A "gun" or "arms" at the time of the writing of the Second Amendment prior to the percussion cap as developed at Harper's Ferry Federal Arsenal, now in West Virginia, a strategic position on the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers fought over numerous times in the American Civil War, then required a piece of "flint" or stone to strike an iron hinged pan that hopefully would cause the powder held there, mostly by gravity, to ignite the main gunpowder charge behind a ball through a small "touch hole" bored into the barrel. When discharged the powder in the pan flashed and burned producing smoke as well as the powder in the barrel, before "smokeless" powder, filling the shooter's face and field of view.
Did they actually mean to protect the citizen in their respective state from the illegal usurpation by "rogue" federal guard or other state militias? I think so. Did they imagine that one someday one shooter could fire hundreds of killing rounds a minute at the People? I don't think so. I realize a major gun producer, Beretta, makes guns in Washington, D.C. which have interchangeable barrels for smaller caliber, a passed over choice for the Glock 9mm in my opinion by the NYC police. Regulate them, I think the amendment was written for. The days of the NYC Bowery's "Steuben Rifles" are long past though perhaps not a review of the courts martial after the so-called Civil War "Draft Riots" thought over paid-off conscriptions.
Reply#24 - Tue Apr 28, 2009 7:30 PM EDT
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