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Old 03-22-13, 01:46 PM   #8
tater
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^^^

Yep.

At the time the 2d was written, the US government would happily (in time of war) have written a letter of marque for a privateer that was a 1st Rate line of battle ship had anyone offered up such a vessel. No one would have so much as batted an eye. That's a privately owned aircraft carrier or battleship in modern terms (or boomer, for that matter). The Founders had no sense of limitation at all to what weapons a private citizen could own (and naval artillery was far larger and more powerful than what could be drawn by horses for use vs infantry).

There is a mechanism to correct this, should anyone think that people should not be allowed to own warships, or even artillery. Amend the Constitution, because the 2d protects even that level of armament. It's not about hunting, it's the last of a series of checks and balances put forth by men who believed even having a standing army was tyranny---I can imagine it as a counter to Federalist desires for such a standing army.
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