Repealing the Second Amendment – is it even possible?

cbsnews.com - Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for a repeal of the Second Amendment in a New York Times op-ed Tuesday, and he urged demonstrators pressing for gun control to do the same. His bold proposal has prompted many questions about whether such a fundamental change to the U.S. Constitution is legally – let alone politically – possible.

"For over 200 years after the adoption of the Second Amendment, it was uniformly understood as not placing any limit on either federal or state authority to enact gun control legislation," Stevens wrote.

That changed in 2008, when the Supreme Court ruled in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller that there is an individual right to bear arms. Stevens was one of four dissenters.

"That decision – which I remain convinced was wrong and certainly was debatable – has provided the N.R.A. with a propaganda weapon of immense power. Overturning that decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the N.R.A.'s ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option," Stevens wrote.

But just how "simple" – or difficult – is it to repeal a constitutional amendment, and how does the repeal process work?

Experts say there are two ways to go about it. The first process requires that any proposed amendment to the Constitution be passed by both the House and the Senate with two-thirds majorities. It would then need to be ratified by three-fourths of the 50 states – or 38 of them.

Historically, that's proved challenging.

The "arduous process has winnowed out all but a handful of the amendments proposed over the past 230 years," Ron Elving, senior editor and correspondent on the Washington Desk for NPR News, wrote earlier this month.

"Even relatively popular ideas with a big head of steam can hit the wall of the amendment process. How much more challenging would it be to tackle individual gun ownership in a country where so many citizens own guns — and care passionately about their right to do so?" Elving wrote. He pointed out the "tremendous support" gun ownership has in large parts of the nation, especially the South, West and Midwest, "which would easily total up to more than enough states to block a gun control amendment."

The second option for repealing an amendment is to hold a Constitutional Convention. In that case, two-thirds of state legislatures would need to call for such a convention, and states would write amendments that would then need to be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

While it's theoretically possible to change the Constitution this way, "that's never happened since the Constitution was ratified," said Kevin McMahon, an expert in constitutional law and a professor of political science at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

In the history of the United States, the only amendment that's ever been repealed is Prohibition. The 21st Amendment, in 1933, repealed the 18th Amendment, of 1919, which prohibited the making, transportation and sale of alcohol.

McMahon told CBS News it's "very unlikely" that the Second Amendment could ever be repealed.

"It's hard enough for gun control legislation to be passed now in the Congress which requires simply a simple majority," he said.

A repeal would require "a sea change" in how Americans think about gun control and the right to bear arms, McMahon said.

"I would never say it's impossible," but "it is very difficult to enact a constitutional amendment," he said.

Stevens' call for a repeal is not the first remark from a former member of the Supreme Court against the Second Amendment. As The Atlantic reports, former Chief Justice Warren Burger said in 1991: "If I were writing the Bill of Rights now, there wouldn't be any such thing as the Second Amendment." ContinueReading

Under strict gun laws, Japan's mass killers must rely on knives instead

There goes the narrative..

(USAToday) - His only weapons were a few knives and some straps to tie down his victims. Yet in less than an hour, he had killed 19 people. That's as many homicides as most districts in Japan see in five years.

Japan’s homicide rate makes the United States look like a war zone. Consider that Tokyo is five times larger than Chicago. And yet, in 2014, Tokyo tallied a mere 11 homicides. Chicago racked up 416 — a difference of more than 3,500%.

When mass killings do strike Japan, the killer is unlikely to carry a gun. He is invariably armed with a knife. It's one of the few lethal weapons that a homicidal Japanese person can acquire. Tuesday's tragedy occurred in Kanagawa, a pristine prefecture between Tokyo and Mount Fuji. The killer broke into a center for the disabled where he reportedly used to work, which is alongside a tree-lined river.

His name, according to Japanese media, is 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu. In the early hours Tuesday, he targeted residents with mental disabilities as they slept and stabbed as many as 50 people, 19 fatally — killing or injuring almost a third of the center's 150 patients in a matter of 40 minutes, the Associated Press reported.

