A TTAG reader writes:
Without summarizing years worth of blogs and comments, maybe we can all agree that the Second Amendment, as written, no longer serves its purpose. Almost all the disagreement over the meaning of 2A is bound up in interpretation. So long as anyone can form an opinion, and so long as courts will act as a super-legislature (or defender of the public, depending), and as long as government officials believe they have an obligaiton to “fill-in-the-blanks” regarding common sense gun ownership, the fights over the current Amendment will continue . . .
Is it time to accept the reality that in the era in which we now live, the archaic form of expression codified in the Second Amendment is at the root of the issue? And that the Amendment needs to be re-written? Cries of “absolute” are not establishing truth, nor are those claims doing much of anything to move the political needle one way or the other.
The problem with the current wording of the Second Amendment is that we live in a culture of binary conditions, while the Amendment lives in a time of great change in the thinking of how a government should be established and maintained. Today so many people subscribe to the theory that if an activity isn’t directly and completely prohibited, that activity is permitted. Then there are the lawyers who make a living arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Haven’t we had enough of this?
My proposal is to re-write the Second Amendment in such a way that it can’t be contorted by interpretation. For example:
The residents of these United States, territories and protectorates, as constituted in 2016 or as shall be expanded or contracted in the future, have the right to keep and bear personal arms, of any type, for any purpose. This natural, human and civil right shall not be constrained in any manner, for any reason, by any action of the federal, state or local government, including further and future amendment. The several courts under the jurisdiction of the United States, territories and protectorates are prohibited from considering any lawsuit regarding possession of firearms, except to determine whether or not this amendment has been violated.
I don’t claim to be a legal scholar or linguist, but this wording should be clear enough even after further erosion of the American language. Any ideas as to how to make a new Second Amendment are welcome. If the People of the Gun can generate the requisite political will to change the Constitution as recommended, we should be able to put this to bed, once and for all.