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During The American Revolution it was, in fact, illegal for a common citizen to own cannon.
It was forbade them by English law (with narrowly tailored exceptions for ship-owners).
It's also a contributing factor in there being a revolution and the fact that we are no longer English.
It makes one wonder what country does Joe think he's president of.
Update: Even if it was somewhat legal via militia association to have a cannon of your own in the militia's armory: once the revolution started it was DEFINITELY against English law to have one. Which is the point of my poorly researched, snarky, post. We chucked the government which put restrictions on such things.
Do you have a citation for this?
ReplyDeleteGo to the ISU library, on the same tier the Navy ROTC keeps the history books and there's a book all about whom and when an unwashed, common, colonial can own cannon.
DeleteIt's a bit of a commute for me to find it and give page numbers.
Well, the whole "Go seize their munitions and cannon in Lexington and Concord" pretty much states it. It was okay for us colonials to own stuff until it wasn't.
DeleteSeize from the militia armories in Lexington and Concord. Technically those cannon were The Crown's.
Deletenot so true. the militia sometimes bought their own cannon to supplement what the crown gave them. patrick henry outfitted a company of militia himself. the va. colony had purchased cannon and powder as well from private funds. sensing trouble lord dunbar sent redcoats to seize the powder, and major henry marched on williamsburg to demand it be returned. lord dunbar eventually gave it back and retreated to a british ship in the bay. i suspect not all the cannon in lex were paid for by crown shillings.
DeleteIf I'm mistaken, I'm mistaken; but... Being allowed to fund the purchase of a cannon for the militia isn't the same thing as owning one of your own. Proving me wrong is probably a low bar. I'm not very smart.
DeleteI hate to equate the two, but villages and towns in The Soviet Union funded the purchase of planes and tanks for the war effort without gaining ownership.
I am also constantly amazed at what gets people to comment and what people don't comment on.
When the legal environment is as nebulous as it was during the Revolutionary War I suspect buying a cannon IS pretty much the same thing as owning the cannon. Whose law held sway? British? Sure, if they held the territory. There was no legal code from the Revolutionary government; the Founding Fathers had bigger problems than micromanaging the country and preferred them well-armed. Local law? Any British appointed civilian official probably had left for Canada or hightailed it back to England. There was no real authority to prevent cannon ownership, unless you want to adopt the rules of our enemies.
DeleteWho do you suppose the cannon were purchased from? The French? Spanish? Dutch? There really was no such thing as "gun control" back then that went beyond the idea of disarming the people that shoot at your troops. But that was just martial law in an insurrection, probably by order of the local commanders, not statute or code. His Majesty's troops didn't need no stinkin' law.
It took a 5-man gun crew for a cannon, so it made little sense for it to be "owned" by an individual, unless they were donating for use by local militia. But who payed for it "owned" it, such as it was. Hard concept to grasp from those of us living under the administrative nightmare government of modern times. Privateers were a different and clearer story, and where most privately owned cannon were situated. The weight of artillery meant most cannon were shipboard. But they didn't buy them from an approved cannon store and probably didn't have to provide any proof that they owned ships ... so long as they had coin and could haul the things away, someone was happy to sell to them.
My recollection is that British guns all had His Majesty's marks on the barrels, so they could be reclaimed by the Crown whenever possible.
Anyway, probably not at all like your Soviet example, where the money is undoubtedly given over to a central government which then uses it to fund military equipment. Then they tell the townsfolk, "You bought a Hind for the Motherland!" There really was no such central authority that dealt with such details throughout our Revolution.