Anytime—ANYTIME—a Constitutional convention is called for the purpose of changing any part of it, ALL of it can be changed.
“Anytime a Constitutional convention is called for the purpose of changing any part of it, ALL of it can be changed.”
That sounds scary until you read Article V of the Constitution. A Constitutional convention (known elsewhere as a constituent assembly) can only be convened with the approval of two-thirds of the state legislatures, which is 34 right now. Any amendment(s) passed either by such convention or through the normal path in Congress (2/3rds majority) still require ratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures; that’s 38.
Twenty-seven of thirty-three amendments passed by Congress have actually been ratified while over 11,000 amendment measures introduced in Congress died before seeing the light of day. Google `equal rights amendment’ for an example of `close, but no cigar’.
In other words, the Founders saw to it that amending the Constitution would be an extremely cumbersome & difficult process. It should be noted that according to Article V the President has no role in the amendment process.
So somebody needs to tell ol’ J.P. Stevens to put on his hiking shoes & start lobbying the halls of Congress the old fashioned way and get a measure passed by 2/3rds in both House & Senate to repeal the Second Amendment; then borrow Nannie Bloomberg’s private jet to fly around all fifty states & pressure the state houses to ratify. Otherwise, he’s just blowing smoke like those other `experts’ who insist that the 2nd Amendment only permits ownership of muzzleloading flintlocks because that’s all the Founders had.
Or...as our friends across the pond would put it,
“Not bloody likely, mate.”
Not true! An Article V convention is for the purpose of introducing Amendments, not a wholesale replacement. But, yes, there could be some nasty Amendments introduced, then be ratified the same way Obama was elected, with wholesale fraud.