In magazines for the rich, like the Robb Report, they advertise islands for sale all the time. Usually they sell for like $9 million or somewhere abouts, which makes this thread useless for about 99.99% of us, but hypothetically, if you were to buy your own island, could you declare it your own country, and then proceed to purchase whatever weapons you wanted from whatever suppliers you wanted??? Of course it would depend on whether or not the supplier, say FN or HK would export the weapons to you, but what do you think???? Do you think you could get around Belgian and German export laws??? Can you declare land you own, in international waters, your own country??? What I wouldn't give to get a FN M249 or an HK UMP at government pricing....  

I've thought about this myself.
I don't think you can declare it your own country. You'd probably have to follow the same rules as any other land owner.

i.e. if you bought 10 acres in Montana, you'd still be part of the US. (and Montana, and that county, for that matter)

Now, IF the island was not actually part of a current country, then it's a totally different story, but I don't think there's a whole lot land anywhere that isn't claimed by one government or another.

You would be hard pressed to find an island that wasn't claimed by some nation as property.
It would be cool though.

Any island you bought wouldn't be able to sustain you though. Everything would need to be shipped in.

Quoted: In magazines for the rich, like the Robb Report, they advertise islands for sale all the time. Usually they sell for like $9 million or somewhere abouts, which makes this thread useless for about 99.99% of us, but hypothetically, if you were to buy your own island, could you declare it your own country, and then proceed to purchase whatever weapons you wanted from whatever suppliers you wanted??? Of course it would depend on whether or not the supplier, say FN or HK would export the weapons to you, but what do you think???? Do you think you could get around Belgian and German export laws??? Can you declare land you own, international waters, your own country??? What I wouldn't give to get a FN M249 or an HK UMP at government pricing....

Islands can be bought for less than the $9m, look at some of the rocks in the Caribbean. One I know quite well is Barbaretta, and the asking price of $6m is quite negotiable. There are island, there are land masses and then there are rocks.

The problem with islands is that they always already belong to one rather possessive country or another. They're not too hepped up on losing real estate.

Thus begat several interesting attempts at creating land where there used to be sea. Complicated by the recently expanded territorial limits, look to the 1950's when Hemingway and some of his drunk friends attempted to establish a Sovereign nation off of Cuba aboard a mass of floating logs tethered to a high spot in the ocean.

About the closest anyone has ever come to establishing a nation is the fellow who overtook an abandoned drilling platform in the North Sea or off of England someplace. He managed to get thru most of the complications, but the key to international acceptance is becoming a party to the International Postal Union... the question being will other countries honor the postage stamps that you generate and affix to letters mailed from your kingdom.

The currency issues are fairly irrelevant.


see       www.globalpolicy.org/nations/sealand.htm


here's my favorite:   http://www.fantasyinternational.com/prod02.htm

I would immediately declare war on Hielo's Fantastic CrapperTM.

http://www.sealandgov.com/

This guy did.  How many oil platforms are in international waters???  How difficult would it be to build an island?  I saw something about a guy in Mexico that used fishing nets and plastic pop bottles to make an island, the dang thing survived several hurricanes, had trees growing on it etc.

Quoted: I would immediately declare war on Hielo's Fantastic CrapperTM.

Ech, If I had $9mil, I'd just stay where I'm at and buy form 4 stuff

Quoted: Quoted: I would immediately declare war on Hielo's Fantastic CrapperTM.

+1

And after that, I would OUTLAW bikini tops on the beaches on my island!

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I would immediately declare war on Hielo's Fantastic CrapperTM. +1 And after that, I would OUTLAW bikini tops on the beaches on my island!

so they would have to wear coats. Geeze. Way to think that one out.  

I think the guns thing would be cool but the best benefit would be that I could finally spread out and create my own army of genetic mutations.

North Dumpling Island is a two-acre island in Fisher's Island Sound off the coast of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The island is owned by Segway Human Transporter inventor Dean Kamen.

Kamen was denied permission to build a wind turbine on the island, so he allegedly declared that he was seceding from the United States, and he signed a non-aggression pact with his friend then-President George H. W. Bush. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (of Ben & Jerry's icecream) serve as "joint chiefs of ice cream."

Though the secession is not legally recognized, Kamen refers to the island as the "Kingdom of North Dumpling." As well as a lighthouse, the "Kingdom" has its own constitution, flag and national anthem, as well as a navy (consisting of a single amphibious vehicle). North Dumpling also has its own currency, and the value of one of the bills is equivalent to the value of pi. It is said that Kamen refers to himself humorously as "Lord Dumpling" or "Lord Dumpling II."