From my not super extensive reading of law and the framers intent, “The right of the people to keep and bear arms” applies [should] to any individually portable common infantry weapon available in the time period viewed.
So, theoretically as an un-infringed right, you should be able to have a select fire weapon and it would seem logical that you could also have an attachment like a grenade launcher.
It would not apply to crew served weapons mainly from the fact that said weapons are generally not individually portable. In the past, units would aquire crew served weapons (cannons) and frequently, up to around the Civil War, these would be comissioned/purchased by a wealthy patron or a local community.
I understand that part. Same here.
So, theoretically as an un-infringed right, you should be able to have a select fire weapon and it would seem logical that you could also have an attachment like a grenade launcher.
Several years ago in England, a man was killed by a weapon disguised as an umbrella that injected a poison pellet into him. The purpose of such a weapon is murder, assassination. It's not an infantry weapon. Such a weapon has no moral purpose, as far as I know, in society. Is such a weapon covered by “The right of the people to keep and bear arms”?
And what about the "bear" part? Is a law an infringement when the law makes it a crime to bear a select fire weapon on or in someone's property if that someone forbids it? What if it's public property and the public, as the ultimate owners of public property and by means of popular vote, vote for a law forbidding the bearing of select fire weapons on public property?
It would not apply to crew served weapons mainly from the fact that said weapons are generally not individually portable.
Well, the "bear" part might not apply for practical reasons, although six people might be able to bear a machine gun or a cannon in the same way six people bear a casket. But what about the "keep" part? According to the Constitution (the body itself, not the amendments), Congress has the power to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal. Such letters were granted to ship captains or owners so that they could in effect conduct wartime operations during wartime. It seems to me that the clear implication is that crew served weapons, that is cannon, could be kept.