In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, private gun ownership became surprisingly common. Civilian ownership of guns not only contributed to persistent social violence, but also transformed power structurers in local society and accelerated local militarization, changing the balance of power between state and society. The decision that each political entity made about how to deal with armed civilians had profound effects in the national political arena.

Lei Duan is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Liebethal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. His main research interest is social violence and state power in China. His current book project focuses on private gun ownership and its sociocultural and political implications in modern China from 1860 to 1949. He received his PhD in 2017 from the Department of History at Syracuse University, obtained an MA in History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2011, and his BA from Nankai University in 2008.