Engineering Safety into U.S. Firearms: Inventions, Manufacturers, Outcomes, & Implications, 1750-2010

FAIN: DOC-293819-23

Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT 06459-3208)
Jennifer G. Tucker (Project Director: February 2023 to present)
Stephen Hargarten (Co Project Director: June 2023 to present)

The historical analysis of how safety mechanisms for firearms have evolved and been marketed to consumers over time.

This multi-disciplinary humanities research collaboration, co-directed by a professor of history specializing in nineteenth-century technology and visual culture and a professor of emergency medicine, will include archival study of an aspect of firearms history that previously has received little study: the evolution of designs and instructions for firearms safety through the lens of engineering and marketing. Patents, firearm components, safety records, use instructions, medical writings and other records are all part of the objects of the study, which will also integrate visual and computational analyses by undergraduate and medical student researchers.