General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Honest question for those demanding immediate gun control [View all]Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)That it should be replaced every 19 years. He did the math and concluded that 19 years was the length of time a single generation constituted an electoral majority. And that expecting people to live under laws they had no part in making was tyranny. And as to "unconstitutional"; under the Constitution as written Native Americans weren't citizens, slavery was legal, and slaves counted as three-fifths of a person for census purposes. Society changes. There is no longer any need for a citizen militia, which was the point of the Second Amendment in the first place; not only that, the Second Amendment was also for its time a radical statement of social equality. The English Bill of Rights of 1689 stipulated that: "the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law". "Suitable to their conditions" means "on the basis of social status"; in 17th century England, only gentlemen could wear swords. The right to bear arms without any class-based restriction is therefore a radical egalitarian statement for the 18th century. The need for such distinction has vanished along with the reasons behind the amendment.