“Hunters use shotguns and single-shot rifles to hunt. Homeowners are good to have a six-shot pistol for home safety. So who buys semi-automatic guns? Too often, it’s bad guys. When our Founding Fathers voted for the right to bear arms, I’m sure they meant rifles and pistols — not cannons. Let’s have a national vote to ban semi-automatic weapons.” – Tony Meschini in a letter to the editor [via bostonherald.com]
Actually no, colonists owned cannons. In fact, the Congress hired private people with cannons and the most modern firearms.
And muzzle loading cannons to this day are still legal to own. I almost bought a black powder cannon off of armslist last year. It shot golf balls 🙂
In those days you could have mortars explosive rounds etc so let’s make the left free up the nfa regulations cause that’s what the founding fathers meant
In fact, the National Firearms Act was passed after the St Valentine’s Day Massacre, after waving the bloody shirt for the first time. That worked for a good while, but it seems we have wised up now. After the vote yesterday, it would appear that that tactic no longer works like it used to. A perfect time to roll back the NFA. And GCA ’68.
Private citizens owned silent semi-automatics with 20 round magazines favored by the Austrian military when the second amendment was signed.
^+
http://controversialtimes.com/issues/constitutional-rights/this-repeating-20-round-rifle-was-invented-12-years-before-second-amendment-was-ratified/
This is the gun that actually “won the west”. Lewis and Clark wrote in the diaries of the trip that it was the thing that always kept them safe from the new tribes they encountered. When mentioned in the history books at all, all they say about this arm is that L&C used it to take one deer.
The actual diaries tell a slightly different story. The one deer was taken barely out of St Louis, as a test. It took the game down easily. They were so impressed that from then on, it was kept under wraps in the keelboats until a new tribe was encountered. Then, it was brought out by a detachment in full uniform and regalia, and demonstrated to the tribe by shooting several boards at various distances. All in airgun quiet. L&C report that it was so effective that after seeing it in action, no Indian ever tried to attack them, and trade with them was easy and friendly after that. It was immediately locked up after the show. Since it was the only one they had, they thought it better to give the impression that the boat was full of such arms. And to keep secret the fact that once it fired about 20 times, it took two men most of an hour to get it ready to fire another 20.
Here’s a YTvideo on its specifics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqFyKh-rUI
Check out what I just stumbled across.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dZLeEUE940
An actual Girardoni, being demonstrated and fired(sans ball), and even instructions for loading and firing! Complete with kit of spare parts and tools. It appears that the idea was to keep spare, pre-charged, stocks of compressed air handy, to speed up the reloading process.
A good video of said rifle in action.
The second rifle in the video.
https://youtu.be/MfsKibQ480w
TTAG should write an article about this, maybe commission someone to make a good video with it, shooting it and talking about how it was around before the 2nd amendment and bill of rights was passed.
Another progressive victory for the gubamint publik skools.
Propaganda History – 1, Actual History – 0.
They also owned warships. Marques where issued to citizens to raid British shipping during the War of 1812. Most of the naval battles were fought by private citizens and not the US Navy. We won a lot of naval engagements.
Yeah I came here to say: Ha! They LITERALLY meant cannons.
What a goof.
When the founding fathers said the right of free speach then ment in block type printers so lets just ban all laptops and computers . And also the intetnet.
Also ban Mormonism and Scientology, because those religions didn’t exist in 1791.
Google Plus and Facebook are working on banning free speech from the internet already, it just takes a gradual erosion to be most effective.
I knew my father in law was a bad man. His one arm being messed up so he can’t run a pump was just an excuse for his evilness.
Semi-auto = cannon?
Meschini = moron
Is this a quiz?
My answers:
false
true
?
You Sir get an A, congratulations.
The founding fathers intended for the citizens to be as well armed as our standing Army. We’ve already slipped a long way down that damned slippery slope.
The Founding Fathers wanted people to have every right to take it upon themselves to [if such people felt so inclined] do the same thing that the Founding Fathers were doing, and that is sloughing-off an overbearing, oppressive, and intrusive form of governance that was attempting, in all sorts of ways, to prevent them from doing so.
The Founding Fathers had no idea if THEIR attempt at (what is now) America would work. They wanted to ensure that the means would remain to take up the fight again at the individual level. They didn’t just want the newly minted American citizens to be able to fight, they wanted them to WIN ! Thus, they entreated all to KEEP AND BEAR ARMS (do whatever it took “to assume among the powers of the earth”).
The Declaration of Independence starts with “When”. It is an OPEN and ONGOING consideration.
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
London 1774 or Washington 2016 – taxes, regulation, respect of productive citizens, remaking of society, intelligence, freedom???
Shumer, Reid, Di-Fi, HILLARY????
Pack of evil (D) with approaching evil (R)????
