RON ELVING: The Second Amendment casts a long shadow across gun debates in America.
JODEY ARRINGTON: We’re talking about our God-given fundamental right.
TUCKER CARLSON: Gun control
JOSH EARNEST: Of gun control
CARRIE LIGHTFOOT: Second Amendment right
JOE SCARBOROUGH: The Second Amendment
PAUL RYAN: Legitimate constitutional
NEWT GINGRICH: Right to bear arms
DONALD TRUMP: Second Amendment
(cheers from crowd)
ELVING: But what would it take to actually
change it?
Amending the Constitution began practically before the ink was dry on the original document.
The Second Amendment, the right of state militias and individuals to “keep and bear” firearms,
was the second in that original batch of 10 amendments that we think of as the Bill of Rights.
So here’s how it works:
Congress can change any part of the Constitution
it wishes to, with a two-thirds vote of the
House and a two-thirds vote of the Senate
and — here’s the hard part — three-fourths
of the states must sign off;
currently, 38 states.
These original 10 and all subsequent amendments
to the Constitution were added using a process
that’s right there in the Constitution - Article 5.
(or Article V because the framers liked to show off their Latin.)
Since then, those hurdles of two-thirds in
Congress and three-fourths of the states have
loomed awfully high.
There have been thousands of proposals to
amend the Constitution, but only 17 have made
it all the way and only two in the last 50
years.
If all this seems daunting, there is another
way to change the Constitution.
That would be by calling a new constitutional convention.
This would require a call from two-thirds
of the state legislatures, probably with a
specific amendment in mind.
But some people believe that such a convention, once it began, could change any part of the
United States Constitution … as long as
it could be ratified by three-fourths of the states.
So.... while the Founding Fathers were apparently willing to be edited,
they did not want it to be easy.
They wanted any change to the Constitution to reflect a powerful national consensus.
It’s been awhile since we’ve had one of
those, and it may be a long while
before we have one on guns.
For now, I’m Ron Elving at NPR.
Thanks for coming to my office hours.
