edit- follow up question
“a well regulated militia”. since the amendment was passed, and since the US has a military, has there even been a militia? would you trust your random neighbours loading up and marching against something? or would you expect law enforcement to crush it?
seems like the amendment has become “the locals can have guns and murder each other”. Nothing to with a “militia”; or defending your country.
Excellent comment, but gatling guns weren’t invented until the 1860s.
Edit: I also want to point out that I very much agree with this part:
My thoughts on 2A have evolved a lot over the years, but especially in recent years (hmm I wonder why) I’ve gotten more used to the notion that the “take all the guns away” flavor of anti-2A is actually a pretty privileged take. It’s really easy for me as a straight white male in a good neighborhood to say that no one needs guns, but I’m not very oppressed in the grand scheme of things and I can imagine that a lot of people out there want the right to defend themselves right about now.
Repeating rifles existed back then. The founders being well read would have been aware of their existence. Some of these repeating rifles were in use on the frontier. The Girardon air rifle could shoot 20+ rounds and was famously used by the Lewis and Clarke expedition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girardoni_air_rifle
https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2018/03/11/multi-shot-assault-weapons-of-the-1700s-and-the-2nd-amendment/
And the first piece of gun control legislation was passed in 1934
Tommy guns were invented in 1918 and used widely in organized crime in the 20s. I bet that had a lot to do with it.
Wiki says