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Repeal Second Amendment, Analyst Advises
CNS News ^

Posted on 06/12/2007 4:23:30 AM PDT by Sub-Driver

Repeal Second Amendment, Analyst Advises By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer June 12, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - The Second Amendment guarantees the right of an individual to own guns and for that reason should be repealed, according to a legal affairs analyst who opposes gun ownership.

"The Second Amendment is one of the clearest statements of right in the Constitution," Benjamin Wittes, a guest scholar at the center-left Brookings Institution, acknowledged in a discussion Monday. "We've had decades of sort of intellectual gymnastics to try to make those words not mean what they say."

Wittes, who said he has "no particular enthusiasm for the idea of a gun culture," said that rather than try to limit gun ownership through regulation that potentially violates the Second Amendment, opponents of gun ownership should set their sights on repealing the amendment altogether.

"Rather than debating the meaning of the Second Amendment, I think the appropriate debate is whether we want a Second Amendment," Wittes said. He conceded, however, that the political likelihood of getting the amendment repealed is "pretty limited."

Wittes said the Second Amendment guarantee of the right to bear arms meant more when it was crafted more than 200 years ago than it does today. Modern society is "much more ambivalent than they [the founders] were about whether gun ownership really is fundamental to liberty," he said.

"One of the things that they believed was that the right of states to organize militias, and therefore individuals to be armed, was necessary to protect the liberty of those states against the federal government," Wittes said. "This is something we don't really believe as a society anymore."

(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: armedcitizen; bang; banglist; brookings; brookingsinstitute; canhavebullet1st; civilwarpart2; comeandgethem; cw2; fmcdh; guncontrol; guns; henrybowman; keepnames; knowthyenemy; liberalassclown; makealistfortheday; molonlabe; newcivilwar; rkba; rkbaisresetbutton; sarahbrady; secondamendment; targetlist; unintendedconsquence
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To: Sub-Driver

“One of the things that they believed was that the right of states to organize militias, and therefore individuals to be armed, was necessary to protect the liberty of those states against the federal government,” Wittes said. “This is something we don’t really believe as a society anymore.”

We need it more now than ever.


141 posted on 06/12/2007 12:42:28 PM PDT by School of Rational Thought (Too principled to support Bush)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
Actually, I think your point brings an interesting Constitutional question....Can rights, that are 'recognized' be repealed?

(i.e. repealing the Second, no matter the intent of said repeal, actually would let the R2KBA/Self Defense revert to the Ninth Amendment and Tenth, then by extension the 14th ...)

142 posted on 06/12/2007 12:50:57 PM PDT by hobbes1 (Hobbes1TheOmniscient? "I know everything so you dont have to...." ;)
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To: Sub-Driver
Repeal Second Amendment, Analyst Advises

Only if he wants to start the next American Revolution.

143 posted on 06/12/2007 12:53:30 PM PDT by P8riot (I carry a gun because I can't carry a cop.)
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To: Sub-Driver

It’s good to hear the opponents of the Second Amendment at least be honest about it—If you don’t like the Constitution, amend it through the established and legal process.

I wonder how Benjamin Wittes feels about the Tenth Amendment.


144 posted on 06/12/2007 12:55:25 PM PDT by rottndog (If the Left obeyed the 10th Commandment, maybe they would learn to obey the 10th Amendment.)
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To: Chances Are

I hate to think of the future and the coming battles we face. This Nation must endure... even if it means we wall up some States and intern leftists, dims and terrorists inside them!

LLS


145 posted on 06/12/2007 1:37:16 PM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Support America, Kill terrorists, Destroy dims!)
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To: muawiyah
... figure out how to deport this Wittes guy...

I sent this article to my RKBA group. The spell checker suggested changing Wittes to witless.

146 posted on 06/12/2007 1:52:58 PM PDT by kitchen (Hey, Pericles. What are the three things a ruler must know?)
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To: Sub-Driver

Might as well try and repeal buttholes; the result would be the same. A year down the road and all hell would bust loose.


147 posted on 06/12/2007 1:54:52 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE
Regrettably, the REAL failure (tragedy ?) of Prohibition is that it DID give us the ability to (literally!) repeal a fundamental Right in the Constitution.

That exact point was contested before the Supreme Court in the 1920 Prohibition Hearings. The court heard lengthy/learned arguments by top constitutional scholars, declined to comment on them, and made a fiat 'ruling' that the 18th Amendment was constitutional. - Leaving open the question of whether a 'repugnant' act [see Marbury] can be constitutional.

