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Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren 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 schoolchildren 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.

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 β€œa 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.

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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 β€œwell regulated militia.”

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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 β€œone 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 β€” which I remain convinced was wrong and certainly was debatable β€” 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 β€” 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.

FM
Riff posted:

To address the gun problem in this country, the following needs to happed:

Abolish/delete the 2nd Amendment

Create a 10 year comprehensive plan to eliminate all guns (except hunting rifles) from society.

Protect all soft targets like schools, churches, ets with armed officers like they do for federal buildings.

Only law enforcement officers should be allowed to have guns.

This is what every country does...why not the US?

V

Repealing the 2nd Amendment is not impossible but certainly unrealistic at this time. However, we can pressure our lawmakers to enact stricter gun control laws to help in curbing the gun violence problem in America. 

Change the age limit for getting a gun license.

Stricter background checks.

Create a strict three days waiting period before licenses can be issued. During this period background checks should be done.

Reinstate the ban on "assault rifles".

Law enforcement officers on site at schools, churches, Federal Buildings, etc.

 

Mars
Last edited by Mars
Demerara_Guy posted:

While the right to own/have arms was discussed/debated for centuries, and indeed the courts have shied away from making a decision on the matter, it was in 2008 when the then justice Antonin Scalia wrote a decision that ... "one has the right to have arms in his/her home for personal protection".

Of note, β€œin his/her home”

FM

The NRA is the monster in the house. They have been allowed by both the Democrats and Republicans to grow too big for their pants. This is a tough battle.

Mars identified and outlined the correct approach. Anything more than that will lead to failure to combat the powerful NRA.

What is buddy Skelly's take on this ?

How about you Base ?

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Demerara_Guy posted:

While the right to own/have arms was discussed/debated for centuries, and indeed the courts have shied away from making a decision on the matter, it was in 2008 when the then justice Antonin Scalia wrote a decision that ... "one has the right to have arms in his/her home for personal protection".

we get the point, but remove the quotes

no such statement in the majority opinion

FM
yuji22 posted:

The NRA is the monster in the house. They have been allowed by both the Democrats and Republicans to grow too big for their pants. This is a tough battle.

Mars identified and outlined the correct approach. Anything more than that will lead to failure to combat the powerful NRA.

What is buddy Skelly's take on this ?

How about you Base ?

The NRA supports Republicans(rich white racists men and women). There is no need for assault rifles for the ordinary citizens. They belong to the military. Limit the magazine size. The Republicans are good at instilling fear to their supporters that the Democrats will take their guns.

FM
skeldon_man posted:
yuji22 posted:

The NRA is the monster in the house. They have been allowed by both the Democrats and Republicans to grow too big for their pants. This is a tough battle.

Mars identified and outlined the correct approach. Anything more than that will lead to failure to combat the powerful NRA.

What is buddy Skelly's take on this ?

How about you Base ?

 There is no need for assault rifles for the ordinary citizens. They belong to the military. Limit the magazine size. 

I have always stated that assault rifles belong to the military. I agree with you 100 percent on that.

FM

With North Korea offering to give up their nuclear weapons, it will be very difficult for gun manufacturers and the NRA to argue that any US government would become tyrannical. Obviously, that was only what the lobby did to whip Americans into a frenzy so they can sell more weapons. Americans do not have an appetite to be president indefinitely. Look how old Obama got in 8 years as president. So did W as well as Clinton. Trump was already an old fart when he became president so aging will not be conspicuous for him. He will replace that phenomenon with just becoming more of an a$$. 

Speaking of weapons, last week when Trump signed the funding bill (after pretending that he opposed it) many on the right were hyming and hawing that the $1.3T bill was excessive. Yet none of them will complain about more than half of it, $700B was allocated to the military. With so much of the world not needing or caring for our military to defend them and with our schools, roads, bridges, drug and medicine addition, mental health issues, we still found the need to allocate more than half of the funding to the military and leaving every other need to scramble for the bits.

FM

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