[btcusn]

Private ownership of WMDs would be the functional equivalent of a private army...the only WMD known at the time...and that is not protected.

Have to question this. The ONLY weapon of mass distruction in those days were biological weapons, which were used by the fur traders (smallpox laden trade blankets).
Private citizens could and did own ALL the weapons the military had, including cannon.

Jack

[Woahhs]

The ONLY weapon of mass distruction in those days were biological weapons, which were used by the fur traders (smallpox laden trade blankets).

Biologicals of the time could hardly be considered weapons in the military sense. At best, they could be considered poisons, and not very dependable ones at that. I'd be inclined to agree with your view if you could cite some militay campaigns in which biologicals were integrated into, and depended upon, for the execution of a battle plan.

Private citizens could and did own ALL the weapons the military had, including cannon.

Very true, but the thing that sets individual weapons apart from the military application of those weapons, insofar as their destructive potential, is their coordinated use to achieve BOTH tactical and strategic goals. The Romans demonstrated beyond argument the facility of the "soldier" over the "warrior."

[Hot Tabasco]

The ONLY weapon of mass distruction in those days were biological weapons, which were used by the fur traders (smallpox laden trade blankets).

I always heard that and often wondered why the traders themselves didn't contract the disease since it was pre-vaccination days. Or did they and we just weren't told about it? And if we weren't then why weren't we?

The CDC was non-existant back then and there was very little known about infectious diseases so it would not surprise me in the least to find out that the old stories about "smallpox laden blankents" are nothing but history re-written to cast false aspersions on the white people.........