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EUGUNS

@euguns.bsky.social

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A Continent Disarmed? Gun Culture, Gun Control and the Making of Western Europe (ca. 1870-1970) EU-GUNS ERC-funded research project University of Padua, Italy https://www.dissgea.unipd.it/continent-disarmed-gun-culture-gun-control-and-making-western-europe

www.dissgea.unipd.it

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EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 6d

In GlobArms, Andrea investigates how firearms trafficking (1890–1939) shapes state perceptions of global threats, the role of traffickers, links between potential violence and firearms circulation, and the creation—or absence—of international rules on firearms.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 6d

His research covers police forces, gun control, criminality, and political violence. Recently, he studied strikebreaking in Third Republic France as a prism to examine the relationship between the state and private violence in shaping European statehood.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 6d

Andrea’s first book, "Polizia, crimine e ordine pubblico in epoca liberale" (2025), explores Italian police history, its ties to the Mafia, and how this has shaped the state–society relationship in a European state whose nation-building was long and contested.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 6d

A graduate of the University of Milan, he has worked at the University of Grenoble, Società Napoletana di Storia Patria, and Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 6d

Today we present the PI of our other project, @azzab.bsky.social! Andrea Azzarelli directs GlobArms, a study of policing firearms trafficking in Italy, France, and the UK. #globarms #unipd #dissgea #dissgea_unipd

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 18d

Image sources: 1) Biblioteca Queriniana of Brescia, Catalogo della Luigi Franchi (1931), n. 4 - collocazione: P1D1 SB.G.II.3m18 2) Catalogue of Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne, 1900

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 18d

The EU-GUNS project investigates the second life of military rifles and how this seemingly obsolete hardware shaped the relationship between Europeans and guns for decades. #euguns #eugunssnippets #gunhistory #europeanhistory

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 18d

Old British Martini-Henry rifles — the weapon that helped conquer the British Empire in the second half of the 19th century — were converted into miniature rifles for training young British boys and for use in indoor shooting galleries.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 18d

Major manufacturers as well as artisanal gunsmiths converted French Gras and Italian Vetterli rifles into shotguns that were cheap enough to be affordable to many rural hunters and farmers.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 18d

An often overlooked consequence of this was that millions of old-model rifles ended up in military stores. Some were sold to non-European countries or used in colonial wars, but hundreds of thousands ended up on the civilian market.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · 18d

In the last third of the 19th century, major technological changes transformed the world of small arms. The invention of bolt-action rifles and, more importantly, smokeless powder meant that governments had to adopt new military rifle models to avoid falling behind in the arms race.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Sep 4

She has published in high-impact journals and edited volumes, coordinated special issues and taught courses in contemporary military history. She combines academic work with public engagement and historical dissemination. #euguns #unipd #dissgea_unipd

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Sep 4

Her research explores the intersections between political violence, authoritarian cultures and gun control from the late nineteenth- to the mid-twentieth century.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Sep 4

She has held postdoctoral fellowships in Padua and at the University of Girona, where she has worked on projects dealing with state monopolies on violence and the political crises of interwar Europe. In 2025, she joined the ERC-funded project EU-GUNS to work on the Spanish case study.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Sep 4

The next person from our team we would like to present is Assumpta Castillo Cañiz! She earned her PhD from the University of Padova in 2021 with a dissertation on political violence and armed associations in pre-World War I Europe, as part of the ERC project “The Dark Side of the Belle Époque”.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Aug 22

...control, and impact of surplus arms in early 20th century Europe.
(Image source: Imperial War Museum, Q 81771, 1914 URL:
www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...)

THE ULSTER VOLUNTEER FORCE, BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND, 1914

Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force march through Belfast, rifles on shoulders shortly before the First World War.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Aug 22

This transformation - from military surplus to a tool of political struggle - shows how the afterlife of weapons shaped conflicts across national borders. And this deadly second-hand economy is precisely one of the major focuses of the GlobArms project: tracing the circulation...

THE ULSTER VOLUNTEER FORCE, BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND, 1914

Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force march through Belfast, rifles on shoulders shortly before the First World War.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Aug 22

...in one of Europe’s largest gun-running operations before the First World War - the infamous Larne episode. What was useless in Italy had become a crucial instrument abroad.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Aug 22

...Declared obsolete and replaced by the Carcano 1891, their story was far from over. After being decommissioned by the Italian army, thousands of Vetterlis were sold off, flooding international arms markets. In 1914, the same year the photo was taken, more than 4,000 were smuggled into Ireland...

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Aug 22

A rifle’s journey often extends far beyond the battlefield it was built for.
This image shows members of the Ulster Volunteer Force in Ireland marching in 1914 amid rising tensions over Home Rule. Among their weapons were likely Vetterli-Vitali rifles... #globarms #unipd #dissgea #europeanhistory

Reposted by EUGUNS

Alexandra Filindra @afilindra.bsky.social · Aug 7

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50% OFF Race, Rights, and Rifles: The Origins of the NRA and Contemporary Gun Culture

An eye-opening examination of the ties between American gun culture and white male supremacy from the American Revolution to today. One-third of American adults&#8212;approximately 86 million p...

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EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Aug 6

In the EU-GUNS project, he has explored such themes as gun licencing, firearm suicide, hunting as well as the short- and long-term effects of the post-First-World-War politics of disarmament on the German gun culture.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Aug 6

His other research interests include nationalism, animal studies and gender history. He is also engaged in cultural projects relating to local and regional queer histories in Central-East Europe.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Aug 6

His first book, "Queer Urbanisms in Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany: Of Towns and Villages" (2023), charts a previously undiscovered world of queer social, political and cultural life in the easternmost provinces of the German Reich.

EUGUNS @euguns.bsky.social · Aug 6

Meet our expert on the German gun history, Mathias Foit! He is a graduate of the University of Wrocław, Poland, and the Free University of Berlin, where he defended his doctoral thesis. #euguns #unipd #dissgea_unipd