Reddit reviews Mr. Gatling's Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It

Yes and the same was done with weaponry as it advanced. Automatics became banned, ammunition has gone through many regulations, and citizens could not own functioning or current “military” equipment. The gatling rifle is a prime example. The book on the invention and impact it had is pretty good.

https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Gatlings-Terrible-Marvel-Misunderstood/dp/0143115642/

When it was produced it was made privately and sold privately to individual, and debates at the time focused on whether or not it was protected by the second amendment. Eventually laws against the ‘rate of fire’ guns that exceeded a certain rate were put into place and still hold today. Automatic guns cannot be owned by everyday citizens and modifications are illegal. But saying that we shouldnt make it or create it because it didnt exist back then doesnt make sense.

Just because a weapon is more efficient or new does not mean that it should not exist or be sold as the comic implies. We already have massive amounts of regulations and subsequent laws to account for increases in technology while still protecting the fundamental rights of individuals. Another example is tank ownership, people can buy tanks but only if they are before a certain time period and only after the military/government decommissioned them to remove the weaponry because of laws to fit the changing tech.

The “it didn’t exist back then” argument would mean that most things today would not receive protections under the bill of rights.