Anti-Second Amendment?

When you see a phrase like anti-Second Amendment you might think it stands for someone who disputes the Second Amendment. Maybe the person doesn’t believe in a “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” If that’s all it could ever mean, the concept would likely pose enough danger. Those of us who love human liberty must impress on our fellow citizens the need to preserve all the natural rights of human beings. The right of the people to keep and bear arms is more fundamental, because it guarantees all the rest.

But over the weekend that phrase took on a new meaning. Someone actually proposed an amendment to repeal and replace the Second Amendment. Call it the Anti-Second Amendment, in the sense “a thing someone has offered in place of it.” As such it presents a clear and present danger to all freedom-loving Americans, and therefore we dare not ignore it. Instead we will analyze it, section by section, and show what’s wrong with it.

Text of the Anti-Second Amendment

Filmmaker Michael Moore (Roger and Me; Planet of the Humans) offered the Anti-Second Amendment in a tweet on Sunday:

SECTION 1.

The inalienable right of a free people to be kept safe from gun violence and the fear thereof must not be infringed and shall be protected by the Congress and the States. This Amendment thus repeals and replaces the Second Amendment.

SECTION 2.

Congress shall create a mandatory system of firearm registration and licensing for the following limited purposes: (a) licensed hunters of game; (b) licensed ranges for the sport of target shooting; and (c) for the few who can demonstrate a special need for personal protection.

All who seek a firearm will undergo a strict vetting process with a thorough background check, including the written and confidential approval of family members, spouses and ex-spouses and/or partners and ex-partners, co-workers and neighbors. A mental health check will also be required. There will be a waiting period of one month to complete the full background check.

SECTION 3.

Those who meet all the requirements for the restricted gun owners groups and successfully pass the background check must take a firearms safety class and pass a written test on an annual basis.

SECTION 4.

The minimum age for the restricted groups who can own a firearm is 25 years old. Renewal and review of the firearms license will occur on an annual basis.

The Turn-‘em-in Part

SECTION 5.

Congress will stipulate and continually update the limited list of approved firearms for civilian use, including weapons in the future that are not yet invented. The following firearms are heretofore banned:

• All automatic and semi-automatic weapons and all devices which can enable a single-shot gun to fire automatically or semi-automatically;
• Any weapon that can hold more than six bullets or rounds at a time or any magazine that holds more than six bullets;
• All guns made of plastic or any homemade equipment and machinery or a 3D printer that can make a gun or weapon that can take a human life.

SECTION 6.

Congress shall regulate all ammunition, capacity of ammunition, the storage of guns, gun locks, gun sights, body armor and the sale and distribution of such items. No weapons of any kind whose sole intention is the premeditated elimination of human life are considered legal. Congress may create future restrictions as this amendment specifically does not grant any American the “right” to own any weapon.

He doesn’t trust anybody…

SECTION 7.

Police who are trained and vetted to use firearms shall be subject to comprehensive and continuous monitoring and shall be dismissed if found to exhibit any racist or violent behavior.

SECTION 8.

Persons already owning any of the above banned firearms, and who do not fall into the legal groups of restricted firearms owners, will have one month from the ratification of this Amendment to turn in their firearms for destruction by local law enforcement. These local authorities may organize a gun buy-back program to assist in this effort.

Anti-Second Amendment is anti-freedom

This Anti-Second Amendment checks off all the boxes for someone afraid, not only of his own shadow but the shadows of his fellow Americans. Mr. Moore surprises CNAV by this bit of honesty (or brass): he doesn’t even use the word freedom anywhere. Instead he speaks of safety. Note also his passive verb construct in Section 1. But he makes the obvious mistake. A free people never stands on a “right” to be kept safe. Recall what Benjamin Franklin said about liberty and safety:

Those who would sacrifice essential liberty in order to purchase a bit of temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

In false generosity he offers to allow people (other than law enforcement) to bear weapons for:

1. Wild game hunting, with the usual sort of license one has today,
2. Target practice on a range, and
3. Serving a “special need for personal protection.”

