The English notion that the government could disarm those not considered law-abiding traveled to the American colonies. Although some of the earliest firearm laws in colonial America forbid Native Americans and Black people from owning guns,[29]
[29] See Clayton E. Cramer, Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie 31, 43 (2006). Today, we emphatically reject these bigoted and unconstitutional laws, as well as their premise that one's race or religion correlates with disrespect for the law. I cite them here only to demonstrate the tradition of categorical, status-based disarmaments. See Blocher & Ruben, supra note 1, at 165 (urging courts examining historical disarmament laws that would violate the Constitution today to "ask[] why earlier generations disarmed certain groups of people, rather than asking only whom they disarmed").
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