About weapons of war

In the early 1700’s each state had its own militia. Men of fighting age, each having his own weapon, joined together to fight off indian attacks or whatever threat could arise. When the Revolutionary War began these militias joined and fought alongside the regular army to defeat the British. State militia continued to be used in the War of 1812 and even in the American Civil War. It was expected that men in the militia would fight alongside men in the military using the same weapons as those in the military.

Afterward, in the early 1900’s the National Guard was formed. Now each state has a reserve-trained military force that could be used similarly to the militia except it is connected to US military forces and can be called up for regular duty at any time.

So in early America, men in the militia had to use their own personal weapons in case of war or insurrection. They had weapons of war at the time. There was nothing to restrict men to own whatever weapon they wanted. Even cannons. At the time the Constitution was written and the second amendment was adopted, citizens had weapons of war.

Now the argument is, because things have changed and we have the National Guard, ordinary citizens do not need to have so-called “weapons of war”. Yes, things have changed. Different needs for a different times. But what if things change again? What if the military and national guard cannot do their primary function? There are many "what if" scenarios where things could change. So "just in case" we need to leave the Constitution and the 2nd amendment alone.

The other problem is: the term “Weapons of war” cannot be or has not been defined. Depending on the situation a knife is a weapon of war. As is a spear. Shotguns were used in Vietnam. Are they weapons of war or hunting weapons? The military uses a weapon similar to the commonly used AR-15 but the military would not use an AR-15 itself. The military uses an M16 with "select fire" of three-round bursts and full auto. The AR-15 does not have those features, nor the endurance of a standard military weapon. It's a semiautomatic. So technically, it cannot be called a “Weapon of War”. It is a citizen's self-defense weapon and hunting rifle. There are approximately 15 million AR-15s in use. The rare instances where a crazed individual uses an AR-15 to kill multiple people shouldn't be used to make the other 15 million people defenseless.