Just about anything you can dump down the muzzle. My Grandpa had an old 8 and a short-barreled .75 caliber musket. He demonstrated for me some interesting loads in the woods in Maine 50 years ago.
As a conservative, you partake of Christian Civilization and have internalized the mores that come with that. Whether those internal controls and outlook are God-given or just invented by our Judeo-Christian cultural ancestors they have made this civilization possible. The left has rejected not only God but everything about their heritage. They do retain some of those interior controls but do not trust them because they see them as irrational and do not understand them. They believe only in positive controls by men and believe also that all unenlightened men are ravening beasts if not restrained by their betters. Many disdain him but Thomas Hobbes is their prophet. And where do these "betters" come from? Well, they come from good families and go to the right schools...and these same folks claim to be the ofranchisees of Reason.
I have an aquaintance who suggests that the Left wants to recreate the Southern Plantation: They live in the Big House, and make the decisions, and in return we get to work and live off what they give us.
Rather a lot of the Southern Plantation used religious justifications for the continued bondage of the Sons of Ham. Sure, you don’t agree with that, and I don’t agree with it either. I figure that any religion is not rational. You can follow it all you want. Once anyone uses a text not subject to criticism, and the non-rational as their basis for decisions, they can get any answer they want. Insanity rules.
The real strength of the Founding Fathers is they knew what didn’t work. They knew that religious control of Government didn’t work. (the example of Islam.) They knew that government support of religion led to corrupt religion. (The example of the established Church of England) They knew that pure democracy led to 51 percent voting themselves the assets of others(the example of the Italian republics). They knew that hereditary monarchy led to corrupt government(The example of England). They knew that inherited aristocracy led to corrupt government (the example of Russia). They knew that legislators would meddle with the administration of justice, and would meddle with the foreign policy/military policy(the example of England). They devised a system of limited government powers, with separate functions to limit the ability of corrupt politicians. It failed immediately, but didn’t fail catatrophically until the War of the Rebellion. When put back together, the centrifugal forces were attenuated, to avert another rebellion, but the centralizing forces had less counter. The government has continued to fail, but its failure has been slower than the failure of other governments.
I like the notion of unenlightened men as ravening beasts if unrestrained by their betters. I think of “Enlightened Men” as ravening beasts unless restrained by other ravening beasts.
My duty to my children and my neighbors is to assure any who consider oppression as their calling, that such a path would be nasty, brutal, and short. Hobbesian, in other words.
Firearms are 14th Century technology. Anyone with a brain, a lathe a hammer, and some common steel shapes can fabricate a fully automatic machinegun. Gun Control is a fantasy. In England the thugs are turning to that approach, as the Government is posting ever more cameras, and extending regulations to kitchen knives.