It was Japan’s deadliest mass killing since World War II.

Unlike the Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof, Uematsu was not a racial supremacist. Unlike attackers in Brussels and Paris, he was not linked to religious extremists. His motive, confessed to police, was to purge disabled people from society.

Several of Japan’s mass killings — rare as they may be — have also involved misanthropes with knives.

In 2008, a man “tired of life” killed seven in a hip Tokyo shopping enclave with his speeding truck and a knife. As a shopper told The Guardian at the time: “Japanese people are not used to this kind of thing. This isn’t the U.S.”

In 2001, a man “sick of life” fatally stabbed eight children at an elementary school. And in 1995, Japan reeled from its most infamous mass murder — a sarin gas attack, set loose in a subway by a doomsday cult, that left 12 dead.

There is a reason none of these attacks involve guns: Practically all types of firearms are outlawed in Japan, which has practiced strict gun control since its post-feudal era in the late 1800s.

Want a handgun in Japan? Possession can land you in prison for 10 years. How about a rifle? Only if you acquired it before 1971 — and when you die, your kids must hand it over to the police.

Legal firearms in Japan are largely limited to shotguns. But buying one requires submitting to a regulatory gauntlet that would cause NRA devotees to palpitate.

You have to undergo a battery of shooting tests, written exams and a yearly gun inspection by the police. The cops also insist on knowing exactly where you keep your weapon inside your home.

There’s also a hurdle that would likely have prevented the Kanagawa killer from ever obtaining a shotgun: a mental health evaluation. Earlier this year, according to The Japan Times, he was forcibly admitted to a mental hospital under suspicions that he wanted to harm others.

The Kanagawa attack is extremely gruesome and arrives amid a seemingly nonstop spree of mass killings in the United States and Europe. Yet on the macro level, Japan, like the United States, is seeing murder rates fall.

One of Japan’s leading news outlets, NHK, posted frequent updates from Kanagawa. But alongside reports on the massacre, another breaking crime story appeared. The reported offense? A purse snatched from a 22-year-old girl distracted by "Pokémon Go" — a crime worthy of nationwide news in one of the world’s safest countries.

Exhausted Nation Unsure It Has Stamina To Continue Gun Control Dialogue For Fifth Consecutive Day

WASHINGTON—Appearing visibly drained as they pushed well beyond their previous best for rational discourse on the issue, the exhausted American public told reporters Thursday they were uncertain whether they had the stamina to continue a national dialogue on gun control for a fifth consecutive day. “It’s hard to believe, but we’ve been going at this nationwide conversation on sensible gun control measures pretty hard since Sunday, so I really don’t know how much longer we can keep this up before we hit a wall,” said Arthur Handler, 37, of Portland, ME, who explained that the population was only used to discussing gun laws for two, or at most three days before running out of steam, so they were now stretching themselves to their physical and mental limits. “It’s not that we don’t want to keep going—we do. It’s just that we tend to wrap up our typical national dialogue in 48 hours or so, and right now, we’re nearing a full week of this kind of constructive talk. I’m not even sure how we’ve pushed ourselves this far. I really hope we have more than just a few hours of engaged debate left in us.” At press time, the clearly worn-out nation could feel itself faltering slightly in its efforts to push for expanded background checks and was desperately hoping for a second wind

In a first, more Americans support gun rights than gun control, poll finds

By a margin of 52 percent to 46 percent, Americans say protecting gun rights is more important than gun control, according to the Pew Research Center. Opinion has shifted markedly since the Sandy Hook massacre two years ago.

(Yahoonews) - Almost two years after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Americans' support for gun rights is rising.

By a margin of 52 percent to 46 percent, Americans say protecting the rights of gun owners is more important than gun control, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center released Wednesday. It is the first time Pew found more support for gun ownership than gun control in more than two decades of surveys on the issue.

