Submission Date

7-18-2025

Document Type

Paper

Department

History

Faculty Mentor

Edward Onaci

Comments

Presented during the 27th Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 18, 2025 at Ursinus College.

Project Description

The study of firearms as material objects is notably rare among academic historians. It is relegated mainly to the pages of firearms magazines and carried out by journalists, gun collectors and enthusiasts, and gun manufacturers. Although they provide valuable information to readers outside of academia, it is long past due to observe the history of guns according to scholarly standards. This study provides a concise analysis of firearms history, focusing on the materials used in the manufacture of modern firearms—aluminum alloy and polymers. It explores the successes and failures of guns that used such materials in order to explain how firearms evolved over the course of the twentieth century. An assessment of patent details, audiovisual and photographic evidence, government reports, legal documents, and interviews, as well as object analysis provides an academic history where little exists. Furthermore, by utilizing a wide variety of secondary sources, this study combines social history, military history, technological history, and market research into a narrative designed to be accessible to scholars and the general public alike. Much is made about firearms in a criminal law or political science context. However, focusing on firearms as material objects showcases a dense and fascinating history whilst also revealing how sociocultural processes and technological change influence one another.

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