In 1824, "...the Supreme Court of North Carolina upheld indictments with language and under reasoning reflecting the legacy of the Statute of Northampton, as including both going armed and doing so in a concrete manner to terrorize specific people. In State v. Langford (1824), the indictment alleged that the defendants `with force and arms, at the house of one Sarah Roffle, an aged widow woman...did then and there wickedly, mischievously and maliciously, and to the terror and dismay of the said Sarah Roffle, fire several guns....` As the court stated, `men were armed with guns, which they fired at the house of an unprotected female, thus exciting her alarm for the safety of her person and her property. This is the corpus delicti....` The court recalled the words of Hawkins that `there may be an affray when there is no actual violence: as when a man arms himself with dangerous and unusual weapons, in such a manner as will naturally cause a terror to the people....`"

From Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?, pgs. 215-16. "Hawkins" refers to English commentator William Hawkins and his book Pleas of the Crown (1716).
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#StatuteofNorthampton #affray #ncsupremecourt #pleasofthecrown #therighttobeararmshalbrook ...

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led an incredible expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. Known as the "Corps of Discovery," the expedition lasted from 1804-1806. The men carried a variety of firearms, including muskets, rifles, and pistols, along with blunderbusses. But the firearm that seemed to impress the Native American tribes that they encountered the most was Lewis`s Girandoni repeating air rifle. Developed in the late 1700s and used by the Austrian military, the Girandoni had a magazine holding 22 balls that could be fired rapidly.

"William Clark recorded an instance on January 24, 1806, in which members of the Clapsot tribe in the Pacific Northwest witnessed an expedition member shooting elk, `which has given them a very exolted opinion of us as marksmen and the Superior excellency of our rifles Compared with their guns; this may probably be of service to us, as it will deter them from any acts of hostility if they have ever meditated any such.` He further wrote that `our air gun also astonishes them very much, they Cannot Comprehend its Shooting So often and without powder, and think that it is great medison which Comprehends everything that is to them incomprehensible.`"

From Halbrook, America`s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15, pgs. 125-26.

Image: "York, 1804" by Michael Haynes (1999). York was Clark`s enslaved man. On the expedition, he was an active hunter and field member. Clark repeatedly recorded York hunting buffalo, deer, and other game with his own rifle.
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#lewisandclark #lewisandclarkexpedition #corpsofdiscovery #Girandoni #AmericasRifleTheCaseForTheAR15 ...

Mark W. Smith of 4 Boxes Diner ( @thefourboxesdiner ) and I recently discussed the Silencer Shop and Jenson v. ATF decision by Judge James Hendrix. I believe that the decision represents a major constitutional blow to the NFA`s regulation of suppressors and short-barreled firearms by eliminating its tax-based foundation, and caution that the practical impact is still unfolding and depends on the scope of the injunction, state law, and what ATF/DOJ do next.

Our interview is titled "BREAKING NEWS! HUGE NFA VICTORY BREAKDOWN WITH STEPHEN HALBROOK" (August 18, 2026) and is available on "The Four Boxes Diner" YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXv_YIKDzMw

You can also access the link on the homepage of my website, in the "Presentations" section.
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#thefourboxesdiner #guncontrolact #nationalfirearmsact #2acases #stephenhalbrook ...

Line up boys! It`s time for an adventure. This photo`s caption is "Hunting with Granddad" (Iowa, 1959). Granddad has a Winchester model 12 shotgun. The boy on the left has a Daisy model 25 BB gun, the middle boy has a Winchester model 67 rifle, and the boy on the right has a pop gun.
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#huntingwithgrandpa #winchesterrifles #daisybbgun #teachthemtohunt #vintagegunphoto ...

Several days after Lexington and Concord, General Gage moved to disarm the inhabitants of Boston. He promised that all firearms that were surrendered would be under the care of the selectmen and eventually returned to their owners. "According to the historian Richard Frothingham, `the people delivered to the selectmen 1778 fire-arms [muskets], 634 pistols, 973 bayonets, and 38 blunderbusses.`..."

"There survives “A List of the Persons Names who lodge their Arms with the Selectmen pursuant to a Vote by them passed yesterday & also of the Number by each delivered.” It shows a total of 321 names, the types of arms each surrendered, and the total number of arms each surrendered. ...

"The most prominent name was Paul Revere, but he was the son of the famous patriot, who left Boston with the family. Paul Jr., who stayed in Boston to take care of the family’s properties, turned in three guns, a bayonet, and a pair of pistols. The merchant John Rowe...surrendered two guns. As noted above, apparently, one of the sons of John Cookson, who advertised repeating muskets in 1756, turned in a chest of barrels, locks, and other parts. While it would be interesting to know more about the others who surrendered their arms, the inventories exhibit a society well-armed for both military service and self-defense."

From Halbrook, America`s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15, pgs. 99-100.
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#disarmedcitizens #GeneralGage #americanrevolutionarywar #AmericasRifleTheCaseForTheAR15 #2ahistory ...

