IEDs. Are improvised explosive devices covered by the right to bear arms?
On that horrible day last December, I walked into a grocery store in Connecticut, found everyone, staff, customers, delivery people, crying without pause and learned what happened in the nearby town of Newtown. Since then, I've been really troubled about the scope and logic of the second amendment and its zealous advocates. Since more people died from gun violence and gun accidents the day of the Boston Marathon, or today, or tomorrow, than died from the Boston blast. I don't want to call my discussions with my Second firster friends abstract or philosophical, but I have been troubled wondering about the semantics of "bearing arms." I used as my example: Say a few of us mounted the RPG things on top of pickups, like the pictures we used to see of Afghanistan during the Russian occupation or the Taliban period, and parked them in front of a state capitol building, let's say Madison, Wisconsin, just for discussion.
Is this covered by our Second amendment rights? Do they have to be concealed? Do I need a special permit? If I buy this on the internet, do I need a background check? Nobody had answers.
Then, way, way, way less abstractly, is an IED covered by "arms"? If so, is it ok then to carry one as a concealed weapon, maybe in a backpack, as long as the person carrying it (I was going to use I there, but thought better of it) has no intent to use it?
I'm sure this community will have lots of guidance on this topic, but maybe, with Boston in mind, today would be a good day to see what Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Antonin Scalia, Lamar Alexander, Mitch McConnell and that whole crew have to say?
I really fear for my country, my loved ones, and all my fellow citizens if the answer here is yes.