I find it interesting that the NRA, and many gun owners, are
making such a fuss about regulating assault rifles and large magazines. They insist that weapons bans are a breach of
the Second Amendment. This is
interesting because there have been limitations on weapons for many years. In 1934, Congress passed the
National Firearms Act (NFA), in response to the gangster violence that grew out of
Prohibition. The NFA put tight
restrictions on machineguns (their wording) and various sawed-off weapons. The NFA was rewritten in 1968 in response to
a court case. The rewrite extended the
act to include “destructive devices” (bombs, missiles, poison gas, etc.). The Constitution guarantees the right to keep
and bear arms. However, it doesn't specify that people have the right to own any arms they desire or the right
to bear those anywhere they so choose.
The Supreme Court has, on several occasions, upheld laws that regulate
arms. An assault weapons ban would
simply be a matter of degree. If an
assault weapons ban would infringe on the Second Amendment, then you can argue
that bans against fully-automatic weapons (machineguns), grenades, and cannons also
infringe on our Second Amendment rights. In fact, if the Second Amendment guarantees our right to own any weapon we desire, then, taken to its logical conclusion, the Second Amendment gives us the right to own nuclear missiles; it's just a matter of degree. Personally, I just want a rocket launcher so
I can eliminate slow drivers that insist on driving in the fast lane of the highway.
