It always amazes me that people believe the founders, who were smart enough to craft the Constitution, were too stupid to realize that "arms" would continue to improve over the years...
It's only valid as long as the people are willing to defend it. For as much time spent arguing the Bill of Rights, and for the amount of ignorance and corruption required to necessitate it, one would think eventually the people would begin to question the rest of the document, too. After all, the primary purpose of the Constitution is to limit government, but they have us so busy fighting to hold on to the Bill of Rights that we tend to forget how they've pulled our shirts over our heads. The government must be met with a tenacity and anger of a people deserving freedom. It isn't free, and it must be paid for in blood. The government is a corporate cartel, and it is the enemy to liberty --it is the enemy of any freedom loving people. If we don't control it, then it controls us.
...and many people believe the British set out to confiscate the Colonials rifles when they were actually going after their cannons.
I guess when you dis estranged royal family you're a conservative extremist and you get exiled to America.
Years ago, I was traveling in Ireland and our tour guide John, and I had a conversation about guns. I asked him about Ireland's gun laws, and he asked me why Americans loved guns so much. I told him that in the beginning America was a vast country filled with lots of dangerous peoples and animals, that what protection that existed was far away and slow in coming, that we hunted for our food, and then I told him that things haven't changed a whole lot in 200 years. I also pointed out that we owe our independence from Great Britain to guns. In 1773, American Patriots on Bunker Hill armed with military grade muskets fought the Redcoats and inflicted over 1000 casualties before retreating to fight another day, and 10 years later won their freedom. In 1798, Irish Patriots on Vinegar Hill armed with pikes fought the Redcoats and were slaughtered and didn't gain their freedom until 125 years later. Don't believe for a minute that citizen soldiers can't defeat a national army! It happened here! It happened in Vietnam! It happened in Israel! It happened in Afghanistan! It appears to be happening in Ukraine! It can be done!
there was already tech changes from just muskets to KY long rifles being made in PA - and there was no such thing as a "civilian" vs "military" consideration in the "arms" term used >>>> something like that would be an abortion of the entire reasoning of the 2A addendum
Until the M1 Garand came along, American citizens had rifles and a few other things equal to or exceeding what was Govt. issue at the time. That was the standard of the times and was not considered abnormal. jim
Stuart Varney, who has a show on FOX Business and is British, once said "that he rarely speaks critically of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, the US Constitution (including the 2nd Amendment), and generally the whole of American history...it's just not well received, especially when delivered with a British accent!