Trump better win, and he better wake up Conservative before then.
Another example of….”just because you can write doesn’t mean you should”
Thank God reasonable people still exist.
Just because you can write doesn’t mean you can take 5 minutes out of your busy day to do a little research, like actually read the Constitution.
The Constitution itself, as written 240 years ago, provides the very thing he seems to demand – a way for the people to vote on whether or not they want to keep or modify any portion of that same Constitution It’s called an Article V convention of the states.
Can he explain how Art I Sect 8 Cl 11 on issuing Letter of Marque and Reprisal would work if private entities have no right to own cannons for ther private warships?
Shhhh… Don’t go throwing historical facts at this poor soul. You’ll cause him/her to curl up in a safe space crying for mommy.
Really wish Letters of Marque were still an option; vacations would be fun and profitable.
There’s your key political plank for a new political party. Let’s make this happen!
I had a conversation about exactly this at work yesterday. My closing statement was that the only thing that would make me feel safe from my government is nuclear powered aircraft carrier. It makes sense to me.
Carriers can be sunk.
The Chi-Coms have an intermediate-range ballistic missile with the ability to be steered in the terminal phase to take those floating airports and turn them into an artificial reef in the South China Sea.
And they have a bunch of very quiet diesel-electric subs to hit ’em from below…
They have both of these items on sale right now through Monday the 27th at Harbor Freight , in store only .
………………… and we have Harp , you know , the trumpet sounds .
This guy has no idea what kind of kit hunters carry, and he’s almost certainly vehemently against anyone hurting cute li’l furry creatures anyway.
The only thing sadder than the idiotcy is the fact that not all will be able to notice it..
The Herald is publishing tweets from twits now?
The Herald is no better than this garden variety idiocy. It fits perfectly.
The Herald is a tabloid. Its basically a picture book written by attention-seekers who are bitter they couldnt get a job at the Globe.
Sadly, the Glob, sorry, the Globe is just a Progressive mini-me to the NY Times (a former newspaper (A. Klavan)). The lost any semblance of journalistic integrity many years ago.
Yes, the Herald is a tabloid but at one time it did (sort of) offer a real alternative to the Boston paper of record.
“So who buys semi-automatic guns? Too often, it’s bad guys.”
What? Over 30,000 AR-15 type firearms sold in a week recently, from just one online retailer. If “too often, it’s a bad guy”, than where are all the murders? Oh yeah, Chicago and other such cesspools, where gang-bangers are using handguns.
We’d probably also find, if someone would actually do the research, that most of those are Saturday night specials, not semi autos.
They were designed as semi autos, but they function as single shot weapons.
“…most of those are Saturday night specials, not semi autos.”
Someone ran the numbers for Chicago (It *may* have been the heyjackass website), and a good number of them were good quality guns.
Oh, I can attest that the really cheap ones are semi-auto Zinc alloy ones, like the Bryco, Lorcin, Jennings, Phoenix, ect…
Let’s have a national vote to reinstate slavery while we’re at it. Because if the majority approve of oppressing the minority, it must be good. That’s how the Constitution works, right?
Slave minded peasants like this can never understand that the founding fathers intended for the citizens to have arms equal to that of the standing army, which happened to be muskets at the time. Of course, it’d likely blow his mind that the founding fathers wrote the 2nd Amendment to protect us from vile traitors like him also.
Haven’t you heard comrade? “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” The founding fathers feared this exact thing. The entire purpose of a republic is to guarantee people rights, and prevent mob rule.
It is so refreshing to have a place where I can come to and read comments by everyday normal folk , speaking in plain English , common sense opinions and common sense approaches to everyday trials and tribulations . A place where the commenters are by and large well read , informed and in fairly good understanding of the real history of our country , it’s founding , those who were the major players in it’s founding and the reasons for their approach to self determination and free governance . It is not found many other places and perhaps nowhere else in the degree it is here on TTAG . It is the one thing that drew me to the forum and the one thing that keeps me returning . I find some of this measure on the Blaze but being a gun guy , I prefer my daily dose of equilibrium to come from here .
Everything I have consumed here , nearly everything , on this story and the comments it has conjured up our to the point concise and quite accurate .
If I wanted to invest my wealth and resources to make a cannon or cannons , in the 17th or 18th centuries and outfit my ship or ships or the outer walls of my chateau with them , I most certainly could have , without fear of the ATF or similar entities knocking down my doors . There were no ATF’s or FBI’s or national policing agencies to confront me and no laws to prohibit me from any gun making endeavors . There were laws , of coarse , to protect others against me from turning my guns onto them but these were laws that inflicted punishments for actions and now punishment for possible actions .
