Nukes and the Second Amendment
Mike Blessing
I'm sure that we've all heard it before when discussing the right to own
and carry weapons (especially handguns) with hoplophobes and
fence-sitters --
C'mon now, let's be reasonable here -- when they wrote the Second
Amendment, they weren't talking about nuclear weapons. Why would anyone
want one of those?
FIRST, this argument is a way for the prosepctive hoplophobe to hook
you, the ROCW advocate, over to his side. After all, who doesn't want to
be "reasonable," right?
NOW for the purposes of discussion, let's assume that my next-door
neighbor actually has a fully-functional 20-kiloton fission device in
his garage.
SECOND, if he doesn't set it off, who is harmed? If he does decide to
detonate, I won't even know it if I'm home -- the fireball will vaporize
the nerves before the signal has time to register in the brain, and I'll
never feel it. And who will the susrvivors prosecute and/or sue?
Certainly not him!
THIRD, I'd like to know who his investment broker is -- nukes aren't
something you pick up at the flea market for Ø4.99, or at a gun show,
despite Brady Campaign agitprop -- they generally run a few million FRNs
a pop on the black market, and that's for the fully-assembled ones. If
you can afford to blow that much cash on a one-use item like that, more
power to you.
FOURTH, assuming he decided to go the DIY route to building his
membership card in the Don't Start With Me Club, it's true that you can
get the general theory and some of the specifics from the internet.
Still, assembling the parts will be rather expensive -- plutonium or
yellowcake isn't something that you pick up at Home Depot for pocket
change -- it's in short supply, as it has peaceful uses in the
power-generation field as well as being useful in making nuclear
explosives. The deuterium and tritium used in fusion devices is likewise
quite rare. Add to this the fact that there's quite a bit of electronics
and chemical explosives needed to make the thing work right, as well.
Not only does the prospective protege to Dr. Khan need to acquire this
stuff, but he also has to know how to handle the yellowcake or plutonium
safely (from what I understand, it's rather toxic stuff, chemically
speaking, in addition to any radioactivity), as well as making the
electronics and chemical explosives all WORK TOGETHER PROPERLY -- you'll
need at least a bachelor's degree in physics to make this happen -- a
masters is more likely. If the chemical explosives aren't PRECISELY
aligned and centered, they might still go off and vaporize the
radioactive core, but you won't get the fireball, flash, shock wave and
distinctive mushroom cloud -- and that's what the Suburbian Mad Bomber
wants, right?
FIFTH, even with just the "physics package" (the part that goes
"BOOM!"), you're looking at something at least the size of a basketball,
if not a beach ball. This isn't something that you'll fit in your pocket
or on your belt, like a handgun that the hoplophobe is trying to talk
you out of carrying and owning.
FINALLY, who says that there are not PEACEFUL uses for nuclear
explosives? We've had chemical explosives used for over a century for
peaceful purposes in these fields --
* mining
* road-building
* tunnel-building
* demolition to remove old buildings, bridges, etc.
In fact, there HAVE been efforts to use nukes for peaceful purposes --
* Project Plowshare was the U.S. Government's version of a plan to use
nukes -- see here for the list of proposed uses [1].
* Nuclear Explosions for the National_Economy was the Soviet version of
Project Plowshare.
* Project Orion [2] was the U.S. Government's program to develop
spacecraft propelled by nuclear explosives -- the techincal term was
"nuclear pulse detonation."
NOTES
1. Micah 4:3 -- And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke
many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
2. A FAR BETTER use of the name "Orion" than George Worthless' attempt
to rebuild the Apollo program -- "Long live Nixon!" and all that.
3. This article was, in part, inspired by an article in The Libertarian
Enterprise -- Radically Decentralized Defense, by L. Neil Smith
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- Mike Blessing / Phone - 011-001-505-918-6567 / Yahoo IM - mikewb1971
http://mikewb1971.xanga.com
Who owns you? Who runs your life?
Who should - you or someone else?
KCUF Media, UnIncorporated
Commentary and Opinion for the Undamaged Mind
http://kcufmedia.xanga.com
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