Absolutely correct and I am not CURRENTLY a gun owner. At the time of the ratification many Americans possessed weapons of equal and superior performance to ones issued to the Army or militias. Private artillery was common, whether in private frontier forts like Fort Bridger, on merchant vessels, or swivel guns on river flat boats. In the post Civil War West it was a common occurrence that trail drive drovers were better armed than a platoon of Cavalry. Around 1908, when the Army was issuing 5 shot ‘03s you could buy a Remington Model 8 or a Winchester 1907, both semi auto medium caliber rifle. Both purchased by the French Army in WW1.
if I sell my gun to a friend and lease it back, I am no longer a gun owner.
Both purchased by the French Army in WW1...
and advertised as “only dropped once”!