We had no Federal standing armies and therefore the duties of our ‘ federal standing army ‘ were the duties of every citizen , man , woman and child . The right to protect oneself , family , neighbor , town , state and country is providential and we must retain every means available to us to do so . This includes the ownership by the citizenry of each and every military base , plane , ship , tank , rifle , RPG launcher and missile , including our nuclear arsenal .
Do you trust the knuckleheads in DC , and their decision making abilities , over those of the everyday common folk that come to TTAG everyday an state their opinions ?
The problem with Americans is educational and inspirational . Generations have been dumbed down and lied to in our educational systems and as a result we have many Americans who are contrite in their approach to what our country is , has been and stands for . We have replaced God with consumption , commercialism and technology is driving our choices and moral structure and personal fortitude are alien to so many now . We choose sacrifice only if we see personal benefit , which clouds the meaning of sacrifice itself .
If people do not start teaching the youth the hard lessons of our past we are doomed for reset .
God bless everyone here on TTAG , writers , commenters and staff for giving us an occasional beacon of hope .
I had no idea I was such bad man, 73% of what I own is semi-auto. Thank goodness he wrote in so I can hate myself appropriately.
Really irritating to have someone, who owns no guns, tell me what I should and shouldn’t own. Like someone without a pool telling you that your pool should only be 8×8 and have no slide or diving board. How about you STFU and mind your own business?
“Let’s have a national vote to ban semi-automatic weapons.” – Tony Meschini
Yeah! Let’s do it! (seriously) And when 75% of the people vote to keep semi-automatic handguns and rifles available, gun-grabbers like Tony Meschini can finally sit down and shut up.
Make sure to kill any LE carveouts, and watch the police unions lose their freaking minds.
If our founding fathers wanted us to be armed with antiquated technology they would have written it that way. Instead everyone was running around with the best and deadest weapons available at that time (some of which is outlawed by the Geneva Convention today). For example, the Flintlock Superseded the Wheel Lock and Match Lock and the Socket Bayonet Superseded the Plug Bayonet – Just as Semi-Auto Superseded the Single Action.
I’m too distracted by the awesomeness of that M4-wielding minuteman to read whatever idiocy the Boston Herald is dishing out today.
“Hunters use shotguns and single-shot rifles to hunt”
“single-shot rifles”
What’s that boxy thing with the spring in it at the bottom of the Remington 700 action?
It would be nice if one of these grabber types would at least take a moment or two to learn about firearms and the terminology associated with them.
It’s totally unreasonable of you to expect him to have any knowledge on the subject whereof he opines.
They know about it. They just choose to ignore it or lie about it to further the narrative and keep from educating others.
The Ignorance is strong with this one but it isn’t worth fisking. One topic is though: are six shots “sufficient” for home defense? I’ve had that question before from non-gunnies and I tend to answer with, “no” and leave it at that. But damn, six shots?
I admit the truth here, which is that I have a revolver for HD (S&W 19). It is the backup to the backup to the backup to the backup to the primary HD weapon. I only included it because I honestly felt guilty not including something named the Combat Magnum in the line up – sort of like using an aging-though-still-powerful player as the designated hitter because he’s a fan favorite.
If I ever have to get to the point of pulling that one it would mean I’d have run dry a pump shotgun, two semi-auto rifles, and two semi-auto handguns, and it would confirm that I would forever be known as the luckiest man in history if I actually survived long enough to use it.
There is absolutely nothing wrong at all with having a revolver in your home-defense line-up. In fact I am confident that revolvers are fan-favorites for many people and, as a result, their revolvers are their primary home defense firearms.
Absolutely. My daughter prefers revolvers because the slides on some of my semi-autos are hard to operate. That would also be true for people with general physical issues.
I would never consider myself disarmed if I only had a revolver, but damned if I’d want to ONLY have a revolver. It’s been some years since I only had a choice of one guns. For good or ill, I have more choices now. Which is awesome, but i admit to feeling guilty about safe queens that I don’t shoot often. Sort of like looking my dog in the eye and knowing I haven’t done his preferred walking route in a while. Goofy, but there it is.
MarkF,
The much more interesting question revolves (pun intended) around the debate whether or not 6 shots is enough.
If one home invader is standing still in front of you, you are not trembling from an adrenaline dump, you are shooting ammunition with excellent terminal ballistics, your attacker is not higher than a kite on PCP (or similar), and you have excellent defensive shooting skills, then 6-shots is more than enough. Otherwise, 6 shots could be woefully inadequate.
If I were planning to use only a revolver for home defense, I would want a full size revolver in .357 Magnum with an 8-round cylinder. The primary advantage of that platform: it is quite heavy and makes a pretty good club after you have expended all 8 rounds in the cylinder.
As much as I think I am the exception to rules involving combat, I know that’s not the case, so I want as many options – and that is expressed in my defense strategy by backups to backups to backups AND the highest capacity magazines I can use. Damn right I want the most I can.
