When I wrote Ode to Browning, I wondered aloud how a Mormon kid from Ogden, Utah, could become the world’s most influential gun designer. That muse was not an idle thought. Last week I visited the Nauvoo, Illinois home and shop of John Moses’ father, Jonathan, and the story became clear. In Illinois I delved into an ugly period of American history that many people would rather forget. A history of renegade militias and mob justice, human rights violations and unlawful detentions, slavery and prejudice, abuse of governmental power and government sanctioned murder. And guns.
