It is the only industrial nation in which the possession of rifles, shotguns, and handguns is lawfully prevalent among large numbers of its population. The total of firearms fatalities is considerably higher than all the battle deaths suffered by American forces in all the wars in U.S. history. Today the urban population of the nation is probably more heavily armed than at any time in history. What began as a necessity of agriculture and the frontier took hold as a sport and as an ingredient in the American imagination. The tenacity of the gun culture in the U.S. can be explained by the existence of an early American political creed -- the militia system -- which has found its permanent embodiment in the second amendment. By its inclusion in the Bill of Rights, the right to bear arms gained permanent sanction in the nation and came to be regarded as an item on the basic list of guarantees of individual liberties.