I've got news for you. Anything beyond a bent tree branch with deer sinew for string and fire hardened sharpened sticks for arrows is a "bow plus."
How so? Materials have improved, machinery has made production faster and easier, but the very designs have changed very little--there have been cave drawings of deflex/reflex longbows discovered.
And if the majority of people aren't interested in using a particular weapon, then they won't even if it is made legal. So, an economic/politicla argument can only go so far.
Gobs of people, many who wouldn't bother to get into the woods, will fall for the hype and advertisements and go buy what they percieve to be a killing machine. Of course the majority will find out soon enough they were duped, but they have alreadyspent the money, and manufactures are busy working on the next round of advertisements for the next group of suckers.
Why is the sporting goods market so huge? How can they spend millions and millions on advertising, tv shows, etc. when a gun/bow/whatever that was made 20 years ago will kill just as effectively as one made today? Because people are, collectively, stupid when it comes to these things. Slap on a different paint job, call it "new and improved", and you just made last year's model obsolete and everyone is beating down the doors to get the "new" one. I learned that several years ago when working in a friend's archery shop. It's as bad as computers.
You used that analogy more than once - the "so what" is that gunpowder is the root os what defines modern gun vs muzzleloader
You totally missed the point, and I'm not convinced it was accidently. The "so what" is this: one of the main pro-crossbow arguments that keeps coming up is "it's a primitive weapon/it has ancient roots", so that should make it acceptable for archery season. I say gunpowder is primitive/ancient in it's roots, but nobody seems to want to argue that any weapon that uses gunpowder should be allowed in the primitive weapons season--why not?
Remember, crossbows are allowed almost EVERYWHERE in regular archery season. Who gets to use them is what varies LBR, even your state os MS allows them and recognizes them as archery.
I repeat myself yet again--if crossbows were accepted asregular/standard archery, then nobody would be required to meet certain criteria and get a special permit to use them during archery season.
but no, a .270 is clearly NOT a muzzleloader plus.
It's every bit as much a muzzleloader-plus as a crossbow is a bow-plus. If you disagree, tell me which weapons I'm referring to here. One uses ignited gunpowder to propell a bullet down a barrel. Muzzleloader or .270? The other uses energy stored bent limbs with a string or cord pushing a long dart. Longbow, recurve, orcrossbow?
I could say the same about the compound for all the same reasons LBR. And by your reasoning, its the compound manufacturers that demand allowing the compounds in archery season - its all about the money, right ?
Like I said, I'm leaving compounds out of my part of the discussion--for simplicities sake.