Take Two Re Number Two

On January 13, 2014 I sagely proposed Constitutional Amendment XXVIII. On the same date last year I moved up to XXIX. The links to my posts spelling out those two amendments - both currently under consideration in Congress - are at the bottom of this one.

Though I've several ideas for XXX, the recent public remarks made by that father who lost a child at Sandy Hook in 2012 persuaded me one of the ten original amendments is overdue for an overhaul. There is precedent for dumping an amendment altogether - recall the fate of XXIII - but I'm not politically naive enough to suggest we do the same here. But how about a second look at number two?

* In the musket-with-one-bullet-at-a-time era, a "right to keep and bear arms" was likely a reasonable proposition for most excepting the Quakers. How about in our current era of automatic assault weapons? Any chance of amending the amendment to mitigate the carnage just a little? BTW, I'm also not wild about that "... well regulated militia ..." piece of our beloved second either. Reminds me of the books that lunatic who blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City liked to read.

* What about the fact that our current population is over 80 times what it was when the Bill of Rights was adopted? If every resident of 1790 America owned one of those single bullet weapons when the first census was conducted - and then everyone shot at once  - about four million rounds would have been discharged. Compare that to our current situation and don't take my word for it. Use your favorite source to research approximately how many rounds are fired in an average hour in any one state in the country. Even in States with more restrictive gun laws, it's pretty darn noisy out there.  

* OK, put aside the type of guns and the huge difference in population. How about the relative ease of acquiring arms today vs. when the Founding Fathers drafted #2? How about interstate commerce in 1790 vs. 2016? Can anyone honestly claim these things don't contribute on some level to the ubiquity of our modern day massacres?

http://reflectionsfromthebellcurve.blogspot.com/2014/01/xxviii.html

http://reflectionsfromthebellcurve.blogspot.com/2015/01/xxiv.html