Repeal the Second Amendment? Yes! It Can Be Done

I’m tired of hearing excuses every time some human decides to make a statement with a gun. 

It’s time to settle the bullshit argument about the intent of the founders when they wrote the Second Amendment. 

Does anybody really think they envisioned school children, slaughtered by a “militiaman” with a military grade weapon? 

Does anybody really believe owning a weapon would stop an authoritarian government?

Let’s face it: Gun ownership in recent decades has been driven by artificially induced fears of people who are different.  

According to the Gun Violence Archive database of shootings in the U.S, there have been 199 “mass shootings,” defined as the shooting of at least four people, in 2023. More than six thousand people have been shot and died; more than eight thousand humans have used a gun to kill themselves.

After every one of these violent incidents that make the news, the same groups of people say the same things. Some call for legislation restricting gun ownership in some fashion. Others offer up thoughts and prayers. Nothing changes.

Parents with the ultimate heartache begging for something, anything to slow the rate of slaughter are told they’re praying to the wrong God or not praying enough.

Here’s the MAGA-headed Congressman for the area where this weekend’s mall shooting occurred:

GOP Rep. Keith Self in the Washington Post:

• The Texas congressman who represents the latest community reeling from a mass killing has pushed back against Americans who say more than prayers are needed to curb the violence, labeling them “people that don’t believe in an almighty God.”

The truth, expressed by author John Pavlovitz, is that the leading cause of child death is Republicanism.  (With a few cowardly Democrats for seasoning)

I don’t mean to denigrate people who vote for conservative candidates, that’s their right, a right I would be willing to fight for. But let's face the facts: the GOP has been taken over by extremists who don’t believe in democratic governance, who see people outside their silos as a danger. And if a candidate isn’t willing to admit this is a very real problem, you shouldn’t vote for them.

These extremists are covering for even more desperate characters who advocate the ultimate solution for dealing with those dangers. The gunman at the Texas mall wore a patch for an extremist group and was connected by law enforcement to neo-nazi ideology. I could go on, I’m assuming my readers watch more than Fox News. 

Even if you strip all the deaths of ideological motivations, the fact that America has a 25 times higher gun homicide rate than peer nations because we're uniquely more mentally ill, addicted, and evil than other humans, isn't that actually an argument for keeping guns away from most Americans?

What’s stopping us as a nation from even considering reasonable policies concerning guns is item number two on the Gold Tablet handed down over generations to guide us. This verbiage has been so twisted by obsessive gun fans that states are in the process of removing all restrictions on firearm ownership. The Supreme Court has already ruled that any regulations on firearms must be applied in a manner similar to the way things were in the late seventeen hundreds. 

The Second Amendment is considered sacred, an immutable code that overrides any other considerations, including that “pursuit of happiness” thing mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. Without it, devotees say, Americans would be living in a state of bondage. 

So let’s deal with the Second Amendment problem head on. I’m not going to propose an exact strategy, but I do know that making the constitution at the center of these debates will clear the air. No longer will gun worshipers be able to hide behind the smokescreen of excuses why we can’t do something.

It’s time to repeal and replace the Second Amendment. We Americans have done this before by ending the prohibition of alcohol. Slavery was abolished by a constitutional amendment (#13, except for prisoners), something many of these golden table worshipers are still seething about.

What I’m proposing is, in political terms, an accelerationist strategy, lighting a fire under a bunch of complacent citizens. If nothing else, now any discussion of gun regulation and safety will have moved a couple of steps toward sanity.

The danger inherent in this move will come from the far right theocrats who’ve been trying to slip in legislation language in state legislatures for a total rewrite of the constitution. Trust me, you won’t want to hear what they have in mind, which would amount to tossing out the rest of our freedoms.

Gun apologists will start screaming about war and/or rebellion the minute talk of repealing/replacing the Second Amendment becomes public. 

Let us remind them of the fate of more than 600 insurrectionists who have been convicted of a variety of charges at jury trials or guilty pleas. It needs to be said that this isn’t about them, per se. Nobody’s knocking on anybody’s door to confiscate weapons because the power of regulating is deemed to be a matter for the states. (Hey! Lookie! States Rights!)

Speaking on behalf of people who haven’t become obsessed with guns, one way of stirring things up would be establishing a litmus test for candidates at every level. And this is where the “replace” part of our deal comes into play. 

As a matter of practicality, taking away the 350 million guns owned by the public would be an impossible task. So our best legal minds will have to be engaged to figure out language that does not ban firearm ownership, but gives the job of regulation to the states. The role of the federal government should involve gathering statistics, preventing illegal interstate commerce, and ensuring product safety.

So if a future Gov. Abbott thinks mayhem is a good idea and cuts $211 from mental health funding while making guns a free-for-all, let's make sure there are states with regulations that people can see as a sane alternative. Trust me, at the rate Texans are killing each other off, businesses, tourists, and sane people will start looking elsewhere.

Replacing the Second Amendment won’t stop people from crossing state lines, say from Indiana where non-existent rules exist to Illinois so conservatives can point at Chicago (as a sub for people of color) and decry crime and violence.

I see replacing the Second Amendment as a starting place, not the final answer. I know people may find this notion to be radical, but in seeking solutions we need to keep in mind that incarceration is a poor substitute for justice.

I’ll close with a quote from Sara Danver’s How to Save Democracy, and other stories:

• Gun violence prevention is complicated in so many ways. When we criminalize something, our criminal legal system distributes those penalties inequitably. We already lead the world in the number of people incarcerated, disproportionately Black and brown people who are over policed and over criminalized. Filling up our jails even more is not the answer. 

• We cannot forget the complexity that inevitably comes with trying to make ourselves safer. But guns, and particularly assault weapons, are killing us. Gun violence is killing us and our government is full of politicians who care more about the guns than they do about the violence we face, politicians who would rather we kill each other than help each other. We need to do something, and we won’t do it while they remain in power. 

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Important Stories From Today’s Cutting Room Floor

Scoop: Tucker Carlson ready to torch Fox News Via Axios. Get your popcorn ready!

• The ousted host "knows where a lot of bodies are buried, and is ready to start drawing a map," said a Carlson source who wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

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The First Step to Solving the Housing Crisis Might Be Simpler Than You Think Via Politico. Counting! What a concept.

• Nearly a century since its creation, the modern “unemployment rate” has become an authoritative barometer of the country’s economic health, and of the hardship experienced by American families at any point in time. Fluctuations in the unemployment rate not only drive bold and swift government action, but can make or break political careers.

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Backup Power: A Growing Need, if You Can Afford It Via the New York Times. Let’s quit saying it’s just in California.

• As climate change increases the severity of heat waves, cold spells and other extreme weather, blackouts are becoming more common. In the 11 years to 2021, there were 986 weather-related power outages in the United States, nearly twice as many as in the previous 11 years, according to government data analyzed by Climate Central, a nonprofit group of scientists. The average U.S. electric utility customer lost power for nearly eight hours in 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration, more than twice as long as in 2013, the earliest year for which that data is available.

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There Is No Stopping the Allergy Apocalypse Via the Atlantic.

•  The problem is not just that higher temperatures lengthen plants’ growing season; carbon dioxide itself encourages pollen production. Compared with three decades ago, the North American pollen season now starts about 20 days earlier, lasts roughly eight days longer, and involves 21 percent more pollen, according to research published in the journal PNAS.

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Lead image Via First Look Entertainment