If I ONLY had a revolver, I’d have an 8-shooter only because they don’t make 16-shooters. But I have “some number” of other options, so I stick with those.
Six shots is *probably* enough for one bad guy at bad breath distance, provided he isn’t extremely motivated or hopped up on bath salts or some other reality-altering drug.
For me, that’s a bit too limited.
I suggest that if we are to totally disarm this country lets start with the armed guards that protect the politicians, Lets see how safe they feel without Guns around them. F-N idiots Let em come live on the Border.
There’s too many bad guys in Boston for Tony to tell the difference, and he doesn’t even look. In fact, they typically don’t give a rat’s a _ _ in Boston, Massachusetts or any of the N.E. They elected a man whose two biggest mentors were Anti-American (one was a home-grown terrorist).
Suffice to say that, from here, we can’t tell the bad guys from the good in Boston, EXCEPT WHEN THEY START TALKING GUN CONTROL. Then, it’s easy. If you’re talking gun control, and your neighbor isn’t taking away your right to free speech (in logical progression), you’re ALL BAD. Either de-ratify the Constitution or uphold it.
Massachusetts has heard of the Constitution right?
“So who buys semi-automatic guns? Too often, it’s bad guys.”
And this says it all. The Progressives believe that We The People are the bad guys. Most criminals do not buy their guns, or if in the rare cases they do, they buy them illegally from someone else to stole them. So, there is no other conclusion people can make from that statement than that the Progressives think We The People are the bad guys.
The most important thing in his sentence is “I’m sure”… well, that’s his opinion then, but here’s mine: I’m sure Founding Fathers meant all kind of guns. I’m not that good in history, but if my memory isn’t failing me, civilians already had better guns than the military… they were starting to use rifled muskets while the military was still using smooth bore muskets. And guns with higher fire power were already existing anyway. And they were also for civilians to own cannons.
So if the second amendment was only meant for muskets, would it mean that the first amendment was only meant for printed press?
More to the point, perhaps, was Article I, section 8, clause 11 only meant for muskets? Was clause 12 only meant for wooden sailing ships?
Doesn’t pass the sniff test, if the over 300 million guns statistic is in fact true, I feel like there would be a whole hell of a lot more than 8000-10000 murders with guns every year if only bad guys were buying them… Thoughts?
Interview of Shotgun Joe Biden this morning. Need 6 shooters as will make the US safer than these assault weapons. Bad guys couldn’t shoot so many times fast.
Prettys sure not revolvers in the 18th Century Joe. Get with the script ya moron.
The Lorenzoni repeater, built in the 1680’s, was a 7 shot repeating pistol. But hey who is counting?
The next ” Slippery Slope ” is Senator Casey’s proposal to make misdemeanors a ‘ NO – GO ‘ for firearm purchases.
It starts small , ‘ just good common sense laws ‘ and soon the Dragnet is HUGE …… that’s the GOAL !
The tard! It burns!
Wow. Some lame pussy footed FUDD doctrine.
I don’t own a single shot anything. I’ve actually never shot a single shot anything, be it a break over shotgun or rifle. I’ve hunted with a bolt action and a semi automatic MSR. Both magazine fed.
??? That six shot pistol you mention above – it’s a semi-automatic.
Nope. Private shipping companies routinely owned many cannons for their ships.
http://www.1812privateers.org/United%20States/PRINCE/usmarq.html
All pistols and revolvers are semi-automatic. (Except derringers). Most rifles now are too. Most competitive shooting sports use semi-automatics. So instead, how about you educate yourself on firearms and we are going to go with “no” on that ban.
I’m going out on a limb here and suggesting that the only things that Tony Meschini ever hunted in his entire life were bargains.
So, lets go with the bad guys having assault weapons, who wants to go against that with a shotgun?
The second Ammendment is also there to protect us against a well armed government whether foreign or domestic.
If citizens are disarmed then he with the most weapons win, bad guys and military.
And, parting, what about massacres in countries that have weapons ban?
May I remind all about Tienamen Square?
“When our Founding Fathers voted for the right to bear arms…”
Uh, no.
Recognizing and enumerating a pre-existing, natural right of man.
Hell yes!!
Way to go there, Tony Bro – don’t let documented historical facts get in the way of your idiotic fallacious conclusions. Subject.
“So who buys semi-automatic guns? Too often, it’s bad guys.”
So there is no reason for you to own semi-automatic guns to protect yourself from the bad guys who have them. You should be fine with just a revolver against them.
Kalifornia is the slippery slope this week , 5 bad laws pending signature by Governor
See http://www.Ammoland.com
Mr. Meschini’s right to post an asinine comment on the Internet is protected by the First Amendment, which for those of you not paying attention, also wasn’t around in the time of our founding fathers, PS.
Logic.
The stupid is strong with this one.
Comments are closed.