That is, until they needed to repeal "prohibition" the basic concept of repealing the First Amendment, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or any other would be not be practical/possible/thought of/considered seriously. However, thanks to the early 20th century liberals (who also gave us the 17th Amendment stripping states of their right to appointment Senators!) and the income tax, we now face the ability to repeal the Second Amendment.

The prohibitionist's may ~believe~ they have that ability, but both constitutionally & in real world terms, they simply lack that power.
The power to prohibit basic rights has never been delegated to any level of gov't in the USA by we the people.
Barnett makes that point here:

The power to regulate v. the power to prohibit
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1419654/posts

148 posted on 06/12/2007 1:56:14 PM PDT by tpaine (" My most important function on the Supreme Court is to tell the majority to take a walk." -Scalia)
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Barnett makes that point here:
The power to regulate v. the power to prohibit
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1419654/posts


149 posted on 06/12/2007 1:56:59 PM PDT by tpaine (" My most important function on the Supreme Court is to tell the majority to take a walk." -Scalia)
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To: Hazcat

I don’t know who he is talking about. I believe it more than ever.


150 posted on 06/12/2007 2:53:07 PM PDT by akatel
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To: Joe Brower

151 posted on 06/12/2007 4:05:34 PM PDT by Travis McGee (--- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com ---)
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To: Sub-Driver

Are the ten in the BOR not iviolate? By saying that one should be repealed can we not say that of any of the others at any time there are enough morons who agree? Are we to live by “the yay and no of general ignorance”?


152 posted on 06/12/2007 4:20:51 PM PDT by Live free or die
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To: randomhero97
That is if the media didn’t censor what was actually happening.

As if they don't now? Of course they would redouble, even retreble their censorship efforts, as they are "true believers" in "the end justifies the means"...

the infowarrior

153 posted on 06/12/2007 4:23:21 PM PDT by infowarrior
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To: tumblindice
“We”? Is that a mouse in your pocket or do you just enjoy attacking the Bill of Rights?

Neither... It appears he's speaking French...

the infowarrior

154 posted on 06/12/2007 4:24:53 PM PDT by infowarrior
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To: Sub-Driver
Oh Yes, Please Do!

We REALLY need to clean the garbage out of D.C. anyway and this is the perfect excuse to get the job started.

Lets Get Ready to Rumble!

155 posted on 06/12/2007 4:24:58 PM PDT by Dr.Zoidberg (Mohammedanism - Bringing you only the best of the 6th century for fourteen hundred years.)
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To: Hugin
Even in the Civil War the Confederate States needed a federal army to fight the Union.

Beg do differ here... The US Civil War of 1861-1865 was fought largely by units which were privately raised at a state level. This was, perhaps the last war in our history where regiments levied by individual states were a prominent factor...

the infowarrior

156 posted on 06/12/2007 4:32:44 PM PDT by infowarrior
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To: Live free or die; y'all
Are the ten in the BOR not iviolate? By saying that one should be repealed can we not say that of any of the others at any time there are enough morons who agree?
Are we to live by 'the yay and no of general ignorance'?

Many here at FR agree that a majority, using 'community standards', - can ignore constitutional principles to make/enforce prohibitive laws.

It's no great leap for them to endorse the concept that a super-majority can ignore our right to own and carry arms in order to repeal the 2nd.

157 posted on 06/12/2007 5:17:21 PM PDT by tpaine (" My most important function on the Supreme Court is to tell the majority to take a walk." -Scalia)
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To: Sub-Driver

An anti with the honest to admit that the 2nd Amendment says exactly what it means and means exactly what it says. If only they all had his point of view, because the Amendment is still 100 years from being nullified via. Constitutional Amendment, and his honesty signals the death knell for those who want to twist the language of the 2nd into protecting the right of state governments to form militias.

Go man, go!


158 posted on 06/12/2007 6:22:40 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free
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To: Sub-Driver

What is most funny about his point of view is that overturning the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution would have no effect whatsoever on the numerous states that have RKBA in their State Constitutions.

To remove the protection on an individual’s right to KBA from the federal Constitution would make it simply a states rights issue.

To ban guns, he would have to pass a Constitutional amendment that both eradicates the 2nd Amendment and then includes an Amendment to the Constitution that bans or specifically restricts the right of the people to KBA.


159 posted on 06/12/2007 6:27:04 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free
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To: Sub-Driver

I saw this on RCP this morning too. I spit my coffee onto the monitor.


160 posted on 06/12/2007 6:59:48 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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