|
Is this the same respectful discourse in which we assert that because someone supports gun control, they also support slavery? Just want to be clear on that.
In any event, there's really no question that the 2nd Amendment, as written, has about as much place in modern society as the 3rd Amendment, which is to say that it doesn't have any place and cannot be read in a way that makes sense. Everyone (including the Supreme Court) is fully aware of the fact that there's no way to amend it through the formal process to clarify either a collective or individual right because we don't have anything close to enough support in either one direction or the other. So we dance around the issue, and we're likely to do so until we either have some seriously ballsy Supreme Court justices or a great deal more agreement on how we feel about guns in this country.
I don't really think either is likely.
As a historical side note, the Emancipation Proclamation had no legal effect. Lincoln, whatever he might have been, had the same impact on abolition as Woodrow Wilson had on giving women the right to vote. Slavery was abolished in the United States by the passage of the 13th amendment, not by executive order.
|