A co-worker asks, "Is there a second amendment right to UAVs? Cuz I want my own UAV!"
My answer: I dunno.
Well, military hardware larger than rifles are owned by civilians. Lots of people bought surplus East German armored cars after the Cold War ended. There are folks with their own Sherman Tank. Tom Clancy owns a tank.
Is the Sherman's gun demilled? Can it fire? Presumably if you own your own M2 Browning or .30 cal coax machine guns you could mount them on your Sherman. If the main gun worked, and you could FIND 75mm shells, you'd have to have a $200 tax stamp on each round. And there aren't a lot of ranges you get to to try it out. Out west, maybe. But you'd need your own freight train flat bed car, prolly, to move that thing economically. It weighs 30 tons. But if you could afford the tank, and the maintenance upkeep, buying tax stamps for a half dozen armor piercing rounds shouldn't be too big a deal for you.
I imaging the same would go for UAV. Finding a AGM-65 Maverick missile to mount on your robut plane might be hard. Same with buying your own F-16. I'll wager it is easier to buy MiG 25 Foxbats or F-86 Sabres than it is to get an F-16.
Hitler or Stalin?
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The Harris side tells us that Trump is a fascist. The Trump side tells us
that Harris is a communist. Hence, this year a case can be made that most
voters ...
7 hours ago
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Well, privately owned merchantmen, loaded with privately owned cannons were engaged in warfare against the British during the revolution. As radical as it would sound, I suppose if we could dig up one of the dead white guys from the period they would probably say yes to the question.
Good luck getting very many people to agree that such things would likely be protected. Even getting support to do away with the '34 NFA and the Hughes amendment would be difficult. At least the ownership of semi-automatic rifles and higher capacity magazines are relatively safe.
All it takes is money. And lots of it.
There was much discussion about the difference between arms and artillery by the founders if I remember correctly. I don't have the cite's here at work and would have to dig but I did some study on this once as a mental exercise. Their view was that of "the common man" and what he would be expected to own. the arty was to be provided by the nation.
From what I could get from the guy who brought a Mig-15 to our local Air Show is that one can own anything that flies, as long as the Weapons Systems are "Demilled" and the plane itself is NOT Supersonic.
As for Tanks and such, the Big Guns need to have the Breechblock removed and/or "Demilled". But one can put a Sherman on a Lowboy and use a standard Semi to pull it, because it comes in at 34 tons Empty. I THINK 36 Tons puts you into the "Oversized Load" Category, but don't quote me.
But I know a guy who has a PAK-38 Kraut AA gun in 20mm that's Magazine fed that he can pull using his German Motorcycle. But to use it for WW2 Re-enacting, he made it into a Gas gun. But it's still cool to hear it go off at the Shows. Of course, some of the parts that were "Demilled" were set aside in an Undisclosed Location....
Interesting stuff Les. I figured the big guns had to be neutered. I wonder about the legality of lesser stuff on a vehicle though. All of the component parts of a hypothetical light armored vehicle are legal to own. So I suppose if you had the money and the inclination you could outfit yourself with a reasonably potent armored car. Fully automatic weapons are still legal to own if you have both the scratch and the patience to put up with the bureaucratic hoops you must jump through. Flamethrowers are legal and completely unregulated as far as I know. And last but not least, I think black powder muzzle loading cannons are still as legal for citizens to own as they were in the 18th century.
Cue the A-team music and head out to the garage boys.
One thing is once you built it, I am not entirely certain if a civilian owned vehicle loaded down with a bunch of improvised mounted weaponry would be legal to take off of your property. In any case, telling someone on the anti-gun side of the political coin that the ownership of things like old tanks, armored cars and flamethrowers is completely legal is a fun and entertaining activity.
Marty is right! Bring whole bunches of $$$$
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