The End of Gun Control: We’re in Spitting Distance of a Constitutional Amendment
billj 11.13.16
Article V of the Constitution describes two ways that the nation’s founding document can be amended. One one of these methods has ever been successfully used: a vote of two thirds of the House and Senate ratify the amendment, and then send it to the states for a vote, where three fourths of state legislatures must vote for it.
The big barrier to getting an amendment passed has always been the state vote–at least, it has until now. Right now, if the Democrats lose just one more state legislature, an opposing coalition of Republicans and independents will have the 3/4 majority needed to pass a constitutional amendment over Democratic opposition.
The problem now, though, is that the GOP doesn’t quite have a 2/3 majority in either the House or Senate, but with enough defectors, we could get an amendment passed.
So what about a constitutional amendment declaring that the right to keep and bear arms shall be not be infringed, period. No militia language, just the right of every US citizen to own whatever guns they want for any lawful purpose, including defense of self, family, and state. (Note that I’m just spitballing at the actual language of such an amendment. I’m sure the legal minds at the Second Amendment Foundation could craft something short, sweet, and bulletproof that we could replace 2A with.)
Given that we need to flip just one state legislature and convince a handful of Democrats in the House and Senate to come over, we’re closer than we’ve ever been to driving a constitutional stake directly through the heart of gun control and killing it forever.
NRA and SAF, are you listening? Let’s do this.
