With this logic applied, beleaguered industries worldwide can gain instant relief! Just think, of it. For an example, when you fill the tank or change the oil of your car, you'll owe the manufacturer for your *new* vehicle!
Remind me again how Circuit Court judges are selected.
The first point was that the initial adoption of pistols was primarily by outlaws, while the cavalry examples you cite were later developments.
The rifle was, for example, developed for the hunting of game. It's use in a military capacity had to wait until the advent of the American Revolution.
So your defense is that any target practice validates a weapon as not intended to kill humans? If then, we use Sarin to kill some gophers, is it henceforth alright to use it on people?
I apologize for my error in specifying the First Amendment; I meant to say Second Amendment. The Second Amendment states, "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
Side arms are not generally considered pivotal to the maintenance of a militia, the stated focus of the amendment's intent. Pistols were first developed in in 16th Century France, their primary use was by highwaymen.
I am not backpedaling in the least. A scientist who makes his living promoting a scientific position is compromised in providing assessment of that position, period. The quotes aren't to scare, they are to point out the dubious nature of the science they promote. The only scientists in love with nuclear power are nuclear scientists making their living off nuclear technology. That's not to say that nuclear does not have some advantage over such as fossil fuels, as with the greenhouse gases, but the rosy view of nuclear we have been fed since the 1950s has been in large measure hype. Of course, the greenhouse gas problem is the result of science disregarding the ramifications of the work of John Tyndall for a century-and-a-half.
If you are going to impugn someone else's intellectual integrity, you had best develop some intellect and integrity of your own.
"Ninety percent of baseball is half mental." -- Yogi Berra