Gun rights on the left.

• Position: List - Brief article

Journalist Craig R. Whitney spent more than 40 years as a reporter and editor for The New York Times, including several years as Moscow bureau chief and a stint covering the Vietnam War. Whitney's new book, Living With Guns: A Liberal's Case for the Second Amendment (Public Affairs), tries to bridge the partisan divide on gun rights. He argues that the left must learn to live with America's gun culture instead of trying to stifle it. We asked Whitney to list three things liberals should understand about the Second Amendment.

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1 It did not create a new right. Rather, it recognized and protected the common law right to have and use firearms that already belonged to every free, adult white male in the colonies.

2 The right the amendment...