Books Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

"Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a deeply researched book that examines the historical origins and implications of the Second Amendment in the United States. The book explores how the amendment allowed settlers to wage "total war" against Indigenous peoples to dispossess them of their lands and to maintain control over enslaved and free Black populations. Dunbar-Ortiz highlights how the Second Amendment facilitated racialized dominance and social control through violence, intertwining with white nationalism.

The book covers topics such as the use of militias to enforce slavery, the romanticization of gun culture tied to American expansionism and genocide of Native Americans, and the modern rise of mass shootings alongside organized gun-rights advocacy linked to white nationalist groups. It critically confronts the foundational aspects of U.S. history embedded in the Second Amendment, often overlooked or denied, and challenges narratives from both conservative and liberal perspectives.