David Kopel: Magazines Over 10 Rounds Were Well-Known To The Founders
BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 10 months ago
David Codrea is responsible for this great find, from David Kopel writing at Reason.
Did the Framers of the Second Amendment consider the possibility that Americans might own firearms with a capacity greater than 10 rounds? Certainly yes. Such arms had been invented two centuries before the Second Amendment, and by 1791, repeating arms, including those capable of firing more than 10 rounds, were well-known in the United States. The history is explained in a Third Circuit amicus brief I coauthored last week.
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Earliest repeating arms: A repeater is a firearm that can fire more than one shot without having to be reloaded. The first known repeating firearms date back to between 1490 and 1530, with guns that fired 10 consecutive rounds. A 1580 gun could fire 16 shots. Once the user pressed the trigger, these guns would continue to fire until the ammunition was exhausted.
Seventeenth century: By the 1640s, major improvements in repeating arms had been developed. Now, the user could fire just one shot by pressing the trigger, and then fire more shots by pressing the trigger repeatedly. Danish rifles invented by Peter Kalthoff had ammunition capacities ranging from 6 to 30 rounds. During the seventeenth century, Kalthoff repeaters were copied by gunsmiths from London to Moscow.
For the case background and additional discussion on David’s research, consult the article. He’s done a magnificent job of cataloging all of this.
And he does get to the storied Girandoni air rifle, which I think it would be cool to hold and fire.
So enough from the know-nothing naysayers about how the founders couldn’t have possibly imagined this, or imagined that. Anyway, consider how ridiculous it would be for the founders, who risked their lives, fortunes, families and reputation, to have rejected whatever they had at their disposal to defeat King George!
And consider how ridiculous is the claim that the founders didn’t intend for citizens to keep and bear arms for the amelioration of tyranny, when that’s exactly what they did and how they managed to do it.
Finally, in my estimation, Kopel’s work goes not just to magazine capacity, but something other than single shot firearms as well. Read again. Repeaters.
On February 13, 2020 at 1:01 pm, MTHead said:
The argument of magazines, or capacity of them is an irrelevant. If we just discover them yesterday it would make no difference in the actual argument that taking them is an infringement.
It’s the most desperate of arguments on their part. So you have a right to a toaster. the right to use the toaster anyway it was designed to be used. But me telling you your not allowed to plug it into power to make it work is not an infringement on my ability to enjoy my toaster? Cars, gas?
Sorry, were limiting the battery in your cell phone to 5 minutes a day. Well, no one knew about cell phones when the 1A was being wrote! Or that by doing so it would stop people from texting while driving?
On February 13, 2020 at 6:29 pm, Matt said:
If you have not read Mr. Kopel’s well researched books, do yourself a favor and acquire them.