For purely humanitarian reasons, I have used my great genius to design a product I call the De-Infestor. As you probably know, most commercial farms use pesticides to kill insects that would otherwise eat the crops. And you may also know that a lot of the agricultural output in developing nations is lost to rodents.
The De-Infestor is a cost-effective way to help with both of these problems. Hooked up to a car or truck electrical system via the standard 12V outlet, the De-Infestor will output a beam roughly 3 feet wide for a distance of one hundred yards, which will kill almost all insects caught in the beam, and drive away rodents via a painful reaction in the central nervous system. The emissions travel nicely through wood and grain, and can penetrate through a couple of feet of concrete and still be effective.
A wonderful humanitarian tool, helping to end world hunger, and available for only $750!
There's just one small catch.
With a few adjustments to frequencies, and upping the power via a transformer, the De-Infestor will kill people. And the cause of death will be pain, as every pain cell in the central nervous system fires at maximum until death stops the reaction. Point one of these at a football stadium from outside and you can kill hundreds of people in a few seconds. Through pain; they'll die screaming. With an antenna and a big power supply, you can fry the central nervous systems of the population of a small town - including the kittens and puppies.
So ... the US military thinks it may want to use these for crowd control, with the power levels (theoretically) set at less than death-inflicting levels. It's clearly an armament.
You can probably tell where I'm going with this. But jump over the Orange Squiggle of Power and read it anyway.
Questions:
- Does the 2nd amendment protect everyone's right to own the De-Infestor?
- And the conversion kit to make it lethal against humans?
- If you say "yes", how long will it be before someone kills a few thousand innocents?
- Suppose some nut could, for a few thousand dollars, kill every life form on earth with a central nervous system. Still comfortable with De-Infestors being available for public purchase?
In 1803, Thomas Jefferson's ambassadors to France arranged the purchase of the Louisiana territory in conflict with Jefferson's personal belief that the Constitution did not bestow upon the federal government the right to acquire or possess foreign territory. Due to political considerations, however, Jefferson disregarded his constitutional doubts, signed the proposed treaty, and sent it to the Senate for ratification. In justifying his actions, he later wrote: "[a] strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means."[1]
If you don't think the above applies to the Second Amendment, I can't help you.
BTW, this is a parable. This is no De-Infestor (or at least, I haven't invented it). The US military, however, is on the case. If you don't think there's any way to convert an Active Denial System into an Active Death Ray, you haven't hung around with too many engineers.