"Our boys carry a gun almost as soon as they can walk"

"In the intervals of toil their amusements consist chiefly of hunting and shooting, in the woods, or on the mountains; whence they acquire prodigious muscular activity and strength. We have no game laws, such as exist in Europe, to prohibit the possession and use of firearms to the great body of the people. Our boys carry a gun almost as soon as they can walk; and the habitual practice of shooting at a target, with the rifle, renders the Americans the most unerring marksmen, and the most deadly musketry in the world; as was singularly evidenced at Bunker's Hill, in the commencement of the revolutionary conflict, and at New-Orleans, at the close of the last war."--John Bristed, [THE RESOURCES OF THE OF AMERICA; OR,  A VIEW OF THE AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, MANUFACTURING, FINANCIAL, POLITICAL, LITERARY, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CAPACITY AND CHARACTER or THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. BY JOHN BRISTED, COUNSELLOR AT LAW. AUTHOR OF THE RESOURCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE New-York: PUBLISHED BY JAMES EASTBURN & CO. AT THE LITERARY ROOMS, BROADWAY, CORNER OF PINE STREET. Abraham Paul, printer. 1818.]