The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Do you think our forefathers had current guns in mind when writing the 2nd Amendment?

Gary L. Griffiths · December 30, 2012, 05:30 PM

I don't think it's as much of a stretch from a Brown Bess Musket to an M-16 as it is from a printing press to radio and television. The former is a logical advance of technology, while the latter would be sheer magic to an 18th Century intellectual.

Be that as it may, the "assault weapon" of the late 18th Century was the Brown Bess or Charleville Musket. It wasn't particularly useful for hunting, although it would serve in a pinch. It had two virtues: It could be loaded and fired rapidly, and it could mount a bayonet. As has been noted, that's exactly the type of "arms" our forefathers intended us to "keep and bear."

December 30, 2012, 05:30 PM	#28
Gary L. Griffiths Senior Member Join Date: April 7, 2000 Location: AZ, WA Posts: 1,466	I don't think it's as much of a stretch from a Brown Bess Musket to an M-16 as it is from a printing press to radio and television. The former is a logical advance of technology, while the latter would be sheer magic to an 18th Century intellectual. Be that as it may, the "assault weapon" of the late 18th Century was the Brown Bess or Charleville Musket. It wasn't particularly useful for hunting, although it would serve in a pinch. It had two virtues: It could be loaded and fired rapidly, and it could mount a bayonet. As has been noted, that's exactly the type of "arms" our forefathers intended us to "keep and bear." __________________ Violence is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and valorous feeling which believes that nothing is worth violence is much worse. Those who have nothing for which they are willing to fight; nothing they care about more than their own craven apathy; are miserable creatures who have no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the valor of those better than themselves. Gary L. Griffiths (Paraphrasing John Stuart Mill)