“Support for gun rights has edged up from earlier this year, and marks a substantial shift in attitudes since shortly after the Newtown school shooting,” the Pew report says. The second anniversary of the massacre is this Sunday.

Right after the mass shooting, in which a gunman killed 27 people and then himself, the balance of opinion favored gun control. But since January 2013, support for gun rights over gun control has risen from 45 percent to 52 percent, while the percentage who prioritize gun control has gone down, from 51 percent to 46 percent. Full Story.

High gun ownership makes countries less safe, US study finds

(theguardian) Guns do not make a nation safer, say US doctors who have compared the rate of firearms-related deaths in countries where many people own guns with the death rate in countries where gun ownership is rare.

Their findings, published Wednesday in the prestigious American Journal of Medicine, debunk the historic belief among many people in the United States that guns make a country safer, they say. On the contrary, the US, with the most guns per head in the world, has the highest rate of deaths from firearms, while Japan, which has the lowest rate of gun ownership, has the least.

The journal has fast-tracked publication of the study because of the shootings at the Washington navy yard. It was originally scheduled for later this week.

Full Story

Eric Holder Threatens Kansas With War Over New State Gun Law Criminalizing Federal Gestapo Activity.

From patdollard.com

Excerpted from WASHINGTON TIMES

- A new law in Kansas that criminalizes the enforcement of federal gun controls in the state is unconstitutional, Attorney General Eric H. Holder said.

“In purporting to override federal law and to criminalize the official acts of federal officers, [the law] directly conflicts with federal law and is therefore unconstitutional,” Mr. Holder wrote to Gov. Sam Brownback in a letter dated April 26. “Federal officers who are responsible for enforcing federal laws and regulations in order to maintain public safety cannot be forced to choose between the risk of a criminal prosecution by a state and the continued performance of their federal duties.”

Mr. Holder cites the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps conflicting state authority or exercise of power. Kansas’s law became effective April 25.

Mr. Holder wrote that federal authorities “will continue to execute their duties to enforce all federal firearms laws and regulations. Moreover, the United States will take all appropriate action, including litigation if necessary, to prevent the State of Kansas from interfering with the activities of federal officials enforcing federal law.”

A handful of states proposed similar laws as Congress was weighing measures to ban semiautomatic, military-style rifles and high-capacity magazines, as well as expanded background checks on gun purchases.

An effort to expand gun-purchase background checks to sales online and at gun shows recently stalled in the U.S. Senate, though some proponents say similar legislation could be brought up later this year.

Related - Eric Holder Declares War On 10th Amendment?

U.N. Overwhelmingly Approves Global Arms Trade Treaty.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70 billion business inconventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.

The National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group that has opposed the treaty from the start, said it was a sad day for the United States, which joined the vast majority ofU.N. member states by voting for the pact.

Iran, Syria and North Korea cast the sole votes against the treaty. The same three states last week prevented a treaty-drafting conference at U.N. headquarters from reaching the required consensus to adopt the pact.

The official U.N. tally showed 154 votes in favor, three against 23 abstentions, though diplomats and U.N. officials said the actual vote was 155-3-22. They said Angola was recorded as having abstained, though it had attempted to vote yes.

Full Story.

Multiple People Wounded In Texas School Shooting.

- Multiple people were shot in a shooting at Lone Star College in north Houston, Texas some time before 12:50 PM. Police are describing the incident as an “altercation between two individuals,” one of whom had student ID and a hand gun. Both are now in police custody and experienced gun wounds. A maintenance man was caught in the crossfire and was shot in the leg. A woman on the scene was hospitalized for a medical condition.

The Lone Star website states that the college employs armed police officers and unarmed security guards. Five days ago, Texas Sen. Brian Birdwell (R) and 13 other Republican authors introduced legislation that would allow individuals with concealed weapon permits to carry firearms on campus. The measure failed in the last legislative session, but is now up for debate in the aftermath of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

Responding to today’s incident, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) told KTRK’s Ted Oberg that students were “defenseless” during the shooting and said that public colleges should decide whether or not teachers and students can carry weapons on campus.

