Trump DOJ Refuses to Rule Out Second Amendment Right to Nuclear Weapons

Just in case anyone forgot just how batshit insane they are.

So a massive corporation, with corporations being people, could build nuclear weapons. Tesla, for example.

Honey, fetch me my mini nukes and Fat Man. I’m going scavenging with the boys.

>Donald Trump’s Department of Justice refused to rule out nuclear weapons from the kinds of arms it claims the average citizen may be entitled to possess under the Second Amendment. I doubt the world will view a nuclear strike by Elon or any other US oligarch as coming from anyone but the United States, and respond in kind.

What the what? I haven't feared nuclear weapons since I read The Hundredth Monkey in 1983 as a teenager - the book gave me hope but also a great fear of what if we don't learn. I guess Mad Max and Terminator didn't help either but man I'm 56 now and this administration is giving me an emotional migraine lately.

PSA: this article is NOT "The Onion"

So Iran was just trying to exercise it's second amendment rights? What a ludicrous proposition. 

Either this is a green light for Elon to get his hands on nukes OR Trump will try to transfer nukes to his personal estate. Both are plausible at this point.

Nuclear weapon? Was this article supposed to be posted on April 1?

And there it is... the inevitable conclusion of the Republican gun rights movement.

A common rhetorical tactic in the gun control debate is to ask a gun zealot if they think it should be legal for a private citizen to own a nuclear weapon. If they say yes, they're obviously a nut, and if they say no, they're admitting that there has to be a line *somewhere*. That admission is key because it opens the floor to the idea that your primary disagreement is to where that line is. The debate becomes, what constitutes "arms", both from the intent of the founders (from a strict constitutionalist perspective), and from what's in the best interests of building a functional society that balances the right to self-defense with the practical drawbacks of individuals having full access to enormous amounts of destructive power. It's a great question to ask because it exposes the fundamental lack of cohesion to the absolutist pro-gun position. It's trivial to see why a private citizen with a nuclear bomb is a *f****** insane* idea but it opens the door to forcing the absolutist to make concessions, and to walk them down the slope of actually having to confront how much destructive power they actually want a private citizen to be able to hold. As such, the more clever gun nuts will sometimes sense that pitfall and decide it's in their best interests to try to plant a flag in the position of "yes, it was the founder's intention that a private citizen should be able to hold literally limitless destructive potential". Which is a notion I think any of them would have laughed you out of the room for expressing. They were talking about *f****** muskets*.

A nuke in every home, that will certainly make the nation safer

Closer to realizing my fallout arsenal 

Hey it’s all to support a well regulated militia, right?

If any f****** a****** can have nukes, why are we bombing Iran?

Okay, here's how you break this one: We GoFundMe a nuclear arms programs for trans people of colour. Get a few ballsy (ha) trans folks to stand up and demand their Nuclear Weapons, we GoFundMe the price, and watch as the 2nd Amendment turns into a logic pretzel. It's the Black Panthers vs Regan approach.

But don't print firearms..

The line between truth, 47’s White House, and The Onion has disappeared.

My nightmare world is when companies start protecting themselves with their own arsenals. They are already as powerful as some nation states

So Vault-Tecsla?

Oh joy. Everyone with a nuke. Just what we need. Donald Trump's America, huh. Remember folks...you voted for this.

this is one of the dumbest sentences ever written

School nuking

Have these idiots figured out that we have very detailed laws on the possession of nuclear material that they have declared unconstitutional? This means a would be terrorist can have possession of a nuclear or dirty bomb to use on those of us who have sense.

They interpret the constitution in the dumbest and least useful way possible.

He's going to give himself a nuke isn't he

"If enough people illegally acquire something before we can stop them, then it becomes legal." -- The DOJ's argument

He wants the red states to be able to nuke the blue states, probably

Fallout isn't supposed to be a documentary. FFS.

To be provocative, I've asked on Listnook before about why the law can restrict people from having bazookas or cannons if the second amendment really guarantees the right to bear arms, and I've gotten paragraphs about how the difference between artillery and arms was already well established when the 2A was written. So now we gonna ignore that, too?

This has always been my benchmark when I argue gun rights online. Everybody worth talking to agrees that the Second Amendment has some limits. If you get a person who claims that nuclear weapons are somehow covered, then you know you're talking to a frigging imbecile that shouldn't be allowed to drive a car.

