Even if you’re the kind of activist who believes the problem isn’t the Constitution, but the interpretation thereof, the remedy is the same. Once more—I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with Elie Mystal, who wrote in The Nation, “If Republicans tell us it’s the Second Amendment that stands in the way of reasonable gun reform, then it’s the Second Amendment that we should be coming for.”

Amendments frequently travel unlikely paths. The most recent amendment to the Constitution took 200 years to ratify, and the push to get it over the finish line in 1992 can be traced to a sophomore at the University of Texas, who got a C on the term paper suggesting the amendment was still pending.

It’s a refrain of pro-Second Amendment types like myself to tell gun-control activists, “Come and take it.” The original Greek phrase, “Molon labe” was said to have been uttered by the Spartan leader Leonidas in response to Xerxes’ request that they surrender their weapons at the Battle of Thermopylae.

In their wisdom, the Founding Fathers set up a significant barrier between the federal government and the people’s arms. Without dealing with that very hard fact, most gun-control efforts will be, to borrow from another Greek story, Sisyphean.