From: Joshua Clingenpeel (Josh.Clingenpeel@wwu.edu)
Date: Fri May 28 1999 - 15:10:18 MDT
> Bad news, Brian. Second Amendment was written during a time when people
> carried flint-lock muzzle-loaders, when they were concerned with British
> troops crashing down the front door, when armed combat was an honorable
> affair. Unfortunately, the Second Amendment is one of the only Amendments
> to the Constitution that has not properly stood the tests of time.
A common misconception. At the time, private citizens owned full-
scale warships with cannons, and many wealthy estates had armories
full of guns and bombs a Montana survivalist would envy. The idea
that a government-run army should be the only one to have such
things was precisely the sort of tyranny we fought against.
Now I say:
Also at the time, the army was made up of the entire supporting populace.
So it wasn't incredible for a wealthy 'private citizen' to own his own
warships, it was actually seen as an advantage, and he was usually made a
General. Also, if a Montana survivalist starts grabbing at mortar from the
18th century and flint-locks, then they are obviously delusional. So the
problem here isn't how much they had, but what they were packing. There's a
difference between a muzzle-loader that takes 25 seconds to reload and an
UZI with an extended clip and a grenade launcher strapped to your back.
Pope Arhat Al-Hazred Mateed XXIII
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