Repeal the Second Amendment


We mouse around the edges of gun laws. We legislate the size of magazines or raise the age to legally buy a lethal military assault rifle from 18 to 21. We debate mental health issues. The NRA will loudly proclaim that crazy people should not be allowed to buy guns. Thus, the issue becomes mental health, not gun availability.  Some states allow “open carry,” while others have strict gun laws. What piecemeal nonsense. We must deal with this issue as a national crisis, not blue states vs. red states or rural vs urban.

Let’s stop dancing around this issue and just take it out of the Constitution altogether. Last week, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a New York Times op-ed suggesting just that.

The NRA spent $31M to defeat Clinton and elect Trump. Hundreds of thousands of high school students demonstrating across the country won’t make a dent in that kind of influence.

Yes, they are passionate. Yes, they are articulate. Yes, they are getting media coverage. Yes, they will vote soon. Yes, Emma Gonzalez is amazing and no, sorry to say, the march of the children will change nothing.

So what CAN change our culture of gun violence?

1) Publication of police photos of dead children, their guts splattered against classroom walls.

2) Children and grandchildren of members of Congress getting slaughtered in their classrooms by “second amendment” gun-wielding, young, white, male (mostly) sons-of-bitches. (And BTW, let’s stop calling these homicidal bastards “shooters” which sounds so goddamn hip. They are cold-blooded killers, or murderers, or gunmen.)

3) NRA offices getting attacked.

4) Politicians with A+ NRA ratings getting run out of office in the November elections.

When enough people get fed up with this constant slaughter, the cultural acceptance of gun violence can be changed. Australia did it with a massive gun buy-back program. So can we. BTW, it is NOT just military assault rifles that should be banned. The major source of gun death in the U.S. is hand guns like the famous “Saturday-night specials.”

Politicians like Marco Rubio like to say this is too big a problem to change, and that change is not possible since the Constitution specifically allows gun ownership.  But wait, the Constitution can be changed. It has been amended 17 times since 1791. Amendments can be added and removed; think, prohibition.

Cultural norms change. Think, attitudes about smoking, acceptance of gay marriage, use of marijuana, death with dignity, the decline of religion, etc.

If there ever was a time to get rid of an amendment that was created at a time in history when the most lethal weapon was a muzzle-loading musket, this is it. The pro-gun people use the Second Amendment to justify the killing of our fellow citizens at the rate of 30,000+ per year. They are the best-armed mass murderers in world history.

Time for a change.





7 thoughts on “Repeal the Second Amendment

  1. Jay Lehmann says:

    I’ve been right there with you for decades, but lately I’ve been thinking of these horrific events as a symptom of our society. There were likely as many “crazy” people throughout all time, so why have these events increased? (And if there truly are more “crazy” poeple, then why is that?) I believe it’s due to the breakdown of family and our neighborhoods. For many of us, our relatives are scattered across the country. Most of us don’t even know our neighbors’ names. Go back a few decades and I bet some people who had a tendency to “go crazy” never did because they had an understanding grandparent, aunt, or neighbor that looked out for them, showed them they cared. And those that were “crazy” were also looked after–they had a sense of belonging and safety. No need to grab an assault rifle and raise hell.

    Many of us tout that the Internet provides connectivity. Maybe of the intellect but not of the heart. We are becoming more and more cutoff from our families, relatives, and neighbors. Being isolated can breed nasty results. Take a look around.

    • Jan Fleming says:

      I agree with your statement too Jay. Some of us live in a bubble, and constant change in technology and social media make it worse.

  2. Hal says:

    Red states are gun states. Until the colors change, I don’t think there is a chance in hell that the second amendment can be repealed let alone amended. I agree that the “children’s’ crusade is inspiring but I believe its influence will fade. Sad!

  3. Bill Spaulding says:

    Maybe we should try enforcing the laws we have on the books now? The Florida sheriff clearly failed in the Florida case but he turned it into a NRA issue and the media fell in line.
    Maybe we should put some faith back in our schools?
    Why does it take two incomes to raise a family today when in the ’50’s one earner worked just fine and we had family units. Taxes??
    We are on a second or third generation of latch key kids whose parents are too tired at the end of the day to be parents—assuming there are two parents.
    Keep the 2A and work to restore some morality in our youts.

  4. Dave Flanagan says:

    Justice Stevens was a wonderfully thoughtful jurist who has earned our respect. It does appear, however, that he may now be at an age where he need be closely cared for. It was, at least in my mind, extraordinarily irresponsible for the NYT to offer the broad publicity given to the Steven’s absurd idea. His letter no doubt raised nothing less than $3M in additional donations to the NRA. Wayne LaPierre buys another yacht and that’s all that will happen. No church or high school has yet to be attacked by a “well-regulated militia” (i.e. state national guard) which is what is guaranteed by the Second Amendment. The problem is not the Constitution but rather the way in which it has been interpreted, not least harmfully by the “Citizens United” decision which opened the floodgates to corporate election spending.

    Indeed, since Citizens United, a wide range of right wing groups have made it an article of faith to secure requests from the necessary 34 states to convene a Constitutional Convention and they are today very, very close to that goal. If that should happen ALL Constitutional rights are suddenly on the table. Gun control? It could be prohibited nationally. Birthright citizenship (an 1865 mechanism to make slaves citizens)? Could be gone. Abortion? Don’t hold your breath. Publicly-funded education? Can’t the market do better? Time-wasting due process? C’mon. Global Warming? Clean water? Safe Air? Chicken Little bullshit.

    Executive summary: We need be very, very careful what we wish for.

    A final thought; The NRA was founded in 1871 by Union officers who thought it prudent to preserve their hardwon military skills should there prove again a need for them. You just never know where things will lead.

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