There is only one overriding issue of political concern right now, encompassing much of what appears in postings on this blog. That is how to defeat Republicans on Nov. 8, about 23 weeks from now. The future of democracy in the United States is at stake. Really.
Letter I Emailed to NYTimes, PBPost, and SunSentinel
'Despite all the sound and fury, meaningful legislation to
adequately control gun violence will not be passed until the Second Amendment
is repealed. There is no need for it today because the Armed Forces and the
National Guard no longer depend on members to bring their own weapons. Its
final fourteen words, on which the gun lobby’s arguments are based, should not
stand alone, despite a misguided SCOTUS saying that they could back in
2008. We all make mistakes, even Supreme Court Justices.'
From the New Republic magazine
Democrats Need to Start Talking About Repealing the Second Amendment
Walter Shapiro is a staff writer at The New
Republic. He is also a fellow at the
Brennan Center for Justice and a lecturer in political science at Yale.
May 26, 2022
For four decades, the conservative Federalist Society
has been playing the long game with both the judiciary and the Second
Amendment. Now that it has led the way in populating the federal bench with
hard-right legal ideologues, the Federalist Society is reaping the dividends of
its long investment strategy. Next month, the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court
is poised to overturn New York State’s strict
limitations on carrying a concealed handgun. And an expansive decision in New
York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen may eviscerate
almost all forms of state regulation of guns.
In sharp
contrast, gun control advocates for the last two decades have been playing the
short game. From the Columbine high school massacre in 1999 to this week’s
wrenching tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, liberals have been fixated on finding an
incremental reform that could surmount a Senate Republican filibuster. The
battle cry used to be, “Close the gun-show loophole.” Now, after Uvalde, the
long-shot dream is finding 10 Republican senators who would join with the
Democrats to pass a red flag law that would allow the legal confiscation of
guns in extreme mental health situations.
Voters sense
that these tepid reforms will only help at the margins to reduce the carnage
from our out-of-control gun culture. A new YouGov poll found that 55 percent of Americans (including 33 percent of
Republicans) believe that the only way to end the bloodshed in elementary
schools is a “drastic change in the laws.” The key word here is “drastic,”
which means gun control legislation far more ambitious than red flag laws and
enhanced background checks.
This is the
moment when liberals despair and start raging against the vast power of the
NRA’s money. But following the money in classic Watergate fashion gets you
nowhere, since the NRA is bankrupt and the organization’s depleted campaign contributions have
become the equivalent of nickels found under seat cushions. The political power
of the gun lobby is based on the passion of single-issue voters and not the
clout that comes with $10 million in super PAC contributions.
Yes, polling
is on the side of reforming our porous gun laws. A Reuters/Ipsos poll,
conducted after the Uvalde illings, found that 84 percent of Americans support universal background checks
for gun purchases and 70 percent back red flag laws. But the problem with these
numbers is that they don’t measure passion. It is hard to find more than a
handful of voters who will make red flag laws their top priority in November.
With an
estimated 400 million guns stored in closets, glove compartments, and night
tables, even rigorous background checks for new purchase are not going to
disarm America. Red flag laws, even if rigorously enforced, are not likely to
find most would-be mass murderers. So the carnage would continue at horrifying
levels even if the Senate filibuster had not become Mitch McConnell’s favorite
weapon.
The hard
truth is that the core problem is the Second Amendment itself. And America is
going to reel from one mass murder to another unless the Second Amendment is
repealed or the Supreme Court drastically reduces its scope. Fifteen years ago,
I first proposed a long-term crusade
to eliminate the Second Amendment. Of course, it seemingly wasn’t a practical
idea since repeal requires a two-thirds vote of Congress and ratification by 38
states. But given the abysmal lack of progress with any gun-safety measures
over those 15 years, thinking small has not proven very practical either.
It is time
for gun control advocates to start talking about life without a Second
Amendment. Maybe the long-term solution to the pandemic of gun violence might
be confiscation of assault weapons or tight regulations on the sale of bullets.
The idea is to paint a portrait of an America of the future with sane gun laws
and no need for active-shooter drills in elementary schools. Unless voters can
aspire to a different America, gun control will never be a compelling
single-issue cause.
As a starting
point, Democrats should drop the mealy-mouthed formulation, “Nobody supports
the Second Amendment more than I do, but still....” Claiming fidelity to the
Second Amendment has never convinced a single NRA supporter of a candidate’s
sincerity, but it has stopped bold thinking about lasting solutions to
America’s gun crisis. Since right-wingers have long been screaming that
Democrats are after their guns, the political damage from talking realistically
about the Second Amendment may be exaggerated. At minimum, outside cause groups
advocating for rolling back the Second Amendment would make background checks
and assault-weapons bans seem like politically safer middle-of-the-road
options.
