Posted on 04/16/2007 7:42:32 AM PDT by Lazamataz
Why can't I own nuclear weapons? The Second Amendment guarantees it!
This argument comes up from time to time during gun control arguments. An anti-gun person who intends to use it as a strawman argument usually offers it facetiously or sarcastically. A strawman is a logical fallacy in which a debater exaggerates an opponent's position, directs arguments at this exaggerated position, and claims to have defeated the opponent's real argument.
The Second Amendment guarantees individual citizens the right to keep and bear arms. Even professors who can only be described as extremely left-wing have come to this conclusion. For example, the prominent law professor Laurence Tribe, has reluctantly concluded that this Amendment explicitly upholds the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. The writings of our Founding Fathers reveal that there were two sociological reasons to uphold this natural right: To prevent crime, and to defend against a rogue domestic government. As example of the Founders thoughts on the crime-deterrent effect of civilian firearms possession, I give you Thomas Jefferson:
And as an example of how the Founders felt about civilian firearms possession as regards keeping our government 'honest and upright', I give you, again, Thomas Jefferson, who warns:
And from John Adams:
"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity ... will respect the less important and arbitrary ones ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants, they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, countries or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.
Therefore, we can reasonably suppose that the Founders intended us to have access to every manner of weapon for defense of home and of liberty. However, therein lies the rub: Does every manner of weapon mean access to nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons?
Our Founders were just men, men of proportion. They drew their ideas for our constitution from the writer and philosopher John Locke. Locke puts forth that we own our own bodies, and thusly we have the right to own and control ourselves.
THE RIGHT OF SELF DEFENSE
If you have the right to own, then you also have the right to assert ownership -- otherwise known as "protect" -- that which is yours. The right of self-defense flows naturally from this right, and is enshrined by our Founders as the Bill of Rights, and even is quite prevalent in the Declaration of Independence. If you have the right to self-defense, then it naturally follows you have the right to effective tools to exercise that right. In simple terms, it makes no sense to say you have the right to drive on highways, but then ban automobiles. Again, the learned Mr. Jefferson agrees:
THE RIGHT TO BE UNMOLESTED
Another right flows from John Lockes principles: You also have the right to be undisturbed. You have the right of 'quiet enjoyment' of your belongings, including your body, so long as you do not molest or act aggressively or violently to another. Nor, of course, do you have the right to disturb anothers quiet enjoyment of his or her belongings by molesting, acting aggressively, or acting violently to another person.
Take these two rights together: YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO SELF DEFENSE (and effective tools to defend yourself), and YOU MAY NOT MOLEST OR ATTACK THOSE WHO ARE NOT ATTACKING YOU FIRST.
Therefore, it is clear that any tool of self defense you choose must be a tool you can direct to be capable of discriminating between an attacker and an innocent. Clearly, the following tools are capable, with a minimum of care, of being directed against an attacker without jeopardizing innocents:
The following tools are slightly more questionable, since they are somewhat less able to be directed with great accuracy, and thusly are less discriminating. They have a larger chance of violating an innocent persons 'quiet enjoyment' of his property during the suppression of a criminal attack:
The following tools are completely indiscriminate, and can harm innocent people decades after their use. These tools are completely inappropriate for your right of self defense, since they will certainly violate an innocent persons right of quiet enjoyment of their property.
Hopefully, this will lay to rest once and for all the straw man offered by so many antigunners. Nuclear weapons are not allowed to be used for self defense by private citizens because they are not sufficiently discriminating.
I lean more towards “everything except nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons”. AA guns, artillery, battleships, tanks, claymores, RPGs, etc should all be kosher. I’d also personally like to see a revival of Letters of Marquee (the USA was smart enough to not sign the Declaration of Paris).
Gbltsflk!
Only if we could be assured they did not leave the country.
In some societies a soldier was expected to arm himself and pay for his own service. Those who could do so were ‘nobles,’ and the rest were mercenaries. If an army were to be nukular-armed, the soldier himself would be expected to provide his own nuke and the horse to carry it. In our modern army the soldiers have to provide their own AA batteries and toothpaste, which are just as important as their sidearms, so by extension we might consider our modern army to still be playing under the same rules. If we have a nukular-armed army, the soldiers would be much appreciated if they muster with their own weapons provided they are compatible with state-furnished weapons.
I might have to disagree.
In the Federalist Papers there is a quote about how freedom would remain as long as the common citizen had the same access to arms as the common soldier.
So I take that to mean machine guns and rockets are in and nukes and mustard gas are out.
Where do you store your nuclear waepons?........./Chekov voice
My wife got tired of all the centrifuges in the garage so I had to settle for training a horde of suicide bomber spork weasels.
Visualize Laz with Nukes!
Now that's scary. :)
Okay, As long as it's not a Wickerman...........
Keep and ‘bear’ arms? You mean keep and carry guns? I thought it meant “bare arms” as in wear short sleeved dresses.
(You should know no one can take anything you say serious. Give it up.) ;9)
BTW I will NEVER bare arms but I will carry a gun when I feel it is needed.
I’m pretty sure you’re ok if your backyard has 10 or fewer nuclear silos. If it has more than 10, it falls under the Clinton Ban.
I’ll hide my ONTOS under the tarp. Tell everybody it’s a SUV I can’t afford the gas for........
Good Bump! Lovin' The Stalwart Freeper! Like Krazy!
Um, how far can you throw one of those? And, what's the blast radius again?
Remind me to be somewhere else when you're practicing. ;-)
In our modern army the soldiers have to provide their own AA batteries
They do? 20mm or 30mm? Anti Aircraft batteries are more expensive now that they’re radar guided you know!
If it doesn’t have an MP3 player, it’s not cool.........
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