Dumbguy:
You’re suggesting that the framers of the Constitution were unable to anticipate that new technology would arise in the future? Based on the fact that they built a quite successful (so far) government that grew into a world superpower, I think that we can safely say that they were smart people. While they probably didn’t foresee things like automatic weapons, cars, or computers, I have no doubt that they were capable of predicting that guns would become better as the years went by. The fact that they made no specific mention of “advanced guns developed in times to come” or some such seems to indicate that they meant “guns”. Period. Handguns, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, laser guns… whatever you want to call it. It’s a “gun”, and protected.
Anyway, enough on that subject for now…
With silencers, I would imagine that, ideally, they’d be legal to assist with hunting purposes or to lessen the noise created while target shooting (earplugs can, after all, be annoying). However, we don’t live in an ideal world, and there’re too many people (in my opinion) who would take advantage of the stealth granted by a good suppressor by using it against their fellow man. While I don’t like the fact that we can’t have silencers, I don’t see it as any great loss.
Saturday Night Specials are an insult to guns, in my mind. While some anti-gunners will call me a nut, I consider a firearm to be a work of art. It’s masterfully crafted for strength, durability, and reliability. I take care of our guns… just earlier today, I was polishing a 1974 silver-plated .357. That thing is amazing… perfectly weighted, designed flawlessly, fits into my hand perfectly… a work of art. SNS’s, on the other hand, are like cheap Michelangelo copies. A shoddy imitation that gives all guns a bad name.
As for plastic parts… sounds good, I think. A lot of airports no longer rely solely on metal detectors for finding guns/bombs/whatevers. Dogs, for example, should be able to smell the gunpowder in the bullets (yes, a dogs’ schnozz CAN detect that). Of course, I hardly think that we should scrap metal detectors entirely… but I don’t think plastic guns would be the threat that they would have been a decade ago. And if they make a gun lighter… well, it’d be easier to aim, better target-shooting… I’d be all for it.
And about automatic weapons… an untrained gunner with an MP-5 would be less dangerous than a trained gunner with a simple handgun. The main danger of an automatic weapon, however, is the potential collateral damage. With so many more bullets flying through the air, the potential for hitting innocent bystanders well-away from the scene increases quite a bit.