Is it time to repeal the Second Amendment?
A former U.S. Supreme Court justice says it's time to get real and live in the 21st century, not the 1700s.
The amendment reads like this in the Constitution: "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."
The argument
John Paul Stevens penned an opinion piece in The New York Times in response to the Parkland mass school shooting arguing for a repeal. He retired from the court in 2010, after more than 35 years on the bench.
Stevens was on the losing end of a 2008 ruling in which the high court held that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun for self-defense. He said the decision in the Heller case "provided the NRA with a propaganda weapon of immense power."
In his New York Times op-ed, the 97-year-old suggests that getting rid of the Second Amendment "would do more to weaken the NRA's ability to 'block constructive gun control legislation'" and be a more "effective and more lasting reform."
He also embraced legislation that would ban semiautomatic weapons, increase the minimum age for buying a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establish a "more comprehensive" background check system on all purchases of firearms.
Stevens thinks students should be the ones going after amendment.
Student activist: 'I'm going for compromise'
Macy McClintock, a junior at Robinson High School in Hillsborough County, joined thousands of other young people marching for their lives this weekend.
But the high school junior's feelings on Stevens' proposal might surprise you.
“I think it’s an awful idea, I’m going for compromise," she said. "I’m a supporter of the Second Amendment right, I feel that some people do need it for protection.”
McClintock and fellow marcher Parisa Akbarpour argue their involvement in the 'March For Our Lives' movement isn't about totally disarming Americans.
"As a collective movement with this March For Our Lives, we want just stricter regulation as to what people do have rights to have," Akbarpour said.
"We’re protesting people being able to have military-grade weapons and we’re protesting forms of gun violence where the person who has the weapon should have never been able to commit that crime.”
Mainly, McClintock and Akbarpour support bans on guns like AR-15s or other high-powered rifles.
That said, Akbarpour also represents a faction of Americans who do not believe the Second Amendment is something set in stone either.
"People say, you know 'our Founding Fathers would never take away our guns if they wrote it in the Constitution,' but there’s a literal quote by Thomas Jefferson on the Jefferson Memorial saying essentially if the times call for change and change needs to happen, then change should happen," she said, referring to a quote etched into the south portico of the Jefferson Memorial which reads: "... with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times..."
Gun owners
The other people impacted, of course, are gun owners. Some we spoke to in the Tampa Bay area say any repeal would require force to disarm them.
They say there’s no way a repeal of the Second Amendment ever sees the light of day. Tampa Carry owner Ryan Thomas says the opinion written by Stevens has no power.
“If guns are illegal we’re just going to have more Boston Bombings. If guns are illegal more people are going to get stabbed. Crazy people want to do crazy things and they’re going to figure out whatever device or weapon they can to make that happen,” he said.
Mark McGee, taking Thomas’s concealed carry permit class, agrees, “That’s just not going to happen. There are too many people with guns who are going to fight that.”
While the opinion addresses not enough being done after recent mass shootings. Thomas says in each case there seems to be more of an issue with ignored warning signs about the gunmen and not the gun.
“How can we blame the gun when we trusted the government? We told them it was happening multiple times and they refused to do anything,” he said.
The opinion makes no mention of how to handle things like hunting, target shooting or gun collecting.
“The blame is getting passed on to gun owners and there are hundreds of lawful gun owners in the United States who do not do anything illegal,” Thomas said.
Michael Schwarz says the Second Amendment is a necessity. “We can’t always trust the federal government. They do wrong just like we do wrong, but it was given to us in case they ever want to stomp on us and try to completely control us.”
While there are always calls for gun control after mass shootings, Thomas says that’s when he sees more people trying to protect themselves.
“After the church shooting in Texas we had a huge influx of pastors, board members and church members wanting to carry a gun, after school shooting we had administrators, teacher and parents that want to carry guns,” he said.
Thomas says that likely won’t change anytime soon.
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