For over 200 years after the adoption of the Second Amendment, it was uniformly understood as not placing any limit on either federal or state authority to enact gun control legislation. In 1939 the Supreme Court unanimously held that Congress could prohibit the possession of a sawed-off shotgun because that weapon had no reasonable relation to the preservation or efficiency of a “well regulated militia.”
During the years when Warren Burger was our chief justice, from 1969 to 1986, no judge, federal or state, as far as I am aware, expressed any doubt as to the limited coverage of that amendment. When organizations like the National Rifle Association disagreed with that position and began their campaign claiming that federal regulation of firearms curtailed Second Amendment rights, Chief Justice Burger publicly characterized the N.R.A. as perpetrating “one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”
In 2008, the Supreme Court overturned Chief Justice Burger’s and others’ long-settled understanding of the Second Amendment’s limited reach by ruling, in District of Columbia v. Heller, that there was an individual right to bear arms. I was among the four dissenters. That decision — which I remain convinced was wrong and certainly was debatable — has provided the N.R.A. with a propaganda weapon of immense power. Overturning that decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the N.R.A.’s ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option.
That simple but dramatic action would move Saturday’s marchers closer to their objective than any other possible reform. It would eliminate the only legal rule that protects sellers of firearms in the United States — unlike every other market in the world. It would make our schoolchildren safer than they have been since 2008 and honor the memories of the many, indeed far too many, victims of recent gun violence.
Before anybody starts freaking out about liberal judges, it should be noted that former Justice John Paul Stevens is a Republican.
And he is right, the 2nd Amendment, as it is currently written, does not make any sense in the 21st Century.
If the Ammosexuals truly think that their cache of pea shooters would slow down the government if it actually turned on the people, they need to step away from the Meth and reevaluate that facts.
Even the military style weapons that these Rambo wannabes keep masturbating over would only piss off the soldiers in their armored vehicles and missile equipped helicopters.
Which means that they, their home/fortress, and cache of assault style weapons would likely be blown up in a rather spectacular fashion after they fired their first shot.
No, the simple fact is that we have FAR too many guns, FAR too many gun nuts, and FAR too few lawmakers willing to defy the NRA.
Update: Well this op-ed certainly caught somebody's attention.
And that somebody sounds a little panicky.THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2018
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