There is a clear connection between how people in colonial America, both European and Indigenous, thought about gunpowder and the ways in which many United States citizens think about firearms in the present day. During this period, the availability of gunpowder supplies, not necessarily guns, determined whether an individual could use action or force to defend their property and independence. Unpredictable access to gunpowder and ammunition ensured that the use of these goods and, in turn, the use of guns, remained deliberate and intentional. Today, however, personal protection is associated with one’s ability to obtain their gun (or guns) of choice. The majority of individuals surveyed in a 2019 Gallup poll cited personal safety or protection as the reason they own a firearm.[5] In 2020, amid the Coronavirus pandemic and growing political unrest, gun sales rose 65 percent.[6] But there is no year or decade during the colonial period in which we see private gun ownership comparably spike. While gun owners throughout eighteenth-century North America valued their weapons and the security they allowed, men were generally uninterested in upgrading their guns or purchasing additional firearms; in fact, most owned only one gun throughout their adult lives. While some established weapons arsenals, there was no ongoing need for individuals or communities to stockpile large amounts of firearms like they did gunpowder. This contrasts sharply with recent figures on civilian gun posession, which have determined that 66 percent of American gun owners own more than one gun. Of that number, 29 percent own five or more guns and 8 percent own ten or more, accounting for 39 percent of the nation’s total civilian gun stock. It is also no surprise that the majority of people who own multiple guns are men.[7]
The fact that gun owners in colonial America were more interested in reliable access to gunpowder than firearms reveals that historically, this commodity assumed the political, cultural, and symbolic role that many Americans claim guns permit today. Yet gunpowder and ammunition remain largely excluded from current debates regarding the Second Amendment. Understanding the multifaceted history of gunpowder in the United States highlights why ammunition should be included in present conversations about gun culture and gun violence. The purpose of this is not to shift blame or deviate focus from discussions about firearms regulation. Rather, it is to emphasize that questions of accessibility should apply not only to guns, but to the tools that allow us to use them.