Ramesh asks if machine guns can plausibly be raced back to the founding era.
I wouldn’t think so–and that also seems like a very odd test. I guess breech-loading rifles would not be protected by the Second Amendment, since there was only one in the world at the time of the American Revolution, and it was owned by its inventor, Maj. Patrick Ferguson of the British army. He had George Washington in his sights before the Battle of Brandywine, but didn’t shoot because “it was not pleasant to fire at the back of an unoffending indivdual who was acquitting himself coolly of his duty.”