"Firearms have long been an important part of .American life. For many years the armed citizen-soldier was the country's first line of defense; the "Kentucky" long rifle opened the frontier; the Winchester repeater "won the West~'; and the Colt revolver·'made men equal." "

Largely nonsense. In the "Wild West", you had to check your arms with the sheriff when entering town. The "right to bear arms" seems to have been invented by the gun manufacturers when they were about to lose business when the Civil War ended.