If I were an American citizen how ‘well-armed’ could I be? Could I own a helicopter gunship? An armed helicopter gunship? A PT boat?
Yes ; depends ; yes.
Generally speaking, you really can’t own something which can kill y’know, several hundred people on a whim. OTOH, exceptions exist and many states allow you to have your own cannons and giant machine guns. You probably need a permit, but as long as they don’t think you’re a lunatic you can probably get one (this is going to be a complex issue). I don’t believe there’s anything inherently wrong with owning the vehicular platform for mounting guns atop.
So theoretically you can get yourself an apache or tank chassis. However, the military doesn’t exactly just let its toys off for anyone who wants one. I have known of private individuals who owned a tank or some other piece of old military hardware: they were usually buffs who loved the vehicle in question and took loving good care of it. In all such cases the tank cannon was disabled permanently. As far as the helo goes, I wouldn’t hold my breath. You’re not going to find one just sitting around “for sale.”
That said, if you asked if you could mount a fully-operational minigun on your apache… they’d probably be asking some questions. Pointed questions. And there may well be no legal way to own one. You also might have to know someone important who can intercede on your behalf.
A PT boat you might be able to get ahold of, as it’s basically… just a boat, once you take off the weaponry. But by this day and age there probably aren’t any available anymore.
Would this be because it’s not legal to own a minigun, or not legal to mount it on the Apache?
You can own (and operate) a demilitarized tank or other military vehicle. To the best of my knowledge it is illegal to re-militarize it (put the weaponry back into working order).
You can own live hand grenades, rockets, mortars, etc. if you can pass the background check, get your local LEO to sign off on a BATF Form 4, pay the $200 tax, and live with the knowledge that the BATF is watching and can come and check on you any time they want to.
From a practical standpoint, you can really own squad-level weapons and below. The other stuff is so cost prohibitive that it’s scarcely worth mentioning and is controlled so tightly that a lot of people won’t own it even if they could afford it because they don’t want to give the BATF all of their personal information (fingerprints, address changes, sign-off on transporting weapons, etc.).
With regard to the other weapons, you can have as many of them as you want to. If you want 30 AR-15s and a million rounds, it’ll cost you but you can do it.
You can own a MIG fighter:
http://www.topedge.com/panels/aircraft/sites/kraft/warbirds.htm#e1
I have known several people who owned former military fighters, including Migs, who are legally permitted to fly them in the US. In all cases the weaponry has been removed. I doubt it was possible for a civilian to operate a fully capable, armed military vehicle of that sort in the past, but certainly post 9/11 the Feds won’t be enthused about the prospect. I won’t say never because it’s conceivable that if you came up with a good enough reason you might receive permission, but “I want one and I think it’s cool” would not be sufficient.
Practical answer: You can own the fighter plane, but not the fighting stuff.
One way around some of the restrictions is to become a dealer or manufacturer. You still have to deal with a large amount of red tape and a loss of privacy.
Can individual states arm themselves to the teeth? Say, for instance, Utah (selected at random) wanted its own nuclear missiles, could it legally do so?
Luxembourg is next to go
And, who knows, maybe Monaco.
We’ll try to stay serene and calm
When Alabama gets the bomb!
Well, to stretch the definition of “individual” a bit, companies like Blackwater operate armed helicopters for private use, although operating them in the US is probably a complicated legal matter.
I’m not sure about that, but individual states can create their own military forces which are “normally” totally outside the authority of the Federal military apparatus.
For example, the Virginia Army National Guard is a military force of the Commonwealth of Virginia. However, as part of the National Guard it is also part of the overall United States military.
Originally, each colony had its own militia that was independent of the command of any other colony. When the United States was created, the Congress passed a series of statutes referred to as the Militia Act of 1792. What this did was organize the state militias and it gave the President the power to call these state militias into Federal service whenever they were needed by the United States (to suppress insurrection, repel active invasion, et cetera.)
For a large part of the early history of the United States the United States Armed Forces was very small. Primarily the U.S. relied on state militias, and during war time they had to be called into Federal service. This presented some problems, because technically through the Militia Act of 1792 the President clearly had the authority to Federalize these state militias. But because the United States was what it was in the 19th century, there were incidents in which state militias wouldn’t fully cooperate with the overall Federal government. During the war of 1812 many New England state militias fought to defend their state, but since they wanted nothing to do with the war of 1812 overall, they refused to cross into Canada or any other state.
We have a somewhat similar system today, the Virginia Army National Guard is very similar to a traditional state militia. It can be federalized, often is–and unlike the 19th century there’s no realistic chance that a state’s national guard won’t fully comply with being federalized.
However, in addition to national guard units which are under the aegis of the U.S. Armed Forces and can be called into federal service, there can be a truly independent state-level military force. The Virginia State Defense Force is a military force maintained by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Under most normal circumstances it can’t be federalized like national guard units can (there is indication that even State Defense Forces could be Federalized in certain cases.)