I'm convinced the town I work in is full of crazy people.

[Hammerskjold]

I don't disagree with any of this. I agree that people should be allowed to own shotguns and rifles. I just don't see where the 2nd amendment logically leads to the right to own military-grade weapons specifically designed to kill as many people as possible very quickly.

IIRC, at the era of it's writing, a Brown Bess musket was the military grade weapon of it's day. Go further back before that, a crossbow was at one point, considered a very 'bad and unchristian' like weapon. The Pope frowns on peasants shooting good christian knights (that took years to train and expensive to arm, and of course good christian knights never took advantage of their status or armaments...). But if you aim it at an infidel in the crusades, well that was just fine and dandy.

Go further back than that, a Gladius was military grade weaponry that was wielded by one of the more famous armies in history.

Jump forward a bit, the shotgun was feared as an effective trench gun in WW1.

IMO, discussion like this is swayed too much by how a weapon often looks.
Weapons are specialized tools to me, and again IMO any tool can be used for good or bad.

If I say 'military sniper rifle', most people's first image is some scary looking, urban camo, tacticool looking thing, designed only to splatter brains and guts. But if I say 'scoped deer rifle', probably something not out of place during hunting season, most people may be more at ease.

The difference between the two is not very large, mostly cosmetic and in some cases there are none. Military grade can sometimes mean made to a higher spec (eg: more durable), but it can also mean made by the lowest bidder. There are examples where the 'civy' grades stuff is miles above 'mil-spec'.

Nowadays, I can make a gladius style weapon, and just call it my 'large camping knife'.

Maybe in the next millenia, advanced 3d printers and nanofacturing can turn out a shotgun in 30 minutes, in the convenience of your own home.
And no one will really give much care, because it will be looked at the same way a Brown Bess musket is by us in 2012.

Then again I bet the debate by then will be 'does the 2nd amendment spell out how and why civies can own military grade plasma blasters and nanowire swords?'