The key question is not whether some legislation was enacted, but whether
it was accepted without protest. The Sedition Act (and Alien Act) were
intensely opposed, so much so that the party that enacted them was thrown
out of office in the Election of 1800. If they had attempted to impose any
regulation of firearms not designed to enhance the effectiveness of militia,
one suspects the reaction would have been even stronger. As Clayton Cramer
has pointed out, there were such restrictions on sale of firearms to
Indians, which could be considered violative, but the Indians were not
considered to be members of the community, but hostile foreigners.

It does seem, however, that inventories of personal weapons were less common
during the Revolution, when there was a danger of the inventory listings
being captured by the enemy, than before or after, when the enemy was not
mixed with the patriots to the same extent. This would be an interesting
line of investigation.

Robert Woolley wrote:
It seems to me that the pertinent question for your inquiry shouldn't be
what regulations were actually enacted, but what regulations people of that
era would have believed to be constitutional, had they had reason to
consider them.

Congress passed the Sedition Act 7 years after ratification of a
constitutional amendment that said "Congress shall make no law...abridging
the freedom of speech."

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