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#PlymouthMilitiaLaws).

09/15/2001: Added a few more Massachusetts militia laws at http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#MAMilitiaLaws and some Massachusetts race-specific gun control laws at http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#RaceGunControlStatutes.

09/13/2001: Added some more Massachusetts militia statutes at http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#MAMilitiaLaws.  I also added some Connecticut race-specific gun control laws at http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#RaceGunControlStatutes.

09/09/2001: Added the Virginia militia statutes at http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/primary.html#VAMilitiaLaws, a new section on race-specific gun control laws at http://www.claytoncram