It's time to repeal and replace the Second Amendment

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Yes, it is long past time to repeal and replace the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution!

By inscribing these words, I will draw the ire of every card-carrying NRA gun enthusiast in America—but I really don't care, to be perfectly honest. Not when considering that over the past two weeks, over 30 lives have been taken by heavily armed young men who slaughtered innocent men, women, and yes, children. 

In remembrance of the dead in Buffalo and Texas…

There are those who will say, "but Hobbs, the Founding Fathers intended for Americans to safely bear arms." But there’s an angry part of me that truly could not care less about what "their" Founding Fathers (not mine) meant when they wrote, "A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed," because those same men also wrote that enslaved Black people were only "3/5ths" of white people in that very Constitution, thus proving their lack of "enlightenment" despite their routinely being praised as the most erudite and moral men in world history (which is a damnable lie).

The other part of me, the historian who has taught constitutional law to undergrads at Florida A&M University, also knows that “their” Founding Fathers were against the creation of a standing Army (which we now have), thus, their push for state militias filled by citizens that bore arms. Note the words of Noah Webster, editor of The Federalist, who wrote in 1787:

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.”

Trust me when I tell you that most NRA types have never bothered to read that passage or the debates between their precious Founding Fathers to understand that it was those state militias, which would supply long-arms and cannon in times of war for those citizens who otherwise maintained rifles for hunting and small arms for self-defense, that was their primary concern—not some mass murderer in future years walking around with high tech weapons ready to kill his neighbors!

Like many Americans, I am sick and tired of seeing carnage across our nation perpetrated by young men who take the cowardly route of attacking innocent, unarmed victims. There's nothing courageous at all about walking into a school, a movie theater, a church, a synagogue, a mosque, or a grocery store and opening fire. And as many of my psychiatrist and psychologist friends have written on social media, most of the shooters are not mentally ill—they are just evil men choosing to do evil acts of violence. 

Children being led to safety during the deadly Sandy Hook Elementary massacre that left nearly two dozen students and teachers dead in December of 2012.

Yet and still, every time another mass shooting happens in America, the NRA gun nuts—and the political pawns that they've bought in Congress and statehouses across our nation—offer their "thoughts and prayers" and then move on with their daily affairs without a care in the world. 

But to me, it's way past time for "thoughts and prayers" to turn into meaningful policy change; as one who believes in substance over symbolism, I believe that repealing the Second Amendment must be THE highest goal!

The historian in me reminds that there's precedent; back when the Temperance Movement lead to Prohibition of alcohol sales and use per the 18th Amendment which was ratified in 1919, after over a decade of limited success (and wanton mafia violence) that followed, the 21st Amendment was ratified to repeal Prohibition in 1933. 

I also remind that specific to the Second Amendment, that following the end of the Civil War, the Reconstruction Congress abolished Southern state “militias” due to their recent rebellion, this despite the Second Amendment's “right” to a “well regulated militia.” And while those disbanded militia men later formed private groups like the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize newly freed Blacks for another century, my point remains that if there is a Congressional will to foment changes to the Second Amendment, there is a way.

The Second Amendment can be repealed or modified per post-Civil War precedent…

But again, there has to be a will to get this done, and I sincerely believe that there are far more intelligent people who recognize that the Second Amendment, as written, has been interpreted to prevent common sense gun regulation in America. Which is ironic because trust me when I tell you that the NRA doesn't really care that former felons who have paid their debts to society have their rights to bare arms routinely infringed, nor did the NRA care back when then California Gov. Ronald Reagan was pushing to prevent the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (below) from lawfully carrying weapons in the 1960's.

No, the NRA doesn’t care about anything but preventing common sense measures, like bans on assault rifles, high capacity magazines, and automatic background checks, ones that could mitigate—if not eliminate—the menace of misanthropic men who are killing at will in America. 

So, as we push toward repealing and replacing the Second Amendment, lest we forget to ask why America, more than any so-called "industrial" nation in the world, is an incubator for mass murderers? What is it about this nation that allows a small percentage of the population to terrorize the majority, so much so that we all are wary (and weary) when we go to the corner store for fear that some fool will walk in and start blasting? And yes, we have to ask why is it that mass murderers, the majority of whom are angry young white males, seemingly get the kind of relative grace for their murderous acts from the judicial system and the media that is not given when urban violence among Blacks and Latinos is the issue at hand? If you are not asking these questions in your mind—and seeking solutions—then you are a part of the problem. 

Again, the time to act is long past due, and with the right level of organization and resolve, gun control can be a real thing in America—but the Second Amendment must be removed from its annual role of retarding meaningful progress towards common sense gun and ammunition control across these United States.