Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, 1866-1876 - Hardcoverby Stephen P. Halbrook (Author) Whether newly freed slaves could be trusted to own firearms was in great dispute in 1866, and the ramifications of this issue reverberate in today's gun control debate. This is the only comprehensive study ever published on the intent of the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment and of Reconstruction era civil rights legislation to protect the right to keep and bear arms. Indeed, this is the most detailed study ever