'Loaded': A look at the complex history of the Second Amendment

'Loaded' by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
'Loaded' by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Courtesy of publisher

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Alyson Jones Turner at Source Booksellers in Detroit.

Alyson Jones Turner first heard Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on a podcast, discussing the history of guns in America.

With the conversation over gun control filling the news, Turner was hooked by Dunbar-Ortiz's research: "I thought: Wow, there's so much more to the argument about the Second Amendment, I should read into it."

She picked up "Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment," Dunbar-Ortiz's book which came out in January.

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"In this little book, she goes into so much history of the use of guns and how guns played a role in our history here in America," Turner said.

Even as a former teacher who had taught some of the same subjects, Turner felt she learned a lot from the book. It covers everything from the Stamp Act of the 1700s to how gun-toting outlaws have been portrayed in film.

Dunbar-Ortiz is also the author of "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States."

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States