Liberals have
been losing the rhetorical battle over guns for decades. It’s sobering to
realize that in the early 1990s, according to the Gallup Poll, more than 40
percent of Americans supported banning handguns.
In an October 2021 poll that asked the same question, that figure had dwindled
to 19 percent. But the pendulum can also swing the other way. In the early
1990s, gay marriage was a quixotic dream. Not only is it now the law of the
land, but gay marriage is accepted by 70 percent of Americans.
Maybe we may
never get to the point when a Twenty-Eighth Amendment is ratified with this
language: “The second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United
States is hereby repealed.” But talking about repeal will galvanize the sad,
tired, and predictable debates over limited anti-gun legislation. After decades
of legislative failure, it is time to dream about truly disarming America.
Can it be Done by Voting?
Whatever gun reform legislation is passed will have to surmount
the Supreme Court’s current misinterpretation of the Second Amendment which
says that ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed.’ Until that changes, all gun reform efforts will fail
in the courtroom. Until the Supreme
Court rules otherwise, or unless the Second Amendment is temporarily suspended,
gun reform is not going to happen. The President might issue an executive
order, as I have asked him to do by email, enabling gun reform to bypass this
obstacle. Or the problem can be solved at the ballot box by the overwhelming
defeat at State and Federal levels of all legislators who oppose gun reform, giving Democrats insurmountable and permanent (?) majorities.
A Last Word
 |
| Senator Cruz Praying - How Sincere, I Wonder |
Remaining supporters of democracy
in the United States have a choice. They
can become activists to work to preserve it but doing so requires taking great
risks. Or, they can just hang onto the
rightward-swinging pendulum of history waiting for it to start swinging back. It always does. Ultimately, as Isaac Newton
postulated, for every action, there is a reaction. That swing back might take
many decades to occur, be violent if not bloody, as were many battles of the
Revolutionary and Civil Wars, both of which punctuated changes in the direction
of the pendulum of history’s swing. Meanwhile,
the necessity of dealing with immediate crises, like gun violence, our changing
climate, nuclear proliferation, abortion rights, Russian expansionism, Chinese economic
competition, etc. takes our eyes from the pendulum as it continues its
rightward swing.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for effective legislation to reduce gun violence being passed. As this posting repeatedly states, the only real answer is repeal of the Second Amendment or at least a temporary suspension of it to pressure Congress into passing meaningful legislation to end gun violence.
My immediate advice is never to vote for a Republican on any level whatsoever. In State legislatures and in the Congress in Washington, with extremely rare exceptions, they oppose the kind of laws which might have prevented the massacres of children at Uvalde, Parkland, Sandy Hook and many more places. Republican hands are drenched with blood. Drops of it spread to yours when you vote for them.
Meanwhile, I am looking for an organization dedicated to the repeal of the Second Amendment that I can join. When I find one, I will let you know.
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JL
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And if You Didn't Get the Message ...
THOSE CALLED UPON TO PROTECT THEIR
NATION OR THEIR STATE ARE NO LONGER
EXPECTED TO BRING THEIR OWN WEAPONS, SO
IT IS TIME TO
REPEAL THE SECOND
AMENDMENT
THAT WAS
ITS PURPOSE!
The exact text of the Second Amendment reads
as follows: ‘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.’
In 2008, the late Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia wrote an opinion (D.C. vs. Heller) in which he said that
this right could stand alone, not necessarily
having anything to do with that ‘well regulated Militia’ described a few words earlier in the Amendment. Scalia’s gross
misinterpretation of the law has caused thousands of deaths in the United
States by encouraging the uncontrolled proliferation of weapons among
civilians.
Equally culpable are Chief Justice Roberts and
Justices Alito and Thomas, still on the Court, along with now-retired Justice
Anthony Kennedy, all four of whom joined in Justice Scalia’s misguided opinion,
forming the majority. The blood of the children killed in Newtown (2012), Parkland (2018)
and Uvalde (2022), as well as that of many, many
others is on their hands. When they watch the news on TV, they must feel like
Lady Macbeth, tormented with guilt and unable to sleep.
There is no purpose for the Second Amendment any longer since the Armed forces and
the National Guard now provide their own weapons. It must be repealed because of the violence
its misinterpretation has caused. It is time to ‘infringe’ upon the right that the Second Amendment established for the
sole purpose of assuring that armed men would be available to serve in
Militias. It was never intended by the Founding Fathers to apply to the general
public, beyond serving that limited purpose until Justice Scalia got his hands
on it.
One cannot believe in its final fourteen words
and ignore its first thirteen words, as Scalia did. The passage of meaningful remedies for gun
violence demands the repeal of the Second Amendment. Until that happens though,
its temporary suspension by Presidential order might speed the passage of necessary
legislation.
JL
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