Original comment: https://vger.to/lemmy.world/comment/22018742
this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2026
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Wait, for personal ownership? It's always read to me more as an argument for gun control. Like, "the founding fathers obviously never intended for Joe Shmoe to have serious military hardware, not even in their day, so we should be banning automatic rifles and the like."
The Revolutionary War was fought with privately owned rifles, cannons, and warships. Every form of military hardware available at the time was privately owned by Americans. Gun laws of the time typically mandated a minimum ownership of a firearm and ammunition.
That type of hardware still would have been owned only by corporations and the absolute wealthiest people, and it certainly wasn't getting wheeled out for home defense.
Certainly, not everyone owned a cannon. Or a warship. But the only difficulty in obtaining them was coming up with the funds.
It is satirical. One would not keep their cannon upstairs in their house. It would be proudly displayed in the front yard.