Nevertheless, since the early 1900s, some liberals have been eager to end the Second Amendment altogether. Today, knowing they cannot pursue this goal head-on without Americans rejecting their real agenda, most liberals content themselves by trimming around the edges of the Second Amendment, fiddling with the lengths of barrels, capacities of magazines, open and concealed carry, and more, to inch toward their true goal: the practical elimination of the Second Amendment.

But lately, the mask has slipped. Witness Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ recent opinion piece in The New York Times, titled “Repeal the Second Amendment.” He admits that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms after all — something some liberals have denied for decades, and that Justice Stevens tried to write out of the Constitution in his dissent in Heller — so he concludes we should just get rid of it.

Coastal elites who have never been to shooting ranges consider even responsible firearm ownership akin to tracking manure onto the kitchen floor: perhaps not criminal, but certainly not acceptable, and worth stopping.