Investment?

This bit is from an article in the Wall Street Journal:

The way Jay Chambers sees it, the semiautomatic weapons in his firearm collection might be the most promising investment in his financial portfolio.

Like many gun enthusiasts, Mr. Chambers, a manager for a door wholesaler here, believes President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress soon will reimpose a version of an expired federal ban on the sale of so-called assault weapons. If such a law passes, he figures his collection -- enough guns, ammo magazines and weapon parts to assemble about 30 AK-47s, AR-15s and other semiautomatic rifles -- could triple in value.

I've never understood the American argument that the Constitution gives them the right to "bear arms". If having a military-style assault rifle is a "right", then why not a "right" to "bear" a small tactical nuclear weapon as your "arm" of choice? What's the difference. If an automatic or semi-automatic weapon is a legal, why stop there? Why not let the nut down the street buy a tank and load up on tank shells so that he can spend his weekends in the woods firing off the tank cannon? By the way, I guess a tank is never going to catch on as a getaway vehicle -- to slow to outdistance the police -- so I suppose the drug gangs and their buddies in the NRA won't pay high priced lawyers to argue for their "rights" over that kind of weapon like they do over assault rifles.

I'm for gun control, but sadly not the gun registry law in Canada which cost billions to implement and just put a burden on ordinary citizens. It hasn't taken guns out of the hands of criminals who find it very, very easy to slip across the border and purchase weapons in the US which has no real gun control.

I'm sympathetic with farmers having guns. I understand guns in a rural setting. So I would simply ban weapons in urban areas and unrestricted in areas with a population below some number like 5,000. In small towns and villages, you should be able to own a pistol or rifle to go shoot in the woods, but if you live in an urban area, that weapon needs to be stored under lock-and-key at some shooting club.