This was always my extreme example to use: “What if someone could deliver a nuclear explosion via a handgun? Is it my right to own that firearm? “ “ Well no…” would be the typical answer. Now they aren’t ruling it out. It’s more plausible to imagine a plutonium 9mm than it was for the founders to imagine an automatic weapon. It’s our responsibility to apply that foresight so that we can all live long enough to enjoy our freedom

This is obviously a wink to the right wing 2A/gun nuts. But assuming you're one of those, how dumb do you have to be to believe that the same guy that banned bump stocks has the same values that you do? This is how old school politicians used to do it before the internet (including Hitler, incidentally): don't just take a single position on a subject. Take *every* position and just claim you were there first when that position becomes popular.

What nonsense

Finally. Gamma Ray guns! Nothing beats the complete destruction of someone’s immune system with one blast!

No.

So your drunk neighbor can have an nuclear weapon? "Here hold my beer...".

The right to bear WMDs? What?

Who is actually wanting this right? WTF

Are we on the cusp of having a true non-national super-villian?!

And a certain listnook sub is going fanatical for Trump after this news

I love how the backdrop of the photo is assault rifles and they are just posing like kissing lovers (note Blondie's crucifix) as they murder children in Iran and nurses in Minnesota. They innocently believe death is reserved only for their victims.

I highly doubt Trump or any of the political appointees at DOJ understand the destructive power of modern nukes. We don't have to be afraid of nukes in our day to day life anymore I feel the only time we think about them is WWII. But the stuff cruising around under the ocean in the nuclear subs is literal thousands of times more powerful than the nukes used on Japan. In fact the nuclear bomb part of a thermonuclear bomb is just the first stage that kicks off a fusion reaction. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT. The largest thermonuclear bomb ever detonated had a yield equivalent to 50,000,000 tons of TNT.  And the design of that bomb was actually twice that, but they filled half of it with lead cutting the yield in half for testing purposes.

They’re ok with someone bringing pipe bombs around in backpacks? Pressure cooker explosives? It’s all legal? How insane!

"No paywall" flair -> "This article is for subscribers only" 🧍🏻‍♂️

Fear not everyone, through the Iran / Iraq doctrine we can go to war with any corporate entity that pursues or possesses a nuclear weapon. Trump is not going to be president forever

So like Pluribus?

This is how the corpo wars begin. Welcome to a world where the governments are powerless, if they let the techbros have nukes. Friendly reminder that Elon Musk used a remote kill switch in someone's Tesla after they made fun of him on Twitter. Then he bought twitter and killed that too.

Elon is becoming a nuclear power.....

Didn't we just attack a foreign country over it allegedly *trying* to develop nuclear weapons? I

So we’re gonna glass Iran for wanting nukes as a country but American citizens should 100% be allowed to own them? Huh… that logic doesn’t logic

They are making a grand argument AGAINST unrestricted 2A and don't even know it.

You could offer shares in a nuke. Majority vote deploys.

Get ready for years of boring post analysis about how the US arrived at dropping another atomic bomb. If they do it, I predict a double bombing like Japan. Two atomic bombs on either end of 80 years, punctuating the era of US influence.

Damn, those people that told me democrats are as bad as republicans look like absolute buffoons right now. Complete and total clown shoes.

This is something out of Shadowrun. Literally a table top game about a dystopian future. Corporations should not have nuclear weapons that’s beyond stupid.

Pluribus. He is totally going to try to steal one isn't he?

Iran can’t have them but companies and people who can afford them are allowed? What timeline is this?

I've been making that joke for years to people who argue that the 2nd amendment means no gun control at all. Wait does that mean I agree with the Tang Turd? or does Lord Dampnut agree with me?

So the average American can own nukes, while the US abducts foreign heads of state for owning machine guns? Sounds absolutely reasonable...

“Welcome to my YouTube channel! Today we’ll be blowing up that car over there with our own nuke! We bought it at a gun show last month!”

This timeline is so stupid.

Confused by headline. Since when were nukes put in that category?

For clarification, this article is about the Trump DoJ recently refusing to draw a hard line over what is and isn't, or could and could not be, covered by the 2nd amendment. While nukes are currently illegal, their argument is not that this is because they're highly dangerous and destructive but because they're not common or popular. This same logic is also being applied to more realistic but also insane weapons like grenade launchers and bazookas.

I am not concerned with some gun crazy, back woods sovereign citizen type acquiring a nuke and threatening to destroy Washington unless he is exempted from taxes. Nukes are too expensive, technologically complex, and too heavily protected for the average person to afford, cobble together, or steal. What I am concerned with is a corporation headed by a narcissistic billionaire like say Elon Musk being allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Someone like Musk has the money to buy a nuke from an unscrupulous government, like say Putin's Russia, can spend most of his fortune on starting his own nuclear weapons program, or has the access needed to be given a nuke by an incredibly stupid leader like say Donald Trump. I worry about someone as amoral and narcissistic as Musk gaining the ability to nuke the capitol of any country who dares to tell him no.

