My Second Amendment right to own nuclear weapons. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? And yet this is the argument used by the NRA to support anybody's access to any weapons. I am one of a few who could actually design and build his own nuclear bomb. Should I be allowed to do so? Obviously not. Can you imagine the Aurora shooter with a nuclear bomb?
Although I have owned firearms since age 12, I was taught the danger and limits of such weapons. I grew up in a machine shop and so worked on some guns from time to time and admire, as most of us do, a beautiful piece of historic work such as the Kentucky rifle or Browning's 1911 pistol. And I also remember a high school friend who died from an accident with a .22 rifle.
Like nuclear weapons, automobiles and electricity, firearms are things that pose a threat to others, needing plans and controls for their use -- training, qualification, licensing and tracking. If you have unqualified drivers, keep them off the streets. If you have unqualified shooters, keep them away from guns.
Nobody poses a threat to hunters, gun hobbyists and people defending their home. In fact, the NRA has become so obsessed with politics there is a need for a group to replace them as a club for gun users and hobbyists. Today we are way beyond colonial muskets, cannons and horses of the 1700s. The idea that anyone can oppose a modern military -- trillion dollar budgets, supersonic aircraft and missiles, GPS satellites and communications for millions of soldiers -- with a gun is childish Hollywood at best.
Back to reality, we have an enemy that is killing thousands of Americans every year, wounding many more than even our wars. If this were a direct attack on us, like 9/11, we would respond. Are we unable to respond to this threat because we are afraid that lobbyist or politician will throw an irrational temper tantrum? Weapons, like everything in life, have limits. America is no longer the colonial frontier of 300 years ago, but a large technological society of 300 million. Time to grow up and plan for today.