"arms"

Bucephalus · Jun 27, 2016

Apology if this has been answered before.

Does the right to bear "arms" cover knives, clubs, sticks, rocks, etc. as well as firearms?

Has a court made a decision on this question?

Thank you for your help.

Name Taken · Jun 27, 2016

Bucephalus said:
Apology if this has been answered before.

Does the right to bear "arms" cover knives, clubs, sticks, rocks, etc. as well as firearms?

Has a court made a decision on this question?

Thank you for your help.

According to a recent ruling from Mass. it covers tasers.

tmd99 · Jun 27, 2016

Quote From Supreme Court in D.C. v. Heller discussing this topic:

b. “Keep and Bear Arms.” We move now from the holder of the right—“the people”—to the substance of the right: “to keep and bear Arms.”
Before addressing the verbs “keep” and “bear,” we interpret their object: “Arms.” The 18th-century meaning is no different from the meaning today. The 1773 edition of Samuel Johnson's dictionary defined “arms” as “[w]eapons of offence, or armour of defence.” Timothy Cunningham's important 1771 legal dictionary defined “arms” as “any thing that a man wears for his defence, or takes into his hands, or useth in wrath to cast at or strike another.” The term was applied, then as now, to weapons that were not specifically designed for military use and were not employed in a military capacity. For instance, Cunningham's legal dictionary gave as an example of usage: “Servants and labourers shall use bows and arrows on Sundays, & c. and not bear other arms.” Although one founding-era thesaurus limited “arms” (as opposed to “weapons”) to “instruments of offence generally made use of in war,” even that source stated that all firearms constituted “arms.” (internal citations omitted).

Don H · Jun 27, 2016

Arms, my definition: Any weapon not towed or self-propelled. Although the "towed" weapons are questionable since it's my understanding that private individuals owned and provided cannons during the Revolutionary War.

Blacksmith101 · Jun 27, 2016

Don H said:
Arms, my definition: Any weapon not towed or self-propelled. Although the "towed" weapons are questionable since it's my understanding that private individuals owned and provided cannons during the Revolutionary War.

Private individuals also owned and used state of the art "war ships" in the Revolution.

Name Taken · Jun 27, 2016

Don H said:
Arms, my definition: Any weapon not towed or self-propelled. Although the "towed" weapons are questionable since it's my understanding that private individuals owned and provided cannons during the Revolutionary War.

This was a recent conversation I had. If you take the thought that back then "military grade" weapons were different then the privately owned hunting rifles the 2nd was clearly wrote to allow citizens to own all kinds of dangerous items of war. They didn't exclude cannons and to some extent even knew about using biological weapons (small pox) and did not exclude any class or type of "arms".

An interesting conversation that didn't leave much rebuttal.

crazybird · Jun 27, 2016

This is a great, thought provoking question.

I'm very interested in reading what everyone has to say on this topic.

I've always believed that we should be able to have a weapon equal to what would be used against us. How would we fight tyranny with muskets if we were up against M16s?

Blacksmith101 · Jun 29, 2016

In the Revolution the government (British) were using smooth bores and many colonists used rifles. That is why it was unsafe for British Officers.

"arms"

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