On a hot and humid July 1964 night in Jonesboro, Louisiana, there occurred a series of unheralded but nevertheless pivotal events in the parallel histories of the civil rights movement and the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These events unfolded during the Freedom Summer conducted by the Congress of Racial Equality which had come to Louisiana and Mississippi to register black voters and to integrate the public schools. Since CORE’s arrival, racial tensions and the threat of violence had been high. In the preceding month, CORE volunteers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney had gone missing and foul...