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You have to be particular about muzzle-loading a flintlock and making sure the flint is in place.

Despite stunning advances in prosthetics, though, the military still looks on amputees the way it did in the days of flintlocks and cannonballs.

“A fixed-barrel gun that uses gas and a piston is now the same as a flintlock or muzzle loader,” Mr. Merino said.

The rules were geared more for semiautomatic pistols than flintlock weapons, but re-enactors who fear being arrested if they publicly re-stage battles from the colonial era to the Civil War are staying off the field.

Hazel tried to collect her thoughts, stall for time, but it was difficult while staring down the smoking barrels of those flintlocks.