02-03-2013, 12:02 AM
The Founding Fathers did not exclude cannons and artillery in the 2nd Amendment. At the time of the Revolution, many cannon and artillery pieces were in private citizens hands, are were armed ships of the line, with MANY cannons on each. The Founding Fathers provided for their use in multiple ways, and certainly did not intend that private citizens not be allowed to have them.
Fully automatic weapons fall into that same category. They are protected by the Second Amendment, but no one has seen fit to challenge the illegally passed laws that regulate them, probably because its incredibly expensive, and so few are and have been in private hands. People wealthy enough to feed them can afford the licensure to do so.
That said, Judge Kozinski of the 9th Circuit said it best, I think:
"The prospect of tyranny may not grab the headlines the way vivid stories of gun crime routinely do," Judge Kozinski noted. "But few saw the Third Reich coming until it was too late. The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed -- where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."
The Founding Fathers recognized that, Thomas Jefferson said a revolution every 20 years or so was needed! THEY knew why the 2nd Amendment was needed, and they didnt limit it to smoothbore muskets!
THEY knew it was the doomsday provision, the only way a people could protect themselves from tyrants, and they had no intent of limiting it to only small caliber weapons. They knew that people would need artillery, they had just fought a war requiring it!
Fully automatic weapons fall into that same category. They are protected by the Second Amendment, but no one has seen fit to challenge the illegally passed laws that regulate them, probably because its incredibly expensive, and so few are and have been in private hands. People wealthy enough to feed them can afford the licensure to do so.
That said, Judge Kozinski of the 9th Circuit said it best, I think:
"The prospect of tyranny may not grab the headlines the way vivid stories of gun crime routinely do," Judge Kozinski noted. "But few saw the Third Reich coming until it was too late. The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed -- where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."
The Founding Fathers recognized that, Thomas Jefferson said a revolution every 20 years or so was needed! THEY knew why the 2nd Amendment was needed, and they didnt limit it to smoothbore muskets!
THEY knew it was the doomsday provision, the only way a people could protect themselves from tyrants, and they had no intent of limiting it to only small caliber weapons. They knew that people would need artillery, they had just fought a war requiring it!
You seek escape from pain. We seek the achievement of happiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live. - John Galt