General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: All assault weapons should be banned [View all]Tommymac
(7,334 posts)At times there was a shortage of guns during the revolution - the Continental's surrounding Boston in 1775 used 17th century blunderbusses, sticks and homemade spears for crying out loud. Gen Washington did a great job preventing the British from finding out the extent of the shortages.
And these shortages of firearms continued throughout the Revolution.
We won't even get into the Continental's gunpowder shortage of 1775-6.
And if you are wondering why there are so few Church Bells of 18th Century vintage, they were made of lead and there was a bullet shortage too.
Finally, part of the reason for 2A - the 18th century US Federal government could not afford to support a standing army, much less provide guns to the substitute 'Militias' called for in 2A. The grunts had to supply their own weapons.
(This was not an uncommon thing in the 18th and 19th Centuries - for example, a lot of regiments on both sides supplied their own weapons' in the early part of the US Civil War.)