The 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights states “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The people who wrote our Constitution were exceptionally well educated with most schooled in ancient and modern history, many read and spoke multiple languages including French, Latin and Greek, many had extensive mathematical training, some were doctors, most had very significant legal schooling, some were inventors and scientists. These were people whose education was well rounded and much broader and more practical than most educated people found today.
One major feature of our Constitution was the incorporation of a patent system. For the Founding Fathers to have included a patent system meant that they anticipated changes and developments in all areas of technology, including firearms.
At the time of the writing of our Constitution a number of repeating firearms were known to the Founding Fathers. The Ribauldequin came into existence during the 14th and 15th centuries in Europe. This was a multi-barreled, cart mounted, small caliber gun that had up to 144 firings before they had to be reloaded. The typical such gun would have 8 to 12 barrels, but had firing rates that would approach that of a machine gun, although, each firing had its own barrel.
Another repeating firearm was the “Puckle Gun.” Developed in England around 1717 and patented in 1718. This firearm had a single barrel that allowed rapid firing by turning a crank. It had many similarities to the Gatling Gun developed in the 1800’s as it allowed loads of powder and projectiles to be sequenced through the gun.
The 2nd Amendment is here to keep the government in fear of overstepping its authority. The Founding Fathers gave you this right, not your government of today.
The Founding Fathers intended for the general population to have similar capabilities to that of the US Military, including the use of semi-automatic. The 2nd Amendment is there not for hunters, not for target shooters but for a very specific purpose. Many hunting firearms today are semi auto. They just don’t look like the AR platform many candidates for political office want to ban.
I am not a hunter but I have no desire to ban hunting for the 13.7 million people who did in 2017. My son and I, along with 30.5 million other Americans in 2017, enjoy target shooting and we have many firearms based on the AR platform including 22lr, 9mm and 223 calibers.
If you are a hunter, vote for a candidate who won’t ban my range firearms. If you are a target shooter vote for a candidate who won’t ban hunting. Williams and Tester will take away the target shooters guns first, hunting weapons next.
“First they came for my neighbor’s gun, and I did not speak out - because I was a hunter. Then they came for mine - and there was no one left to speak for me.”
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