That last is a direct nod to the New York State may-issue law that the Supreme Court recently struck down. (New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.)

The rest of Section 2 consists of the ultimate Red Flag Law – a pre-emptive Red Flag. Note carefully: confidential approval. That supersedes the Sixth Amendment right to face one’s accuser.

Sections 3 and 4 round out this not-quite-privileged class. The minimum age for owning any firearm rises to twenty-five. The two sections redundantly require every licensee to renew every year. And the Red Flag hit can happen in any year.

Trying to future-proof it

Sections 5 and 6 are the future proofers. Moore wants his Anti-Second Amendment to cover any weapon anyone might invent, past, present or future. But out of the gate he makes three kinds of bans. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), if she still has the mental capacity to read his submission, must be heart-warmed. The ban lists includes all automatic and semi-automatic weapons. Bear this in mind whenever anyone offers to distinguish between them. Michael Moore does not, and he is only the latest to be brazen enough not to. Which is why CNAV holds that a free individual may arm himself at least as well as, if not better than, an infantry soldier.

The only guns that would remain legal, as The Blaze points out, are:

• Six-shot revolvers,
• Bolt-action rifles, and
• Single-shot or double-barreled shotguns.

Note that Moore also would ban any equipment or technology that would let someone be his own gunsmith.

Nor does it stop with guns. Naturally it continues to ammunition, magazines, body armor – in short, all the things the Left doesn’t want civilians to have. The last clause in Section 6 makes the point as plain as day:

This amendment specifically does not grant any American the “right” to own any weapon.

But what about law enforcement and the military?

What about them? Moore presumes the worst motives. So all police must submit to “comprehensive and continuous monitoring” and “dismissal” if “found to exhibit racist or violent behavior.”

That last might present a problem. Perhaps Mr. Moore never learned that the National Rifle Association began with a charter to arm the new freedmen after the War Between the States.

But the biggest problem with this Anti-Second Amendment is the magical thinking that underlies it. Section 8 provides that all persons not “qualifying” to own firearms, have a month to turn them in. Local law enforcement then has the task of destroying them.

Psychologist Geoffrey Miller tweeted a reasonable question that addresses this magical thinking:

Such a cute effort! Good virtue signaling Michael. And, pray tell, how exactly would you confiscate the 200+ million firearms that are legally owned by US citizens, that would suddenly violate your cute amendment, without provoking a civil war?

How, indeed?

Someone else observed that Section 5 would outlaw virtually every machine tool that exists.

Would the Anti-Second Amendment ever pass?

We cannot complacently assume that no such thing would ever pass. The history of anti-freedom amendments like this Anti-Second Amendment does not hold promise. James G. Blaine, don’t forget, persuaded up to thirty-eight States to pass anti-religious amendments to their own Constitutions. (Louisiana repealed theirs in 1974.) The Supreme Court itself gave us a slew of unhealthy precedents over the decades. True, the Court has now overruled many of those precedents. But others remain, including this one directly relevant to Michael Moore’s purposes: US v. Miller (1939).

That’s why CNAV is not laughing at Michael Moore. Miller’s lawyers laughed at the National Firearms Act of 1934. “Aankh!” they said. “The Supreme Court will never uphold such a blatantly unconstitutional law!” How wrong they were! Miller is a precedent by default – because no one argued against it.

The only reason we have a Supreme Court as friendly to Constitutional liberties as this one, is that freedom lovers painstakingly sought to change its membership over time. Appointing Clarence Thomas was part of it. But so were the appointment of Sam Alito instead of Harriet Meyers, and the appointments of Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.

Thus far, the site GovTrack doesn’t yet have House or Senate Joint Resolution numbers for the Anti-Second Amendment. Michael Moore said he has submitted his proposal to Congress. So there’s no reason to suppose it never will. Given that, freedom lovers can enjoy no rest.