ctdonath
Member
The limit on the 2nd Amendment is ... the 2nd Amendment.
You have a right to keep and bear arms. So does everyone else, and if you threaten them, they have every right to stop & disarm you.
Nukes included.
The catch is, just having a nuke threatens everyone for miles around.
Do the math.
Jeff Cooper, a very wise man on related subjects, wrote a list of rules that brilliantly cover the issue of “safety”. Part of their brillinace is that violations of one rule are mitigated by the others being held; it takes the express effort of violating two or more rules to actually induce risk. I’ll extrapolate them to cover the question.
(Apologies to Jeff Cooper)
Rule #1: All weapons are in their most dangerous condition.
Rule #2: Never “point” (however that applies) the weapon at anything you are not willing to destroy.
Rule #3: Keep your finger off the activator until the target is in range.
Rule #4: Know what else will be affected besides just the target.
Now, regarding the nuke in your basement...
1. It’s a weapon. It’s not “safe”. Just sitting there, your nuke is a radiation hazard.
2. It is “pointed” at everybody and everything within a ~1 mile radius, most/all of which you are not willing to destroy.
3. Even if you don’t touch it, it is subject to dangerous deterioration demanding skilled maintenance; even without detonation a “minor” storage problem could render the neighborhood uninhabitable for thousands of years.
4. You can’t convince anyone that your target is legitimately everyone/thing within the 1 mile blast radius, 10 mile damage radius, and 100 mile downwind fallout zone.
Just by having that thing sitting in your basement, you’re VIOLATING EVERY STANDARD SAFETY RULE. That indeed “affects the life, liberty, safety and property” of every person in the effects zone, covering hundreds of square miles. This is unlike conventional arms, whereby the worst case of accidental activation in “safe storage” is most likely completely harmless (even MOAB can be stored safely, albeit in a large, empty, secured area; there is no downwind fallout effects).
The problem with WMDs is their area of effect is so wide, and that downwind effects can easily take that damage so far, that you must presume that most effects will be suffered by non-targeted people. Those people, far outnumbering you, can recognize that threat and have the right to do something about it.
You have a right to keep and bear arms. So does everyone else, and if you threaten them, they have every right to stop & disarm you.
Nukes included.
The catch is, just having a nuke threatens everyone for miles around.
Do the math.
Jeff Cooper, a very wise man on related subjects, wrote a list of rules that brilliantly cover the issue of “safety”. Part of their brillinace is that violations of one rule are mitigated by the others being held; it takes the express effort of violating two or more rules to actually induce risk. I’ll extrapolate them to cover the question.
(Apologies to Jeff Cooper)
Rule #1: All weapons are in their most dangerous condition.
Rule #2: Never “point” (however that applies) the weapon at anything you are not willing to destroy.
Rule #3: Keep your finger off the activator until the target is in range.
Rule #4: Know what else will be affected besides just the target.
Now, regarding the nuke in your basement...
1. It’s a weapon. It’s not “safe”. Just sitting there, your nuke is a radiation hazard.
2. It is “pointed” at everybody and everything within a ~1 mile radius, most/all of which you are not willing to destroy.
3. Even if you don’t touch it, it is subject to dangerous deterioration demanding skilled maintenance; even without detonation a “minor” storage problem could render the neighborhood uninhabitable for thousands of years.
4. You can’t convince anyone that your target is legitimately everyone/thing within the 1 mile blast radius, 10 mile damage radius, and 100 mile downwind fallout zone.
Just by having that thing sitting in your basement, you’re VIOLATING EVERY STANDARD SAFETY RULE. That indeed “affects the life, liberty, safety and property” of every person in the effects zone, covering hundreds of square miles. This is unlike conventional arms, whereby the worst case of accidental activation in “safe storage” is most likely completely harmless (even MOAB can be stored safely, albeit in a large, empty, secured area; there is no downwind fallout effects).
The problem with WMDs is their area of effect is so wide, and that downwind effects can easily take that damage so far, that you must presume that most effects will be suffered by non-targeted people. Those people, far outnumbering you, can recognize that threat and have the right to do something about it.