My mother says a similar thing, "America was built on the gun". It is a symbol of national pride, of American history, some of the big names, Colt, Smith and Wesson, Winchester, all fine American gun manufacturers, although I do wonder as an offshoot, how many guns in American households are still American made, I hear Glock is a popular choice nowadays. I also wonder if the events that made America had taken place, say, two or three hundred years earlier (incredibly unlikely, I know) would the sword be the national symbol of American resilience?
I do believe at one point in this country, up until quite recent times, it was legal to own a sword, and also there was a requirement that every English citizen own a longbow and do regular training with it, obviously these laws have been closed off now (except possibly the longbow law, not sure about that one) and swords are seen as impractical and unwieldy in the age of the gun. However in terms of the power that the weapon holds, certainly once upon a time, the art of the sword held that level of the gun of today, and it makes you wonder that if some point if the future firearms will become obsolete, perhaps through some sort of magnetic based countermeasure that can be installed in houses, however, I presume that the second amendment is broad enough to cover the use of other arms than firearms?
EDIT: Meant to add this to the end of the original post, if one was to replace Sword with Gun in this song, I think it would still carry weight:
http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de...fthesword.html