From: Billy Brown (bbrown@conemsco.com)
Date: Thu Apr 01 1999 - 07:00:44 MST
it appears as if joe dees wrote (I think - the formatting on this post is
badly scrambled):
> Automatic weapons
> did not exist when the framers wrote the Constitution, nor
> did rockets or nukes. May I be so bold as to suggest that,
> had they, the Constitution itself would have pried them from
> the fingers of the general populace?
Actually, the Constitution explicitly presumes that private citizens will
own naval warships (see: Letters of Marquee and Reprisal), which were the
most expensive and specialized weapons of the day. As I understand it,
their main reason for favoring private weapon ownership was as a defense
against tyrannical government, which obviously requires private access to
just about anything.
Of course, today there is a real question as to whether an armed citizenry
is really a significant barrier to oppression, but that's a different
argument.
Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@conemsco.com
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