That’s awesome surely they will also let me keep my autonomous ai powered hunter/killer sentry drone!

[Obligatory Futurama](https://youtu.be/MeiSDF83mXo?si=j3P93i_nCwnpquO7)

Soooo...which companies are vying for the positions of RobCo and Vault-Tec? And who comprises The Enclave? Bc none of the chucklefucks in our current gov are competent enough to organize such a thing. We already know that Musk probably thinks he could be The Institute all on his own lol

Cool. Now you can sell them to Putin, MBS or any Donors. Sell one to Kid Rock.

Give us tanks!!

Johnny Silverhand did nothing wrong.

I thought I might add to the discussion: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David\_Hahn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn) And SoW Pete H. thinks that Boy Scouts are pussies.... Huh!

Meaning?

Can we 3d print them?

Why does the government get to keep all the good nuclear bombs?

Oh good, I was wondering if I can keep nukes in my car, now I know I can

Yeah. Crazy old man says crazy thing.

For home defense, right? Bar fights are going to get interesting.

Cool! I'm gonna order some from AliExpress

Just get the energy they know they are screwed in November so they’re about to auction off anything that isn’t nailed down and get outta the country.

Man I must be old, I'm a couple hours late and I was certain I would have already seen a comment about Bowling for Columbine! Michael Moore was interviewing James Nichols, Terry Nichols (accomplice of Tim McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing) brother, and James Nichols was adamant that the 2nd amendment protected nuclear arms. He also then showed Moore and the cameraman a loaded Magnum under his actual pillow, and playfully pointed the gun at his own temple.

Are they arguing for corporations and billionaires owning nuclear Arsenals? Cause this is sounding like that. Cause it ain’t any of us that eat at the local Applebees who can afford one. Popular so many “people” owning? 🙄 When i figure which of ya is the time traveler that triggered this alt timeline…….

Cool, now we can get Raven from the Neal Stephenson novel 'Snow Crash'. Raven was a nut who had a nuclear bomb in the sidecar of his motorcycle and a deadman's switch that would blow it up if he died. Nobody fucked with Raven.

Would love to know what historical precedent dating back to the founding fathers that the supreme court will use to justify that the second amendment includes nuclear weapons

Our poor kids truly might be one of the last humans to live. Hell at this rate toss in millennials and Gen z

I see Alfa Acta's living room missile silo isn't so far fetched.

[Wouldn't you know it! Now the Hendersons have the bomb.](https://imgur.com/gallery/wouldnt-you-know-now-hendersons-have-bomb-7X58i8K)

Sure why the f*** not. Why shouldn’t a disgruntled incel be able to vaporize a metro area when no one wants to see his p****?

I don’t think the second amendment applies to arms for use against other countries. So is this to nuke ourselves? Is this for defense against a tyrannical government? I’m so confused

Isn’t this basically how the Corporate Wars in Cyberpunk went?

Wow that's some Fallout video game / TV series shit.

Ummmm... 🤨

Wut? Da f@ck?

Nukes are cool, but shotguns with barrels under 18 inches aren't

https://madrascourier.com/opinion/how-the-us-military-industrial-complex-drives-the-unholy-business-of-war/ How The US Military-Industrial Complex Drives The Unholy Business Of War https://jacobin.com/2023/05/military-industrial-complex-pentagon-budget-weapons-manufacturing-influence-revolving-door The Military-Industrial Complex Has Never Been Worse

But Iran can’t have any….

In Germany we have a specific law that makes it illegal to cause a nuclear explosion (§ 307 StGB). Breaking this law will get you jail not below 10 years if the nuclear explosion kills someone. Not below 5 years if you only cause damage to property.

"The Founders determined it's muh God-given RIGHT to end the world if I so choose!"

Now you're just being ridiculous DOJ.

The cake is a lie.

Nuclear weapons are protected under the 2nd Amendment, but not if you’re protesting ICE. Because if we’re going to talk absurdity, let’s not forget that additional twist…

As a hard core leftist, this article is completely junk.

The fact that I'm not leaving a comment about "muh emotional support freebrams" and having a hearty chuckle is a meme recession indicator.

This is to pave the way for corporations to own nukes. Guess Skynet is going to be Plantir in this timeline.

Do people have to obey the NPT and can they be declared as rogue states?

The actual firearms community, even those that are normally very conservative and MAGA are pissed at the DOJ and ATF for being normal levels of anti-2nd Amendment and generally even today, called bipolar for taking opposite sides in different court cases. This is just noise, because these people are ignorant trolls.

Hey, why not biological weapons as well then???

That would keep him out of jail after leaving office.