Keeping And Arming Bears
bcully,
I think the argument for The Right To Keep and Bear
Arms(TRTKBA) is a bit more subtle than "we might need to
overthrow the government again" (not that the founders shied
away from that, having been successful revolutionaries
themselves).
As I understand it, the reason that TRTKBA is enshrined
in the Constitution is that it offends the dignity of a
free people to be kept disarmed. In other words, it's
a matter of liberty. Free men and women should be free to
publish, worship, and be armed as they will. If people
can't be trusted with force themselves, how in the world
will they be able to elect those to government who can use
force wisely?
As for nukes, a good explaination that I've seen is that
the intent behind the "keep and bear" shows a practical
limit. Citizens have a right to personal arms,
something that an individual person in their private live
might reasonably expect to wield and maintain. Handguns,
rifles, and katanas obviously pass this test. M1A1 Abrams
tanks, F-16 fighter jets, and tactical or stragetic nukes
obviously fail this test. And of course we can find gray
areas somewhere in between...
So cheer up. There's absolutely no way that the
Constitution protects large evil corporations
from becoming nuclear powers.</a>
More Thoughts
Why am I bothering arguing about TRTKBA when we have more
urgent issues? I finally stopped procrastinating and wrote
a dead trees letter to my congresscritter
about the current crop of human cloning bills about to hit
the floor of the House. Bottom line: I do not wish to live
in a Brave New World. It is even more of an affront to
human dignity and freedom to make persons into an industrial
byproduct than to deny them TRTKBA. I'm urging Rep. Rivers
to vote for the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001 (H.R.
2505, the Weldon bill) and to defeat the Cloning Prohibition
Act of 2001 (H.R. 2608, the Greenwood bill). H.R. 2505
actually prohibits human cloning. H.R. 2608 allows the
creation of cloned human embryos, but forbids
allowing them to develop to term. In other words, "it's OK
to clone people as long as you kill the clones before they
get cute." It even goes to the trouble of forbidding states
to pass alternative legislation, so that it would also
mandate that all 50 states permit human embryo
cloning. This is monstrous, and I hope that
you all contact your congresscritters as well. This week.
Even if you don't agree about banning human cloning
entirely, at least urge them to defeat the Greenwood
"clone-and-kill" bill.