Weapons Were Far More Advanced During the Founders’ Time Than Liberals Would Like to Admit

The 2nd Amendment does not only apply to muskets

By: Elias J. Atienza

If you ever hear someone say that the 2nd Amendment is just for muskets, do us all a favor and educate them. In fact, guns were more advanced in the late 18th Century than most realize.  

A common argument among gun control advocates is that the 2nd Amendment was written during a time when the premier weapon of the land was a single-shot flintlock musket. One of the most prominent ones was the Brown Bess musket, used by the British Empire for over a hundred years.

“The 2nd Amendment was just about muskets. The Founding Fathers were total idiots who didn’t know about any kind of advanced weaponry that fired more than three times a minute,” is essentially their argument.

Except there were weapons that fired faster than three times a minute. The American Revolutionary War actually featured one of them. The Ferguson rifle was a breech-loading rifle that fired seven rounds a minute. It also fired a .615 caliber round, which is bigger than most guns today. Sharp shooters would use these with deadly accuracy during America’s War for Independence.

Image via Wikipedia

The Puckle gun was designed over sixty years before the America would secure its independence. It held 6 to 11 rounds. During a demonstration in 1722, the Puckle gun was able to fire 63 rounds in 7 minutes in the middle of a rainstorm.

Image via Wikipedia

The Jennings repeating flintlock rifle was able to fire 12 rounds in an instantShe was designed just thirty years after the Bill of Rights was ratified. Did the Founding Fathers, several of whom were inventors, not account for this possibility?

Image via TechnaBob via Say Uncle via Neatorama

There are other examples such as Benton Flintlock and the Pepperbox revolvers, but you get the main idea, private gun ownership was not restricted to muskets or single-fire weapons.

If you think that the 2nd Amendment only applies to muskets, then get off your computer and your phone, and start writing letters to your friends with a quill. Stop writing articles online and get out that colonial printing press. Mormons, better stop practicing your religion, because it hadn’t even been founded yet when the 1st Amendment was written. You had better let the government search your emails, as well, because the 4th Amendment does not apply to electric communications. Let the government search your car; after all, the 4th Amendment doesn’t apply, because the Founders never imagined transportation would go beyond horses and carriages.

The overall point of the story is that it’s stupid to think that the 2nd Amendment applies only to muskets. Weapons have advanced since the dawn of man. Just three hundred years before the Bill of Rights was passed, the primary weapon of war were pikes, knights were still relevant, and longbowmen decimated armored men.

The people are allowed to own and bear arms. Get used to it. It’s not just for hunting, nor only for militias, and it certainly is only for muskets.

History is full of advancements and wonders. Weapons are part of that history.

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modesta coating October 30, 2023 at 3:33 pm

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