"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 ...

"Annie Oakley thought women should learn to protect themselves, and a gun was the best way to do it. `I have had an ideal for my sex,` she said. `I have wanted them to be able to protect their homes.` She encouraged women to keep a revolver in a drawer by their bed and to carry a pistol when they were out alone, just as she did. Annie hid it in the folds of an umbrella, which she carried when she was out at night anywhere she feared the slightest danger....

"`If I were accosted, I could easily fire,` Annie said. `A woman cannot always rely on getting help just by calling for it.`"

From Shirl Kasper, Annie Oakley (1992), p. 215.

Annie Oakley was born on this date in 1860.

Photo: Annie Oakley cabinet card, 1887.
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#annieoakley #littlemisssureshot #exhibitionshooter #bornonthisday #womenoftheamericanwest ...

"The armed citizen was the last hope of the republic, according to Cicero`s last orations in the senate, the Philippics, a series of orations directed against Marcus Antonius. According to Cicero, Antonius `is an enemy against whom arms have rightly been taken up.` In response to Antonious`s threat to enter Rome with his army, an illegal act, Cicero queried: `What did this mean but a threat to the Roman people of slavery?` Anotonius `should be compelled by arms.` Arguing against Calenus, Cicero asked: `do you call slavery peace? Our ancestors indeed took up arms not only to win freedom, but also empire; you think our arms should be thrown away to make us slaves. What juster reason is there for the waging of war than to repel slavery?` Again, it `is for the liberty of the Roman people...they see they must struggle in arms.`"

From Halbrook, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right, pgs. 18-19.

Image: "Cicero Before the Senate" by Hans Werner Schmidt (1912)
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#cicero #2ahistory #keepandbeararms #thateverymanbearmed #armedcitizen ...

"In a decision issued on August 5, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix (N.D. Tex.) ruled in Silencer Shop Foundation v. Bureau of ATF that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which repealed the taxes for the making and transferring of certain firearms under the National Firearms Act (NFA), left the law without any basis for its registration requirements in the authority of Congress to `lay and collect Taxes.` U.S. Const. art. I, § 8. cl. 1. The firearms affected are short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, and `any other weapon[s],` all defined in 26 U.S.C. § 5845. Machineguns and destructive devices remain subject to the $200 tax.

"This result is a no-brainer, as Congress enacted the NFA as a tax measure under the Internal Revenue Code and the Supreme Court upheld it as such in Sonzinsky v. United States (1937), which the Court reaffirmed in NFIB v. Sebelius (2012), the Obama-care case. Citing this author`s article on the subject, the district court wrote that `the NFA was Congress`s attempt to regulate so-called `gangster weapons` linked to Prohibition Era violence.` The purpose of the NFA requirement that the `firearms` under the Act be registered was to keep track of who paid the tax. Repeal of the tax pulled the rug out from under the registration requirement.
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"With that, the court issued a permanent injunction as the final judgment enjoining the Department of Justice and ATF from `from enforcing the challenged NFA provisions as to untaxed firearms against the plaintiffs and, where applicable, the plaintiffs` agencies, political subdivisions, members, and customers—both current and future.` The plaintiffs include individuals, nonprofit associations, businesses that deal in NFA firearms, together with Texas and thirteen other states...."
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"The court stayed the injunction order for seven days to give the government an opportunity to appeal to the Fifth Circuit, which seems sure to issue its own stay pending appeal. The challenges could easily end up in the Supreme Court...."

The above excerpts are from my Second Amendment Roundup blog post, "$0 Tax Left NFA with No Constitutional Basis" (8/9/26).

[blogpost links in comments] ...

The Swiss did not hold back their anti-Nazi feelings during WWII. This came out in many ways including cabaret satire. "A performance in May 1942 drove the Nazis to distraction. Two actors are standing in front of the curtain. One of them is selling the Nazi newspaper, Signal. The other, a passerby, notices that a picture is printed on the paper. He shouts `Is that him?` meaning Adolf Hitler. `Yes, that is him`--`I want to cut out this picture and frame it!`--`What, do you want to hang it on the wall at home?`--`I do not know yet--either I will hang it or put it on the wall [for execution].` The audience roared, but in most of Europe at that time jokes about killing Hitler would have gotten the humorist hung or put up against the wall to be shot."

German Ambassador Freiherr von Bibra discussed the slanders with the German Consul General Voigt. Von Bibra stated: "I have heard there is an unbelievably filthy hole in Zurich at the Cornichon. People there are insulting the Führer in the most impudent and impertinent manner.... It is clear that this kind of speech is directed against Adolf Hitler. That is what they allow themselves in a so-called neutral country!"

From Halbrook, The Swiss and the Nazis: How the Alpine Republic Survived in the Shadow of the Third Reich, p. 44.
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#zurichhistory #nazisatire #theswissandthenazis #swisscabaret #antinazi ...

"This lever-action, repeating flintlock rifle, known as the Cookson repeater, would fire fourteen shots. The mechanism, invented by Italian gunsmith Michele Lorenzoni around 1680, would be copied by European gun makers for the next century. This gun was owned by John Shaw of Boston in the mid-eighteenth century."

From Halbrook, America`s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15, p. 91 (photo and caption).
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#leveraction #flintlockrifle #cooksonrepeater #NationalFirearmsMuseum #AmericasRifleTheCaseForTheAR15 ...

August marks the 10th annual National Shooting Sports Month, a month-long celebration of target shooting, marksmanship, safety and responsible firearms ownership. Coinciding with America`s 250th anniversary, this year`s theme, "Let Freedom Plink," encourages shooters of all experience levels to visit their local range and enjoy the traditions, camaraderie and freedom of the shooting sports.

It`s a great time to spend a day at the range practicing your marksmanship. Rifles, handguns, shotguns ... targets, clays ... shooting sports offer a great variety. If you`re an experienced shooter, this is a great time to teach a family member or friend some shooting skills.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has ideas and resources for both new and experienced shooters at: https://www.letsgoshooting.org/
They are also offering free America 250 commemorative targets to download at: https://www.letsgoshooting.org/resources/articles/sweepstakes/celebrating-10-years-of-national-shooting-sports-month/
Information about the annual Range Challenge contest is available at: https://www.shootingsportsmonth.org/rangechallenge/

Photo: Whenever my grandkids visit, we get in some target practice. Here my grandson is shooting my M1 Carbine.
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#letsgoshooting #NationalShootingSportsFoundation #NationalShootingSportsMonth #americantradition #learntoshoot ...

It`s a dog ready for war!  This humorous photo was taken in 1939. German infantrymen dressed this German Shepherd up during some time away from the front lines. The rifle is a Mauser Karabiner 98k. The dog has a  Stielhandgranate (hand grenade) in his mouth and a standard issue steel helmet on his head. I hope they gave the dog a treat for posing.
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#dogsofwar #germangrenade #karabiner98k #militarydog #worldwars ...