We need to update the Second Amendment

It makes no practical difference that the military-only interpretation of the militia preamble to the Second Amendment is historically inaccurate and legally misguided. That has never stopped the Left before. And the militia preamble gives the Left all the hook it needs, however erroneously, to drag down our constitutional right “to keep and bear Arms.”

How do we prevent such an illegitimate judicial amendment repealing, for all practical purposes, the Second Amendment by interpreting it out of existence? I, for one, am not comfortable relying on one-vote majorities on the Supreme Court and extraordinarily narrow Republican presidential victories for the long-term security of my Second Amendment rights. Ironically, Justice Stevens has offered the solution. Rather than amending the Constitution to repeal the Second Amendment, we should amend the Second Amendment to update and clarify it for our times.

What would such a reform consist of? First, we should remove the outdated prefatory reference to the militia, thereby eliminating the Left’s rationale for judicially amending the Second Amendment out of existence. Second, we should try to define general guidelines for government regulation of firearms that are consistent with an individual right to self-defense. These might align with current gun laws that are supported by the National Rifle Association. My own formulation is to only allow “regulations restricting possession by persons convicted of a felony, or individually found by due process to be a threat to public or personal safety, or to assure public safety in the use of firearms.” However worded, such restrictions could calm the current bitter argument by reflecting the broad consensus that law-abiding citizens have the right to possess firearms, but allowing limited public-safety controls over their use and who uses them.