Why can't I own a Surface-to-Air Missile? Isn't it my 2nd Amendment Right?

[AnArmyVeteran]

Why can't I own a surface to air missile?

The 2nd Amendment crowd says it's their right to bear arms. But according to the Constitution 'arms' isn't defined as any one weapon. When our founding fathers were crafting the Constitution and Bill of Rights the main weapons used were rifles, pistols and canons.

Disregarding the fact that the same line in the Constitution says it's the right of a 'well regulated militia' why can't citizens own surface-to-air missiles, tanks, rocket powered grenades, land mines, battleships, cruise missiles, submarines or even nuclear weapons? They are all considered 'arms'.

Where is the NRA and why aren't they defending my Constitutional rights to bear whatever 'arms' I want? I kind of feel let down and don't understand why they aren't speaking out for citizen ownership of heavy duty weapons.

One of the main reasons 2nd Amendment proponents use is that they need their 'arms' to defend themselves against a tyrannical government. But in order to successfully compete with a government which owns lots of big weapons, you need to own the same 'arms' the government has. It wouldn't do you much good to have a couple of handguns and a semi-automatic rifle when a tank is coming down your neighborhood street. The same applies if the government's weapons are 300 miles away and it decides to send a cruise missile to strike your house. You could stand in your front yard holding two pistols and fire at the missile as it approached your house, but your puny bullets will just bounce off the incoming missile and you would soon be vaporized.

Having said this, I want to exercise my rights afforded me by the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution to own any arms I choose. My family and I have been talking it over and we decided to get a surface-to-air missile system. The US government won't sell it to us, so we were thinking of getting one from Somalia, a great libertarian country which also must believe in the 2nd Amendment because everyone there seems to be carrying automatic weapons. But they don't get their weapons as a deterrent to a tyrannical government. Somalia doesn't have a functioning government. So they use their guns in Somalia's biggest capitalistic industry, piracy. After getting a surface-to-air missile system our family would like to get a few land mines and maybe a used tank. We have to think about what's best for our family. We believe in 'family values' and our 2nd Amendment rights. We are good right wing Christians who believe threats and violence are always better than diplomacy.

From our cold, dead hands the government will have to take my surface-to-air missile system, tank, and land mines away from us...