Aizle wrote:
So as most folks know here I'm both a liberal and a gun owner. As such I've very much felt stuck in the middle with fanatics on both sides of me that are being completely unreasonable. I've been putting a lot of thought into what a reasonable compromise position would be that both helps to address the reality that guns are far to easy for the wrong people to get access to but still allow law abiding upstanding citizens enjoy firearms and support their right to bear arms.
Aizle, I've been giving it a lot of thought too...
My position is that there's a significant speed bump that needs to be overcome before I can support any government intervention about a citizens rights to bear arms...I think that pretty much there needs to be a revocation of the 2nd amendment.
There is immutable language attached to that amendment, as Elmo pointed out earlier -
Quote:
...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Now, some may argue that the constitution doesn't use language quite as immutable as I believe it to be. My position on the languages immutability has been developed, though, after thinking about other, similar, use of immutable language in the constitution.
Take, for example, this section -
Quote:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
These "shall not's" contain some pretty important rights within their sections of the constitution. It's my belief that letting the government dilute the meaning and importance of those passages is an incredibly naive move on the part of the citizenry.
It would be easy for me, for instance, to agree to an executive order allowing the reading of prayer in school, ban the KKK from having a web site or have meetings, or slap drug dealers or child molesters "caught in the act" in jail for the rest of their lives without the privilege of having a trial.
These are all perfectly reasonable things in my opinion, and I'd love to win enough public support so I could call for a national discussion on the issue of how we can make those changes and threaten those that disagree with me with calls for executive orders, such as those just signed by the president. Where's the compromise when unilateral decisions are pushed at us without our consent?
Thing is, even having that discussion weakens the citizens and strengthens the government. We are now a weaker nation because of these acts - the president has just diluted our rights, whether we personally believe in what he's done or not.
The only correct way to change the immutable language of the constitution is by the rules set up to change them - pass a bill through both houses of the legislature, by a two-thirds majority in each. Once the bill has passed both houses, it goes on to the states... or hold a constitutional convention.