The NY Times has given retired Supreme Court justice John Paul Stephens, a Nixon appointee who turned more and more left as his time went on, a platform to make the argument, and they even provide a cute graphic showing a musket and a scary looking assault rifle!
John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment
Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement school children and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday. These demonstrations demand our respect. They reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of school children and others in our society.
That support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms. But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.
So, because people have Feelings, and support banning all private ownership of semiautomatic weapons….wait, they were telling us that it is just “assault weapons” they want to ban. Now it’s all semi-autos? Huh…we should repeal the 2nd? Rather a far jump.
Concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states led to the adoption of that amendment, which provides that “a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.†Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century.
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.â€
Law abiding citizens aren’t against reasonable restrictions: even the NRA is for them. Or, at least were, until Leftists made it quite clear that their intention was to nickle and dime gun ownership to the point were almost no law abiding civilians could own, possess, and carry a firearm, all while being soft on criminals who wouldn’t follow the laws. And an op-ed like this makes it even more clear that the Left’s idea is to disarm all law abiding citizens, removing their ability to protect themselves from criminals and tyrannical government.
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.
Go for it. Give it a shot. I think all Democrats should trot out the repeal of the 2nd as a major campaign theme. Let’s see how far that gets you.
BTW, I bet these leftist bed wetters would get Very Upset if we all openly walked around carrying muskets and pistols from that era.
Well at least nobody wants to take our guns.
“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.—
If that was the only intent of the 2A then we have a right to own automatic weapons, grenades, rocket launchers etc… and the only weapons that could be banned would be single shot bolt action hunting and target rifles.
“They” didn’t ask to repeal the 2nd Amendment, Justice Stevens did. It’s a common tactic of propagandists to misattribute actions of one to the many. It’s how propagandists create a scary, monolithic enemy to rally the troops.
Just as not all Con Men had sex with a porn star while their third wives were in hospital from birthing his fifth child, then paid the porn star hush money in violation of campaign finance laws. That was only Don Juan tRump. Not all Con Men are emotionally and morally stunted like tRump.
Not all nignorant angry little black fellas lie about joining the Army and azz raping their grandson. That was the little guy his own self yo…
Do you really think that the Times would run an opinion piece with no counter argument unless they believed in what the piece said?
And by the way, your hatred isn’t working – CNN poll has Trump approval rating up 7 points.
Most people are starting to see that liberals have nothing but hate.
Most people are starting to see that gc has nothing but retyping that “liberals have nothing but hate”.
We thought you didn’t trust polls?
Oh, only if they support your new god-king?
And yet you didn’t answer the basic question of the Times running the opinion piece.
Wonder why that is? Could it be that logic and facts can overcome hate and you don’t want to deal with that?
But you do. Furthermore, you trust polls from CNN.
Face it, Trump’s numbers are up and yet people who only have hate cling to the lies they love to spread.
America will not repeal the 2nd Amendment, regardless of calls by Justice Stevens or even conservatives such as Brett Stephens. We will not repeal the 2nd Amendment.
Just as clearly, even our current conservative Supreme Court does not consider bans on assault rifles to be unConstitutional. The amendment does NOT guarantee unlimited access to all firearms, at least according to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is not swayed by the ‘eloquent’ argument from gun nuts: What part of “… shall not be infringed” do you not understand?