... consists of two parts. The first part—the Introduction—is an extended essay on the history of the citizen soldier, or militia. Prof. Whisker traces the use of citizen soldiers from the select fryd and great fryd to the Trained Bands of American colonial days. He then contrasts that Western European use (and its waning in recent American history) with the extensive use made of civilian-trained soldiers in the Soviet Union, and in Germany and Italy under fascism.

The second part of the book is a reprint of the 1966 Arthur D. Little, Inc. Report to the United States Department of the Army on the Army's Civilian Marksmanship Program. This Report is, in Prof. Whisker's words, "a valid, scientific inquiry which sought to determine whether or not civilian marksmanship programs were feasible, sound, and worthwhile. Its answer on every point was in the affirmative. In a sense, its conclusions justified what pro-firearms groups had been saying all along, but which was merely in the realm of public opinion, not scientific fact."