Gun Running

Belgian Machine Guns are displayed at the Defence and Security Exhibition on September 10, 2013 in London, England. ExCeL London is hosting the exhibition with hundreds of manufacturers from all over the world displaying their hardware.

In the USA we have the "Right to Bear Arms" and many people have exercised that right and purchased firearms. Sometimes I think people should be able to have any weapons they want, up to and including any weapons our military has. It might be kind of cool if the guy down the street had a tank in his garage, or your neighbor had his own jet fighter at local airstrip. You might not want civilians to have access to atomic bombs, but maybe the military shouldn't have any either.
    The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written for "the people", which I understand to mean that all people everywhere should be entitled to these rights, which means they should have the right to own weapons, and if citizens of the US can own any kind of weapon, anyone anywhere should be able to own any kind of weapon, and being as we are big proponents of free trade, we should be able to sell any weapons we want to anyone we want, which means gun running should not be illegal.
    However, every once in a while you come across someone who wants to pick a fight with you. You really don't want to be selling any weapons to them, and you would like it if none of your friends sold weapons to them either, and since some of these belligerent  parties are entire countries, you don't want anyone in your country selling any weapons to anyone in that other country. So gun running is illegal.
    Then you have situations like Syria where it's hard to tell just who your friends are, if any, or who your enemies are not. There's that old saw about the enemy of my enemy is my friend, at least until the first enemy is dealt with. That's how Russia and the US defeated Germany in WW2. Turns out we weren't really friends with the Russians.
    And then there is the business of terrorists, or is it freedom fighters? Some people say that the Jews fighting for Isreal's independence back in the bad old days were nothing more than terrorists. Maybe it just depends on where you are standing.
    I guess as long as we have nation states and the rule of law (for those of us who have the rule of law), we are going to have to let our respective governments decide who are the terrorists and who are the freedom fighters. Not to say you shouldn't try to influence that decision, but breaking the law can entail consequences. So Mr. Entrepreneur, no gun running, unless you are being paid enough to mitigate the risk.