"Klan terrorism in Tennessee`s 1868 elections was the subject of a speech on February 14, 1871, by Representative Horace Maynard, who cited accounts of firearms seizures and intimidation of black voters. Klansmen threatened and seized firearms from black Republicans. One black man testified that Klansmen came `to my house, inquiring for guns and pistols.` Klansmen threatened a black who admitted that he would vote for Grant, and ransacked his house after he refused to surrender his pistols. Blacks frequently defended themselves with their pistols.

"Meanwhile, Representative Butler introduced H.R. No. 3011, a bill to protect the loyal and peaceable citizens of the United States in the full enjoyment of their rights, persons, liberties, and property, and it was referred to the Committee on Reconstruction. On February 20, on behalf of the committee, Butler submitted a report to the House on the bill. The bill, which would become the basis of the Civil Rights Act passed in the next session, was then recommitted to the committee. Nothing instances of terrorism against the freedman, the report that accompanied the bill warned:

" `The negro may be pressed too far, and be compelled to take up arms in his own defense. These men who oppress him in the manner before mentioned seem to dread this, for in many counties they have preceded their outrages upon him by disarming him, in violation of his right as a citizen to "keep and bear arms," which the Constitution expressly says shall never be infringed.` "

From Halbrook, Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, pgs. 105-106.
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#civilrightsact #freedmen #securingcivilrights #armedcitizens #2arights ...

[ENGLISH BELOW] "A lei de Weimar permitia que a polícia negasse a posse de armas de fogo a qualquer pessoa `indigna de confiança`. Nesse momento, a Gestapo estava especificamente preocupada com o confisco de armas de fogo. Recentemente, em 27 de novembro de 1935, o Dr. Best havia escrito ao Chefe de Polícia de Berlim e aos funcionários do governo e da polícia, tratando da utilização de armas confiscadas sob custódia da polícia: pistolas semiautomáticas (porém, não revólveres) deveriam ser enviadas às sedes da Gestapo em Berlim. A polícia e unidades governamentais poderiam requerer outras armas confiscadas, e as que não fossem necessárias deveriam ser destruídas.

"Este esclarecimento veio do mesmo Werner Best, o qual, como descrevemos no capítulo 3, havia escrito os documentos de Boxheimer em 1931, defendendo uma tomada de poder pelos nazistas, que declarariam que todas as armas de fogo
deveriam ser entregues dentro de 24 horas, sob pena de morte. Agora um alto oficial da Gestapo... ele comandaria a repressão da Gestapo na França e na Dinamarca durante a guerra, onde a falha em entregar armas de fogo era motivo de execução."

De Halbrook, Hitler e o Desarmamento, pág. 150-151.
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"The Weimar law allowed police to deny firearm ownership to any `unreliable` person. At this time, the Gestapo were keenly concerned with firearms confiscations. Dr. Best had recently written on November 27, 1935, to the Berlin police president and to government and police officials concerning the utilization of confiscated weapons in police custody: self loading pistols (but not revolvers) must be sent to the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin. Governmental units and police could requisition other confiscated arms, and those not needed must be destroyed.

"This clarification came from the same Werner Best who...had authored the Boxheimer documents in 1931 advocating a Nazi seizure of power that would declare that all firearms must be surrendered within twenty-four hours under penalty of death. Now a top Gestapo official...he would head Gestapo repression in France and then Denmark during the war, where failure to surrender firearms was cause for execution."

From [continued in comments] ...

"Jonathan Goldstein, Adjunct Professor at University of Pennsylvania Law School, has published a comprehensive analysis of the power of Congress to `grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water,` U.S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 11. Historically, this meant that private citizens could possess cannon and ships and could wage war at sea on enemies approved by Congress.

"`You couldn`t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed,` President Joe Biden quipped in 2022. Well, actually you could, and you still can. Cannon were never restricted until included in the revision of the National Firearms Act in 1968, which taxes and requires registration of `destructive devices,` defined as weapons that expel a projectile by the action of an explosive or other propellant, the barrel of which has a bore of more than one-half inch in diameter, excluding sporting arms.
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"For fresh insights into the obscure Marque and Reprisal Clause, see Prof. Goldstein`s new article `The Militia of the Sea: The Marque and Reprisal Clause as Textual Proof of Private Heavy-Arms Ownership at the Founding.` [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7195398]
Here`s the Abstract:

"Courts and litigants increasingly say the Second Amendment reaches only the weapons one person can carry. The Constitution refutes that twice, in a single Article...."
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"With textual support from a documented record of roughly 1,700 Revolutionary-era privateering commissions — granted per voyage, in the years before the Constitution was ratified — this Article refutes the modern categorical claim that heavy arms were never `arms.`"

The above excerpts are from my Second Amendment Roundup blog post, "The Militia of the Sea" (8/12/26).

Read the post at reason.com/volokh or copy and paste: https://reason.com/volokh/2026/08/12/second-amendment-roundup-the-militia-of-the-sea/

Link can also be accessed through the home page of my website, stephenhalbrook.com
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#marqueandreprisal #NFAact #cannons #destructivedevices #secondamendmentroundup ...