These United States

Many people think of our states as being subdivisions of the United States, but that's not true. Each of the original 13 colonies became a sovereign state after the American Revolution, then those 13 sovereign states joined together to form a federal union. Most of the other states that were added later were U.S. territories that applied for statehood, which kind of confuses the issue. If they hadn't become states they would still be territories, owned and operated by the union of the original 13 states. Texas and California are exceptions, they were never U.S. territories. They briefly became sovereign states after they seceded from Mexico, and then they joined the union. For this reason, some people believe that they should have the right to secede. It would be interesting to see what the courts think about that, and maybe we will someday. We already know what happens when we have a civil war over the issue, but I don't think any U.S. state has ever tried to secede by legal means. The U.S. Constitution is strangely silent on the issue. The whole U.S. Civil War could have been avoided if our constitution said that states either could or could not legally secede but, for some reason, it doesn't.

The constitution does say that any powers not delegated to the federal government belong to the states, which is probably why election laws vary from state to state. The U.S. Constitution prohibits the states from denying voting rights for specific reasons like race or gender but, other than that, the states are on their own. Remember when you had to be 21 to vote? Well, that only applied to federal elections, not state or local elections, although I think most states set their voting age at 21 as well. When the federal voting age was changed to 18, Michigan changed not only their state voting age, but their statutory age of majority to 18 as well. A few years later, the legal drinking age was pulled out of the package and returned to 21 by a state constitutional amendment. In Michigan, state constitutional amendments need to be approved by a direct vote of the people, and I voted against that one, but they passed it anyway.

The old 7.62 NATO round is still available, but there is also another 7.62, I believe it's the one for the old Russian AK47, and they are not interchangeable. The AK47 predates the old M-14, so you'd think they would both use the same ammunition, but they don't. My .308WIN is identical to the 7.62NATO, so you'd think they'd both have the same name, but they don't. Be that as it may, the modern M-16 and all it's military variants shoots a .223 bullet, so that should be the most available but, like I said, they are making ARs for the civilian market in a number of other calibers. If I was buying one, I'd want it in the .308 because then I could use it for deer hunting while I'm waiting for the shit to hit the fan. Then, if the shit never hits the fan in my lifetime, I won't have wasted my money on another gun that never gets used.

Ammunition will keep forever if it's kept dry, but it makes sense to use up your old stuff first.