Constitutional amendment processes and reform mechanisms

Changing the Constitution

Examining the Constitution, many people believe that fundamental freedoms cannot be protected with adhering to the Bill of Rights. However, it is critical to realize that the Bill of Rights was authored more than 200 years ago, by people who viewed liberty in a far more limited manner than it is viewed by modern Americans. Moreover, it was written in a time when modern technological advances were impossible to contemplate. Therefore, two amendments in the Bill of Rights should be changed: the Second Amendment and the Seventh Amendment.

The text of the Second Amendment provides, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

This has been interpreted to mean that individuals have a right to bear arms that cannot be prohibited by the government, though it can be regulated. However, looking at the text of this amendment, one can begin to see why it would be problematic. At the time it was drafted, the amendment provided citizens the right to bear arms that would be sufficient to defend themselves against the armed forces of other governments. Interpreted in the present day, this would amount to an individual right to bear any arms that a nation possessed, which would mean an individual right to chemical and nuclear weapons. This is a ludicrous position and one that the founders could not have contemplated. It leads one to ask "how the heck can we determine 'Constitutional interpretation of law' based on laws which govern situations or events that couldn't have even been imagined when it was written?"

Even more troubling is the fact that reliance on the Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights has "saddled us with a dysfunctional political system, kept us from debating the merits of divisive issues and inflamed our public discourse."

No one can deny that America has a gun violence problem or that countries that have instituted strict gun control standards have seen attendant drops in gun violence. However, it has become impossible to even debate gun control in America because it becomes a dog whistle for people who want to claim that their rights are being infringed.

Like the Second Amendment, the Seventh Amendment should be changed because it has become irrelevant or unworkable with time. The Seventh Amendment provides, "In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."