Joe Biden, the most anti-gun President ever, is fond of saying that the Second Amendment has always been limited, and that at the time it was drafted a person could not, for example, buy a cannon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Au contraire. <\/em>Historians agree that simply isn\u2019t true. As evidence, consider the fact that during the War of Independence, ship owners were buying cannons dozens at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Colonial Navy was embryonic, so the Founders issued \u201cletters of marque,\u201d which authorized privately owned ships to seize British shipping, cargo vessels as well as warships. I recently read historian Eric J. Dolan\u2019s book \u201cRebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution<\/a>\u201d (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seen by the British as legalized pirates, the privateers were seen (for the most part) by the Colonists as citizen warriors fighting tyranny. George Washington\u2019s main objection to privateering was that it drew so many men who might otherwise have joined the Navy: because their shared the profits from auction of captured ships and cargo, privateering was a quick route to wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is, if you made it through the conflict. Dolin notes, \u201c\u2026the British government despised privateersmen and threw them into prisons where horrific conditions killed many thousands. Thus capture could be a death sentence.\u201d Despite this, the Americans kicked butt. Dolin quotes from England\u2019s London Advertiser <\/em>in 1776, \u201c\u2026the value of the (American) vessels (captured by the British), and the cargoes taken from them is trifling, whereas those they take are worth more in proportion than ten to one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, and the cannons? The privately owned ships fairly bristled with them, sometimes dozens. Dolin writes, \u201cPrivateers also competed with the navy for cannons and gunpowder, which were in limited supply. Because the privateer owners had deep pockets, they were often able to outbid the government for these items. Some, such as the successful Providence merchant John Brown, also owned foundries that made cannons, and they favored their own privateers over naval ships when it came to selling them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n