this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2024
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The Right Can't Meme
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The problem is taking the amendments as unchangeable and almost divinely commanded. They were things written by people hundreds of years ago, and they can be changed. They're literally called amendments. It doesn't matter whether the second amendment protects gun rights, it's up to us nowadays to decide if we want people to have the right to a gun, decided based on our ethical arguments, not what an old document says.
I say this as a non American, it's just pretty weird to me that even the anti gun people defend their position by quoting the second amendment (usually), rather than suggesting changing it.
It's not even just that amendments happen, its that as written laws the US constitution is terribly drafted. It is vague, doesn't define many of the terms it uses and is full of edge cases that it doesn't deal with.
It's more a statement of ideology than actual law, which means you need a whole system of court decisions that lay out the actual practical interpretations that courts are supposed to follow, which of course are decided based on the political needs of the day so they are a total mess.
Changing it is very difficult. It takes 2/3rds of our legislative branch agreeing. We don't see that much.
It says something about how fucking nuts Prohibition was that the states agreed to it and then agreed that was a terrible idea.
It was a huge womens rights movement issue at the time. They weren’t all prudes, they just thought it would be a more effective way to cut back on domestic violence than going at it directly (more enforceable and politically viable), iirc. Then everyone hated it.
One reason is you can't change Amendments, only repeal and add them. Second you need 2/3 of all 50 state legislatures or Congress to ah Gree before even start that process, ratification requires 3/4 of the states to agree, it's a fucking process from hell
It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a civics class, but my understanding is that you cannot change an amendment. You can repeal it. You can create new amendments. But they actually cannot be changed.
Now, that said, it takes a lot of agreement to create a new amendment: 2/3rds of both the senate and house must agree, or 2/3rds of the states must petition congress. Both of those options, especially in today’s political climate, is highly unlikely.
https://www.rd.com/article/how-to-amend-the-constitution/