Not being a US Citizen I always thought that was the reason for the right to bear arms. In my head this is how it went: "Once independence was attained, and it was peaceful again, there was an intent to reduce the weapons owned by the civil population. But people had to trust power to someone, and if this guy went batshit the population could get caught defenseless. So the ruling class ceded the right to bear arms as a guarantee that the government will not try to do crazy shit on the people". Of course I might be wrong. Having always believed this, I think that original reason for the right to bear arms is outdated (I find it difficult to picture how that would go, also i think democracy works reasonably well, and differences would be solved democratically rather than at gun point). But I can understand that there are other situations in which having a gun would be useful. Only I think that in the US people get overexcited about guns, it quasi-religious.

Nobody remembers this: http://www.conceptlab.com/roachbot ?

He he he, I can imagine: --"Hey! Listen to me, we got your brother!" --"What? what was that?" --"I'm not joking @ssh*le, Do as I say or..." --"Hey, I can't hear you. Are you on the Skype again?" --"Shit... yes, hold a sec. I'm moving closer to the router... this... amm... Stupid stolen signal!" "How about now?" --"Still can't" --"SHIT! Listen to me..." --"Sorry, I'm losing you... Hey gotta go. Call me later k? Bye." Well, to call to a real phone you still have to pay, I guess you could still track the Credit card or something. Which of course could also be stolen. But heck, I see stupidity in this, but would like to think that there's a solution. I would like to see it working. Maybe I'm just daydreaming.

Yes, but the point is to identify the criminals BEFORE they kiddnap their victims. Or in the cases when they don't plan on an actual kiddnaping, but an Express-virtual one.