>Any historical research pointing to the fact that the US was a democratic republic where, instead of land hunger, there was increasing opportunity for small freeholders to prosper >across a constantly expanding frontier? These settlers needed weapons to subdue the native populations, and as they did not engage in peasant jacqueries or pose any serious threat to >the governing eastern elites, the ruling class thought it necessary and was prepared to trust them with firearms.
And where's the hard evidence? That's what I'm talking about. It's only very recently that people have begun to look at documents that could give us info on things like who did or did not possess firearms during different periods in U.S. history or what weapons have been used in homicide during different periods. And the evidence thus far doesn't fit all these neat speculations people like to make.
Take a look see here:
http://cjrc.osu.edu/researchprojects/hvd/AHSV/tables/AHSV%20Weapons%2010-2009.pdf
You get to there from here:
http://cjrc.osu.edu/researchprojects/hvd/AHsup.html
If you have a jstor account this is interesting. You can read jstor for free online now:
Guns, Gun Culture, and Homicide: The Relationship between Firearms, the Uses of Firearms, and Interpersonal Violence Randolph Roth The William and Mary Quarterly Third Series, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jan., 2002), pp. 223-240