At every step, law-abiding gun owners have given up rights and gotten nothing in return.
The great irony, to me, is that almost all of the "successful" gun/weapon control campaigns have been rooted in nearly blatant racism. Yet repealing those laws born of racism isn't something the left is willing to entertain.
Supreme court opinion on gun ownership was that it could be far more restricted (and it was in many cases!) until Heller.
Miller was dead by the time his case was decided, nobody argued his side, and the courts argument was was dishonest at best.
No, it wasn't. The current legal interpretation that most gun-rights advocates swear by has existed for a relatively short time, after the lobbying efforts of groups like the NRA.
According to this article[0], the early US adopted numerous restrictions on guns based on preexisting English common law, and during the revolutionary war even forbid anyone from owning a firearm without first swearing a loyalty oath to the government[1].
And of course 200 years ago, slaves weren't allowed to own guns for obvious reasons[2]. Of course, slaves weren't considered persons at the time either.
It doesn't appear that there was ever actually a time in the US when gun ownership was completely unrestricted.
[0]https://theconversation.com/five-types-of-gun-laws-the-found...
[1]https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-03-02-0016-...
[2]https://www.sedgwickcounty.org/media/29093/the-racist-origin...
Which is not what I was talking about. I was talking about gun types not regulations to get a gun, store a gun, registration or anything like that.
>And of course 200 years ago, slaves weren't allowed to own guns for obvious reasons[2]. Of course, slaves weren't considered persons at the time either.
I wasn't clear. I meant any free adult not anybody.
Some slaves were slave drivers. White slave drivers had access to guns. It is not clear if slave drivers who were slaves had guns but it is possible. This of course would be an exception if it did happen.
The average slave of course would not own a gun.
>It doesn't appear that there was ever actually a time in the US when gun ownership was completely unrestricted.
Again, that is not what I was arguing. There doesn't appear to be any restriction on the type of gun you could own. There were other restrictions like not shooting cannons inside of city limits for example. People were allowed to own cannons though.
You may be unaware because this isn't an important issue to you but just off the top of my head the Brady Campaign, Everytown for Gun Safety and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence all have major financial backing and support firearm bans in one form or another.
There are plenty of states that have attempted to but the courts have stated the laws are unconstitutional.
America has by far the most relaxed gun laws in the western world. Most other countries simply ban ownership of most guns outright.
The current situation IS the compromise. And it's pretty stupid I agree. But, there are no states that ban guns and plenty of them want to.
There is no hyper political, highly targeted, industry funded political action group just like the NRA on the side of banning guns.
After every mass shooting in this country democrats have to fight tooth and nail to get even a tiny consideration of regulation in response to human tragedy. And even that usually fails. In what world is that rational? In what world is that not compromise from the left?