REPEAL SECOND AMENDMENT DECISION

Amendment II [1791]: 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.

How can anyone look at a gun show, the NRA, or a murder-racked neighborhood and say they see a well-regulated Militia?  How can anyone believe that everyone having guns makes us safe? How can anyone believe assault weapons in the hands untrained civilians keeps our state safe?  Who elected Wayne LaPierre as head such a militia?  Nothing about the second amendment accurately reflects today’s society. The National Guard of every State in the Union is a well-regulated militia but the current federal government regulates even that.

The amendment says the right to keep and bear arms was “necessary to the security of a free State” in 1791, when 13 states were forming the confederation. That is no longer the case or even close to being the case.  In 1791, there were great expanses of wilderness, Native Americans who fell under not government, no well-established state boundaries, nor were there entirely agreed upon rules of doing business. In addition, there was poor communications, and the lack of uniform governments within the states. It was a great time but a troubled time but this too is a great and troubled time.  

It was painfully notable that the absentees from the President’s State of the Union speech were the Court's most conservative Justices — Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas. This was not by accident, although each had some flimsy excuse; they were not there because their individualistic bestial instincts have not been overcome by altruism of humanization. The Supreme Court is one third of our government. Gun violence is a major issue on the political agenda of our country. It is an issue when it should not be because in large part these three radial judges supported a misreading of the second amendment. Their conservative ideology blinded them to the fact that the people and the nation have changed from 1791, but even if not changed, a society where everyone has a gun cannot be construed to be a well-regulated militia.