The media has officially run out of serious material.
The Associated Press, in a bizarre new video, is now clutching pearls over flintlock muskets and other antique firearms, apparently concerned [1] that these centuries old weapons are not regulated like modern semi automatic rifles.
That’s right, the same technology used by Continental soldiers at Lexington and Concord has suddenly become the next terrifying menace to society in the minds of the anti gun left.
This is the kind of mental gymnastics we have come to expect from the gun control crowd.
Having lost credibility trying to ban every modern firearm they can name, they now seem determined to dig through museums looking for new targets.
The AP breathlessly explains that a musket from 1776 can sling a lead ball at about one thousand feet per second and warns that this could do terrible harm.
Yet those of us familiar with actual firearms already know that rate of fire matters.
The typical flintlock musket can be fired about three or four times per minute, assuming the shooter is skilled, well practiced, and not under pressure.
Gun owners had to laugh. The level of misunderstanding on display was almost painful.
Even convicted felons are allowed to own antique or replica black powder firearms because, legally speaking, they are not classified as firearms under federal law.
The reasoning behind this is simple. They are obsolete and impractical for any kind of criminal use.
Ashley Hlebinsky, a firearms historian, put the issue plainly.
“They’re classified as an antique. It is actually not nearly as heavily regulated as a modern firearm,” she said.
The purpose, she continued, was to make sure that historians, collectors, museums, and other law abiding gun enthusiasts could preserve important pieces of America’s past without being buried in red tape.
It is common sense.
These old weapons belong in historical reenactments and museums, not police evidence rooms.
Yet the AP could not resist suggesting that such muskets represent some dire loophole in the gun laws.
The video even featured moody commentary implying that whoever “holds this holds power over life and death.”
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That might sound deep to an untrained ear, but in real life, anyone who has ever tried to load a flintlock musket knows that power would vanish quickly in an actual emergency.
Between pouring powder, ramming the ball, priming the pan, and recocking the hammer, it is hardly the stuff of modern crime dramas.
The Associated Press seems oblivious to these physical realities.
If criminals were ever to rely on muskets, the police would probably have plenty of time to take a coffee break between shots.
We are talking about single shot antiques that require careful handling, not high capacity magazines or rapid fire weapons.
This desperate attempt to paint antique gun ownership as dangerous reveals more about the mindset of the modern left than it does about firearm regulation.
They are not worried about public safety.
They are obsessed with the idea of control.
Once again, they are probing for another point of authority, no matter how absurd.
Even the rhetoric about “dangerous velocities” betrays ignorance.
Yes, any projectile weapon can harm someone, but so can a hammer, a kitchen knife, or a speeding car.
If the AP wants to apply its standard consistently, then the next crusade will probably involve banning chisels and frying pans.
The truth is straightforward.
Antique weapons do not function like modern firearms, and they never will.
Many states follow federal guidelines that exempt them from firearms regulations for that very reason.
The point is not to create loopholes for criminals, it is to allow history to remain tangible.
Guns like these remind us what liberty cost and how our forefathers fought for it.
Of course, anti gun activists will watch a video like this and immediately call for new controls.
That would be a massive waste of time and resources.
It would not stop crime or save lives.
It would simply harass collectors, historians, and hobbyists while diverting attention from real issues like urban violence and revolving door justice systems.
Every time the left overplays its hand like this, it exposes what its crusade is really about.
It has nothing to do with muskets, and everything to do with eroding the Second Amendment one absurd narrative at a time.
The idea of regulating a flintlock rifle is laughable, yet here we are.
Until criminals start lining up in formation, ramming powder down their barrels, and charging with fixed bayonets, Americans can rest easy.
The revolutionaries’ muskets belong to history.
The panic belongs to the press.