Woodbutcher
3 hours ago
"From the beginning, you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted to own"

Well, yes, Joey boy, you could, in the beginning. Up to and including cannon and warships!

tonysc Woodbutcher
3 hours ago
GMTA, I'm not going to delete my comment but, canons were, indeed privately owned. At the time, I'm not sure what weapon was considered more war-like than a canon but I can't think of any.

Diamondback tonysc
3 hours ago
A fully-armed warship with two dozen of 'em on its gun deck would fit that description nicely, this was why privateers had to have a Letter of Marque and Reprisal before sailing.

The backbone of Revolutionary War naval efforts was actually our privateer fleet, ditto the War of 1812 and the Quasi-War with France.

Consider that the Man-o-War was the ICBM of the day...