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comment by extra_nos
extra_nos  ·  2457 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment

    Everybody wants their guns; nobody wants a well-regulated militia.
This is undoubtedly true, and why most conversation turns to hunting, self-defense, and sports shooting.

A citizens movement, while drastic and in a real situation, fatal to those who would at first rise up, is a possibility any entity who rises to power must at least consider in the United States. If we change that, we must also consider what other changes might follow. The first amendment can be dangerous too; if our philosophy toward the constitution, allows for dramatic reform of the 2nd it will allow for dramatic reform of the 1st.





kleinbl00  ·  2457 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The First Amendment is highly curtailed compared to the second. You can't cry "fire" in a crowded theater. You can't print slander. Yet you can't require a license to buy a gun. You can require a license to shoot a deer, but you can't require a license to buy the thing to shoot the deer with. You can proscribe the places you can fire the gun, but you can't limit the access to them in any way to citizens in good standing.

I had to pass a test to ride a motorcycle. If I wanted an AR-15, I'll bet I could pass that license, too.

extra_nos  ·  2457 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    You can't cry "fire" in a crowded theater. You can't print slander.
Well, you can, there are just consequences for those actions. Consequences which also regulate the use of firearms, you can't fire a gun in theater, and you can't shoot at someone you hate.

    but you can't limit the access to them in any way to citizens in good standing.
Further regulation and licensing wouldn't prohibit those in good standing from obtaining even if they had mal-intent. This is why the argument for repeal of 2nd A is stronger than further regulation. However, the philosophical implications of a repeal are huge and would fundamentally alter all aspects of law and life in America.
tacocat  ·  2457 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Really? It'd fundamentally alter public urination laws?