Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment.
The U.S. loves guns. From Daniel Boone and Jesse James to the NRA and Seal Team 6, gun culture has colored the lore, shaped the law, and protected the market that arms the nation, and the world. In Loaded, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz peels away the sacred myths of Americans’ “right to bear arms” to expose the true origins of the Second Amendment, specifically, the connection between the arming of the earliest Anglo settlers, modern-day policing, and the persistence of white supremacy as a political force. From the nation’s origins in slavery and colonization to today’s right wing “gun lobby,” Loaded presents a U.S. history of firearms that will be invaluable for anyone interested in understanding the interconnected histories of racism and gun violence in the United States.
“Justice seekers everywhere will celebrate Dunbar-Ortiz’s unflinching commitment to truth — a truth that places settler-colonialism and genocide exactly where they belong: as foundational to the existence of the United States.
— Waziyawinb, PhD, activist and coeditor of For Indigenous Minds Only
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma, the daughter of a tenant farmer and part-Indian mother. She is the author of many books, including Outlaw Woman, a memoir of her time in an armed underground group, Red Dirt: Growing up Okie, and Blood On the Borderd: A Memoir of the Contra War, and the recent, widely acclaimed An Indigenous People’s History of the United States.
Host Joanna Manqueros graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a Phi Beta Kappa before earning a Masters in Social Work at S.F. State University. She worked as a therapist at Kaiser Hospital, where she has been co-chair of the Diversity Committee in Psychiatry for many years. In addition, she has been a host of KPFA’s Music of the World since 2005.
