The following column by Jason Jenkins was posted on the Sun-Sailor website March 1, 2018:
The Second Amendment was passed in 1791, giving the right for ordinary citizens to bear arms. Congressman Erik Paulsen has accepted nearly $32,000 in contributions from the National Rifle Association according to a full page ad in the Feb. 21 New York Times. He favors the NRA’s contention that we can’t mess with the Second Amendment, particularly in a state that has thousand of hunters, myself included. I have nothing against guns and have several myself, but an AR-15?
I have guns including a stainless steel Martin hunting rifle, and, at home, I have a .38-caliber revolver, which seems more like a handheld cannon than a handgun. But even with this tiny legal arsenal, I have more firepower than any patriot had in 1791 when the Second Amendment was passed. Remember that was the era of the front-loaded musket, which had a barrel of 3.5 feet – not a concealed weapon. With practice, an accomplished marksman could load three rounds per minute. And, Hollywood movies notwithstanding, it was highly inaccurate. That is why soldiers would stand together and let loose a barrage of bullets hoping they would hit their target at a rate of three rounds per minute. Continue reading “The right to bear muskets (1791) and bear machine guns (2018)?”