Tamir Rice. Philando Castile. Alton Sterling. These are just a few of the myriad African American victims of police brutality, murdered purely for possessing a firearm — or in the case of Tamir Rice, a toy gun. Where was the NRA, supposedly dedicated to protecting the right to bear arms for all Americans? Notably silent.

In The Second, historian and bestselling author Carol Anderson powerfully illuminates the history of the Second Amendment, how it was designed, and how it has consistently been constructed to keep African Americans powerless and vulnerable. From the 18th century, when it was encoded into law that slaves could not own, carry, or use a firearm whatsoever, until today, with measures to expand and curtail gun ownership aimed disproportionately at the African American population, the right to bear arms has been consistently used as a weapon to keep African Americans powerless.

The Second disrupts traditional and tired gun control arguments to show the racial bias inherent — and often overlooked — in the controversial amendment. Anderson’s penetrating investigation into the fraught relationship between race and gun-ownership laws sheds new light on another dimension of racism in America.