Cannon Ownership and the Second Amendment: a Historical Analysis by Jonathan Goldstein

Goldstein's analysis examines the constitutional text and its implications for current debates on gun control. Historically, the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal meant that private citizens could possess cannon and ships and could wage war at sea on enemies approved by Congress. This fact contradicts modern gun-control claims.

President Joe Biden quipped in 2022 that "You couldn't buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed. Well, actually you could, and you still can. Cannon were never restricted until included in the revision of the National Firearms Act in 1968, which taxes and requires registration of "destructive devices, defined as weapons that expel a projectile by the action of an explosive or other propellant, the barrel of which has a bore of more than one-half inch in diameter, excluding sporting arms.