At Thu, 1 Apr 1999 07:04:23 -0800 (PST), you wrote:
>
>joe dees [joedees@bellsouth.net] wrote:
>>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?
>
>Yawn. You should really study some history before making stupid claims. At
>that time people owned weapons including cannon and *warships*. Why didn't
>they ban private possession of those weapons if they'd be so scared of a
>wimpy little assault rifle? Possibly because they always intended that the
>second amendment covered an individual right to own military weapons so
>that state militias would be able to defend against any kind of attack
>without a standing army?
>
>Rockets, BTW, were invented by the Chinese many centuries ago, and most
>certainly did exist back then. Why doesn't the second amendment say 'the
>right to keep and bear arms -- except rockets -- shall not be infringed'?
>
> Mark
My mistake - I was referring to the type of rockets whose use was pioneered by the Nazis in their bombardment of London, and which now can carry nukes trans-globally, and, mistakenly it appears, depending upon the intelligence of my interlocuters to infer this from their pairing with nukes in the phrase "rockets and nukes." Wouldja like everyone to own a personal battery of THOSE, O Rabid One?
Joe E. Dees
Poet, Pagan, Philosopher