Why is the burden of proof on you??? If she says there was a law prohibiting it, she needs to come up with the proof??
Were the citizens prevented from owning cannons? I'm in a debate once again with an antigun person, and she claims that when we were fighting the British we did not allow our citizens to possess cannons. This just doesnt seem at all correct.
When we were fighting the Brits the 2nd Amendment hadn't been penned. We had to win that war before we wrote our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
You can use this fact to bludgeon the idiot at your own discretion.
There is an extensive discussion of this point in the majority opinion in Heller v. District of Columbia:
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/07-290.pdf
Bottom line, there were restrictions on "dangerous and unusual" weapons for civilians, even back then.
This goes against everything everyone else has said.....