Most of the weapons used were taken from these militias, and the Patriots were just a little better at shooting them than the mustered up redcoats sent out to capture the arsenals.

Should say “Most of the weapons used by the patriots were taken from these ARSENALS.”

I also recognize that the States had militias made up of local people who were pretty much average citizens. The thing is…these were groups of people registered to serve, and that excluded or exempted others. Not everyone was in it…and not everyone that served in a local one went off and fought the British. Some were excluded because they were of dubious sympathies, were not willing to fight the Brits, were a bit “tetched”, unreliable, had a criminal background or was otherwise untrustworthy, and a host of other reasons.

And throughout American history there were a whole host of gun laws that restricted WHERE people could pack heat…and WHO could do so. Even on the frontier guns were pretty much carried only in unsettled areas. In most towns cowboys, vaqueros and ranch hands had to check firearms at the Sherriff’s office. Armed men coming into “settlements” were always viewed suspiciously. There were, of course, wild towns where men carried sidearms..and the places where this was allowed are the stuff of legend (and by that I mean the stories pawned off back east by penny pulp novelists as truth…which largely was not).

I have my eye on him for trex, pity he’s geographically inconvenient.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/

b) it is specifically to protect citizens against their own govt oppressing them.

Dosido. Here’s the problem. Show me anywhere in the Constitution where it says that the right to bear arms is essential for the populace to protect citizens from their own Government? Now look at all the points where that armed militia is to be called up in cases of invasion and…ta da…”insurrection”.

What’s an insurrection except an armed group of citizens rising up against the State or Federal government?

Now. Read the Amendment IN FULL, notice the qualifying clause about “a well regulated militia”. Find it? Now go find the bits in the Constitution about who controls the “well-regulated militia”? Is it some local Citizen council? I think you’ll find that it is the Congress and the States that can regulate who is a member, who are the officers, what training a militia member MUST undertake, supplies the arms, etc.

It’s a common myth that everyone was armed in the Colonies or in England…the reason why control of the Lexington and Concord armories were such an issue was that most of the useful weapons and powder were stored in them. Most of the weapons used were taken from these militias, and the Patriots were just a little better at shooting them than the mustered up redcoats sent out to capture the arsenals. Gary Wills has an excellent book about the relative absence of private firearms in the US and the preceding Colonies. The numbers only escalated during and after the Civil War.

Some of the Veterans of the Revolution retained their weapons after the war, particularly in frontier areas, as partial payment for service. This posed a problem in the period just prior to the signing of the Constitution. Vets in Vermont rose up against the State in Shay’s Rebellion after a period of foreclosures on their farms. They established a separate State government. Washington ordered General Lincoln up to suppress the insurrection with the militias that were mustered in other regions. The Vets were disarmed, tried, and a score of organizers sentenced to death. Yes, Rep. Dan Shays is a descendant of the ringleader who was hung.

Then there was the Whisky Rebellion. This was a tax uprising by armed men who were killing tax collectors in Tennessee and Kentucky. Again the militia was sent out and confiscated weapons, arrested the organizers, and many were tried…the more notorious skeddadled off to Canada or points unknown.

The Second Amendment was written in this context. There is a clear distinction between “armed insurrectionists” and those in the organized militia under the regulations of Congress and officers appointed by the State.

So much for the idea t

Sorry to hear it.

We’ve pretty much given up the search.

I thank you for your interest.