Michigan state Sen. Jonathan Lindsey (R) voiced opposition to Democrats’ “ghost gun” ban by suggesting that if such a ban had been in place in the 1770s it would have undercut the American Revolution.
The Detroit News quoted Lindsey saying, “If this law existed at the moment of our founding, America itself would not exist.”
He expounded by noting that the guns the colonists used to “fight back against the tyranny of the British government” were guns that Democrats would label “ghost guns” today.
In sum, Lindsey said “our nation most likely would not exist” if guns without serial numbers had been illegal at the time of the revolution.
Democrat state Sen. Mallory McMorrow attempted to counter Lindsey, saying, “I would also like to make an observation that at the founding of the country, AR-15s also didn’t exist.”
McMorrow did not mention that the musket was the AR-15 of day in the 1770s. Muskets were a civilian’s everyday firearm and the military’s central weapon. Oftentimes there was little to no difference in the type of firearm carried by the military and the type owned/used by America’s colonial militia.
American Rifleman noted that the arms used by colonists had, in some cases, been taken from British loyalists or seized from “British supplies” in raids.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
