I realize Lippert holds more knowledge about OOP and programming in his spleen than I have in my brain, but he mentions in the first post that the first attempt

I realize Lippert holds more knowledge about OOP and programming in his spleen than I have in my brain, but he mentions in the first post that the first attempt violates C# rules. But, if working in C++, the interface could specify either (Weapon & weapon) or (Weapon * weapon) could it not?