KTRK reports that the Lone Start shooting in Texas is the nation’s 5th school shooting in 2013. The U.S. experienced 49 shootings since Columbine in 1999.

Source.

Demand A Plan! (To End Gun Violence)

I'm a little late on this but, celebrities wasted no time in exploiting the Sandy Hook tragedy. A youtube video features useful idiot celebrities demanding a plan for action on gun violence:

Now here's a great response video to the above:

*Graphic* Demand A Plan - Demand Celebrities To Go F*ck Themselves.

You're Welcome.

New York Passes First Gun Control Law Since Sandy Hook Massacre.

- Jumping out ahead of Washington, New York state enacted the unions's toughest gun restrictions Tuesday and the first since the Connecticut school massacre, including an expanded assault-weapon ban and background checks for buying ammunition.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the measure into law less than an hour after it won final passage in the Legislature, with supporters hailing it as a model for the union and gun-rights activists condemning it as a knee-jerk piece of legislation that won't make anyone safer and is too extreme to win support in the rest of the country

Gabrielle Giffords Launches Gun Control Drive.

Just Another Poster Child For the Gun Control Crowd. . .

- Two years after a shooting that left her severely wounded, former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona is launching a group aimed at curbing gun violence and challenging the political clout of the well-funded gun lobby.

Giffords, herself a gun owner, is starting the effort called Americans for Responsible Solutions with her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, after a string of recent mass shootings.

Related - CONspiracy Queen Alex Jones Destroys Useful Idiot Piers Morgan on CNN Debate.

Poll: Majority Of Americans Have A Favorable Opinion Of The NRA.

- Fifty-four percent of Americans said they have a favorable opinion of the NRA, while 38 percent have an unfavorable opinion, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted Dec. 19-22.

The public's opinion of the NRA has fluctuated in the years since Gallup began measuring it in 1993, from a low of 42 percent favorable in 1995 to a high of 60 percent favorable in 2005.

Other poll findings:

- 21% of Americans have a very favorable opinion of the NRA, and 18% have a very unfavorable opinion.

- 83% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of the NRA, compared with only 36% of Democrats. Among Independents, favorability was 54%.

- 71% of Americans with a gun in the household hold a favorable opinion of the NRA, while 40% of non-gun-owning households also have a favorable opinion of the NRA.

Results for the USA Today/Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Dec. 19-22, 2012, with a random sample of 1,038 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

[ NRA - National Rifle Association. (US) ] 

That Was Quick: Foreign Governments Plot To Take American Guns

- In the wake of the Connecticut mass shooting, foreign governments are now chiming in to support the U.S. media bandwagon that is trying to undermine Americans’ Constitutionally-protected 2nd Amendment rights.

Related:

- Am I A Threat?

- NRA Calls For Armed School Guards AS US Mourns Massacre.

Here Is A Great Quote From Thomas Jefferson Concerning Gun Control.

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants."  

Animal Rights Activists Want NRA Labeled 'Domestic Terrorist Group.'

Animal rights activists have launched a petition demanding the Obama White House declare the National Rifle Association to be a “domestic terrorist group,” while decimating the ability of Americans to exercise their hunting rights.

Obama Voters 'Not Welcome' In Arizona Gun Store.

- If you voted for President Obama, you won't be welcome to make any purchases at one Arizona gun store.

The owner of the Southwest Shooting Authority took out a full page ad in a local Pinetop, Arizona. newspaper that read "if you voted for Barack Obama you're business is not welcome.

Not Welcome Indeed.

Ted Nugent Speaks Out Against Obama & Gun Control

Liberal/Conservative Singer Ted Nugent (From Texas By the Way Of Detroit, Michigan) On Piers Morgan (Not The Full Interview) -

Gotta Admit, Piers Morgan Got PWND!