I have a question that would take too much research for my limited skills to perform. If one were to look at all the laws struck down by the supreme court as unconstitutional since 1787, how many were found to be flawed because they violated the Bill of Rights (am. I-X) specifically? What is the percentage? More to the point, have there been any trends in that percentage over time? My gut feeling is that the BoR is being called on more than ever before to check the government’s tendency to overstep itself. But how do you measure that? I think these statistics would be a good guidepost. The expectation is that the percentage would be rising, probably at an ever-increasing rate. Can anyone here find out?
The understanding has always been arm[ament]s that a person could bear, and not engines of war such as bombs, mortars or artillery pieces.
In the modern context, grenade launchers (essentially a bomb-thrower), missile launchers and machineguns (the most often incorrectly defined class of weapon by the gun-control groups) are what the military consider as “crew-served weapons”, and are not arm[ament]s that a person can bear.
As such, those types of weapons are not constitutionally protected by the Second Amendment, and are illegal for private citizens to have in their possession or own.
Clinton’s Assault Weapon Ban is up for challenge, as U.S. v. Miller ruled that those arm[ament]s that can be shown to have
“…some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia,…” are within the realm of the right to keep and bear.