Trump and the Second Amendment

I read in the news that Donald Trump told members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) that if Hillary Clinton is elected President, she will abolish the U.S. Constitution’s 2nd Amendment. The Donald attributes a shocking amount of power to the U.S. president. The president certainly can’t wave a hand and say, “Begone, bothersome constitutional amendment.” So how will Clinton (if elected) abolish the 2nd Amendment?

Trump says Clinton will cleverly appoint anti-gun justices to the Supreme Court. She will somehow sneak her appointees past the Senate Judiciary Committee, and then, assuming they are approved, sneak them past the full Senate which must vote to approve her appointments. Then, presumably, those new Supreme Court justices will vote to abolish the 2nd amendment.

Except, the Supreme Court can’t do that. The Court has no authority to abolish the Constitution, nor any part of it. In fact, the main job of the Supreme Court is to see that our laws conform to the principles declared in the Constitution. The Court can rule that a law is unconstitutional, but the Court cannot rule that the Constitution itself is unconstitutional.

Trump says Clinton will curtail gun rights. If any President had the power to curtail guns in America, one would think Barack Obama would have done so by now. After all, during his terms in office he has had to address the nation after each of twelve mass shootings (to date).

The truth is: to change or abolish the 2nd Amendment, two thirds of the House and Senate must approve the changes, and three-fourths of the states must affirm the changes. That process has been used 27 times to amend the Constitution. There is another way to amend the Constitution but it’s never been used, and that is for two-thirds of the state legislatures to vote to hold a Constitutional Convention. The Convention can propose amendments, but the amendments must still be approved by three-fourths of the states. The 2nd Amendment is pretty safe. Of course, there was that time when “the People” decided to abolish alcohol in America, so anything is possible.