Liberals seem to have all the answers on weapons, especially after a tragedy (as documented here), the only problem is they’re wrong 99% of the time. The Second Amendment NEVER limited civilians to using muskets and dueling pistols. After fighting the largest military in the world, the Founders wanted to be clear they wanted the people as well armed as their government. Technology has changed but their intent was always clear, so had they written 2A today it would include semiautomatic weapons and then some.
Liberals want you to think AR-15’s are military weapons, but they are in fact civilian weapons that look scary like military weapons.
Regardless of the complain this page’s intent is to show historical intent of the Founders, the tech of semiautomatics actually existed in the 18th century and the AR-15 was not originally built for the military. Have your facts straight before getting in a debate telling lies….
2/15/18: Another mass shooting and as expected the misinformation continues to flow from the uninformed Left demonstrating this posts content remains relevant today. There are far too many people acting like they have all the answers on weapons who can’t do a simple Google search to see semiautomatic weapons have existed since the 18th century.
Update 10/02/17: In light of today’s tragedy in Las Vegas our rights of course are coming under attack. The Left refuses to make it clear criminals and terrorists don’t follow the law. They are also spreading the false talking point that the Second Amendment only applies to muskets, thats categorically untrue.
Oct 5, 2016
I’m not going to go deep into the article that triggered this because I don’t want to give this liberal loon, Fiona Zublin, (as well as other uninformed anti-2A types) more attention than she deserves after writing such a horrible piece of outright left-wing anti-gun propaganda:
“It’s no wonder people love guns. They make you feel like a superhero — or a ruthless villain. Nearly 300 people have died in U.S. mass shootings so far this year, according to the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive, and most of those deaths involved weapons the country’s founders could never have imagined: automatic and semi-automatic ones. It’s time to rethink all this, starting with what the founders would have wanted: Let’s honor the Second Amendment in all its glory and agree that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, so long as the arms in question were in use in 1791, the year the Bill of Rights was ratified. That’s right: Annie, get your single-shot musket and your dueling pistol.”
Fiona it is my duty to set you and all the other anti-gun propagandists out there straight that the Second Amendment did not and never limited what weapons the people should have access to. You know why? Because the Founders considered all of the people militia and that they should be as well armed as the government!
“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops.”
– Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787“I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.”
– George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788“A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms… “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”
– Richard Henry Lee, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.”
– James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789“The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”
– Thomas Jefferson, letter to to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824
More Founding Fathers quotes here
Now you claim since muskets and dueling pistols are all that was available at the time the Second was ratified anything modern doesn’t count. Well for the record semiautomatic and automatic weapons existed in the 18th century!
Behold Exhibit “A” Puckle Gun, invented 1718
Exhibit “B” Belton Flintlock, invented 1777
Exhibit “C” Nock Gun, invented 1779
Exhibit “D” Girandoni Air Rifle, invented 1779
Doing further research semi autos go even further back to the 17th century & beyond!!
Exhibit “E” Kalthoff Repeater, invented approx 1660
Exhibit “F” Cookson Volitional Repeating Flintlock, invented 1680
Now if you and your ilk insist otherwise than you do understand by your logic, and as pointed out in your piece, only the quill pen and printing press apply to freedom of the press under the First Amendment!? I would suggest you do your homework (with simple Google search!) before your next hit piece on guns and the Second Amendment before you make yourself look like a complete and total fool again!
Oh and for the record the AR-15 WAS NOT originally made for the military. Colt ORIGINALLY designed and marketed the AR-15 as a sporting & hunting rifle in 1963! The US Army adopted said weapon, got a fully automatic version called the M-16.