"Robert Green" wrote in message
...

The point I was trying to make is "how much damage can a .22/410 single
shot
combo do compared to any number of modern hi-capacity .40 pistols or .50
monsters like the Desert Eagle or the S&W 500?" There doesn't seem to be
much rhyme or reason to what's not allowed when you look at killing power
per second instead of somewhat irrelevant things like barrel length.

Presumably the issue is whether the firearm is readily concealable, so
barrel length is completely relevant. A law abiding citizen going duck
hunting doesn't care if his shotgun is four feet long, but a criminal on his
way to rob the Kwik-E-Mart wants a shotgun he can hide under this coat.

IIRC,
black powder muzzle loaders are unregulated, and I know of cases where
people have been killed by projectiles from such guns that passed through
a
car door and then completely through the victim. I wonder if muzzle
loaders
got a pass because they were too close to the weapons Congress had in mind
when writing the 2nd Amendment?

Firearms law is full of irrational measures, but in the case of a sawn-off
shotgun (or one made to be that small) that does seem to be a weapon of
interest almost exclusively to criminals.