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Can You 'Buy a Cannon?'

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  September 01, 2022 10:15 AM

At a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, President Joe Biden claimed in his remarks yet again that Americans can't buy cannons, meant to argue that there are limitations on the right to bear arms.

So, can the average American legally buy and own a cannon today?

CLAIM: Biden's crime-prevention speech at Wilkes University ahead of the November midterms intended to smear opponents of his proposed "assault weapons" ban as right-wing, trigger-happy extremists. 

"And for those brave, right-wing Americans who say it's all about keeping America—keeping America as independent and safe: If you want to fight against a country, you need an F-15 [a tactical fighter aircraft used by the U.S. Air Force]. You need something a little more than a gun..." Biden stated before gesturing to the backdrop of Safer America Plan supporters. "And who are they shooting at? They're shooting at these guys behind me."

Quoting the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Biden then asserted that "the rights granted by the Second Amendment are not unlimited." As examples of the restrictions to Second Amendment rights, Biden declared: "Right now, you can't go on and buy an automatic weapon. You can't go out and buy a cannon."

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FACTS: First, we should dispel historical inaccuracies made by Biden's mis-framing of the Second Amendment, which was part of the Bill of Rights that was ratified in 1791. Let's take a closer look at the Constitution and how it shows early on that private individuals could own cannons, which are simply large-caliber guns. 

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 stipulates that Congress had the power to "grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal," which were government commissions that authorized the practice of privateering—the equivalence of piracy with granted impunity from prosecution—to carry out acts of war against foreign enemies on behalf of the U.S. The "letter of marque" allowed a warship to cross over the frontier into another country's territory to take a ship, while the "letter of reprisal" permitted the subsequent retrieval of a captured vessel to the home port.

Cannons were obtained and used as weapons by the battling pirates for warfare at sea, according to documented instances of private citizens-turned-privateers that had permission to attack enemy ships during wartime and set sail with cannons during the period. ("A History of American Privateers," the 500-plus page book published in 1899 by American journalist Edgar Stanton Maclay, records multiple such cases.) Any cannons on board were considered private property, not belonging to the government or the military.

Aside from Biden purporting there was a ban on private cannon ownership in the infantile days of America, let's examine modern-day purchasing. Pretend you're cannon shopping. If the cannon was manufactured in or before 1898, such as a muzzleloading model, it is purchasable without regulation, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Muzzleloading cannons and replicas thereof that are not capable of firing fixed ammunition are considered antiques. In general, they're not subject to the provisions of either the Gun Control Act (GCA) or National Firearms Act (NFA) and are not considered "destructive devices."

Cannons classified by the ATF as "saluting" and "signaling" devices are also exempt, such as the ones sold by The Cannon Store, the online retail sales division of the Bellmore Johnson Company. No firearms license is required to purchase or own The Cannon Store's cannons. (Buy yours here.) The handcrafted cannons are often used for starting races, naval signaling, ceremonial salutes, sporting events, and celebrating holidays.

If the cannon you're eyeing to buy does not fall into either of the two aforementioned categories, you'll have to receive pre-approval from the ATF, pay a $200 tax stamp, and fill in some government forms. Additional approval and tax stamps are required for each cannon shell, while flares, smoke shells, and inert shells are exempt, Oregon Live reports. That's about it, according to a 2015 explainer by The Oregonian. Large-bore cannons that are deemed "destructive devices" under the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA) are legal.

The federal gun regulation, the first national law of its kind, came decades after Biden's historical allusion and did not rely on the Second Amendment, according to the pro-NFA case made by the bill's sponsor, Attorney General Homer Cummings, who testified before the House Ways and Means Committee. The mid-20th century law was drafted at a time when machine guns were the weapon of choice for lawless Al Capone-era gangsters and armed mobsters carrying out street-level mob violence and terrorizing American cities during Prohibition.

Biden first made the claim that Americans were prohibited from owning cannons back when he was on the 2020 presidential campaign trail, insisting that the constraints were dated during Revolutionary War times. "From the very beginning you weren't allowed to have certain weapons," Biden told Wired magazine in May 2020. "You weren't allowed to own a cannon during the Revolutionary War as an individual." Historians countered that there was no evidence, per PolitiFact, and the Biden campaign could not cite any laws but seemed to suggest Biden was being metaphorical. Biden has now placed the purported cannon metaphor about two decades after the Revolutionary War and the U.S. president still got American history wrong.

Although the then-Democratic presidential candidate's initial claim was fact-checked by even the Left's de facto Ministry of Truth enforcers as false, since taking office, Biden has continued to use the cannon talking-point at least five times to push for greater gun control, according to official White House transcripts:
  • May 30 after Marine One arrival: "Remember, the Constitution, the Second Amendment was never absolute. You couldn't buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed."
  • May 25 at the signing ceremony of an executive order to "strengthen public safety" alongside Vice President Kamala Harris: "The Second Amendment is not absolute. When it was passed, you couldn’t own a cannon, you couldn’t own certain kinds of weapons. It's just—there's always been limitations."
  • April 11 outlining actions to "fight gun crime" and announcing his nominee for ATF director, Steven M. Dettelbach: "But from the very beginning, the Second Amendment didn’t say you can own any gun you want, big as you want.  You couldn’t buy a cannon when, in fact, the Second Amendment passed."
  • Feb. 3 at a gun violence prevention task force meeting in New York: "We talk like there's no amendment that’s absolute. When the [Second] Amendment was passed, it didn't say anybody can own a gun and any kind of gun and any kind of weapon. You couldn't buy a cannon when this amendment was passed."
  • June 23, 2021 inside the State Dining Room discussing gun crime prevention strategy with Attorney General Merrick Garland: "The Second Amendment, from the day it was passed, limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own. You couldn't buy a cannon."

RATING: Biden's repeated claim that Americans can't buy and own cannons is FALSE.

The acquisition and possession of cannons—depending on ATF classification—are legal acts in America. And it's pretty freaking awesome. The fact is that cannons are cool. Most would agree from school-aged children to full-grown adults. Biden (well, Biden's overworked speechwriters) tries to paint chilling imagery of heavy artillery to strike fear into the hearts of pearl-clutching progressives in the aftermath of mass gun violence. But the anti-gun rights rhetoric elicits the opposite effect for Second Amendment absolutists and gunslinging Americans.

While cannons bear a comical nature as cliche as the trope of parrots and eyepatches, the ability to purchase and possess them in America is as patriotic as apple pie. Though what's really laughable is that Biden, an ancient relic himself, keeps regurgitating faux facts as a pseudo-history lesson in antiquarianism.

But the loose cannon in the Oval Office misfired and he's running out of ammunition.