I'm not particularly concerned what you think. My oath is to defend the constitution aghainst all enemies, foreign and domestic. If that includes you, the gun control freaks, or members of some particular political party or the government in power at present or in the future, so be it. But note that when that government attempts to eliminate the constitutional limitations on its authority, it also eliminates its own constitutional legitimacy and the source of any lawful authority it posesses. If they choose to ignore the second amendment, then I'm equally free to ignore Article II, for example, and similarly consider any action deriving from that portion of the constitution equally corrupt and moot.
I always thought to "bear arms" meant to carry weapons. "Arms" defined as that of the average soldier. Now you want to own a tank.
The RPG7, 57mm M19, and 90mm M67 antitank recoilless rifles were and are portable and usable by one man, as is the M2 Carl Gustac 84mm in use by the Canadian, Australian and British Army and the US Ranger battalions, though a second team member is generally tasked to carry additional ammunition. Likewise a two-man crew of driver and gunner can easily enough handle a jeep-mounted 106mm recoilless very handily, though the recoilless is generally obsolete in US service.
But mortars have also been deployed down to the platoon and even squad or patrol level; the WWII US M2 60mm mortar was intentionally reworked to allow for *trigger fire* by a single operator as well as the more usual *drop fore* following the exposure of Americans in the Pacific Theater to the Japanese light *Knee Mortar*, very successfully used by individuals- as was the British 2-inch mortar, also still in use by the Brits.
Do you know of anyone in the late 1700's,early 1800's, that personally owned a cannon? What makes you think that arms are meant to be any weapon? Seriously, I'd like to read it.
Yes. Henry Knox, *the father of American Artillery,* an early American bookstore owner, was an amateur but practiced artillerist, and a particularly notable example, as were the Clark family- per the November 1778 raid on the British fort at Vincennes, which siege would have included the cannon of the American river gunboat so tasked, which arrived 3 days after British General Hamilton's Fort Sackville had already been successfully taken by Clark's raiders. The Clark family member's earlier experiences with light artillery came as a result of their use with two and four-pounder cannon in repelling Indian raids in what was then the wilderness frontier area of present-day Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, then of the Virginia Territory. Accordingly, it's not especially surprising that Vincennes, of the former Virginia territory, is now located in present-day Knox County- named for Henry Knox, as were the three military forts located there following the British defeat at Ft. Sackville.
But maybe 1830s Gonzales, Texas would be an even better place to look:
