Muzzleloading Guns for Self Defense draws on author Wm. Hovey Smith's vast experiences gathered from writing about and hunting with these guns for over 50 years in North America, Europe, and Africa. As a gun writer who specialized in these guns he was always more interested in their utility, rather than their scarcity or decorative aspects. He became introduced to each year's new crop of black-powder guns as the Corresponding Editor for The Gun Digest Annual who covered muzzleloading guns and in particular, hunting with muzzleloading guns. It was using these guns in Europe and abroad that demonstrated their potential uses for self defense applications, if a person could own nothing else, or had nothing else at hand. Increasing restrictions on firearm ownership, and in particular handgun ownership, prompted the publication of this book which is designed to be a candid and honest presentation of these historic and modern firearms from North American Arms' .22 revolvers to cannon.