Hawaii Democrats Want U.S. Congress to Consider Repeal of Second Amendment
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com
March 8, 2019
(CNSNews.com) – A resolution introduced in the Hawaii Senate this week urges the U.S. Congress to “consider and discuss whether the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution should be repealed or amended to clarify that the right to bear arms is a collective, rather than individual, constitutional right.”
The resolution also urges Congress to adopt a proposed constitutional amendment “to clarify the constitutional right to bear arms.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2008 that the Second Amendment “protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.”
The 5-4 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller also stated, “Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited.”
The Hawaii Senate resolution has been referred to committee and no hearings are scheduled at this time.
Of Hawaii’s 25 state senators, only one is Republican. The rest are Democrats.
In a statement on its website, the National Rifle Association said, “This resolution shows a gross disregard for individual liberties that the United States was founded upon.”
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Heller decision also referenced the founding of the nation, noting that the “militia” in those days “comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense.
According to the ruling: “The Antifederalists feared that the Federal Government would disarm the people in order to disable this citizens’ militia, enabling a politicized standing army or a select militia to rule. The response was to deny Congress power to abridge the ancient right of individuals to keep and bear arms, so that the ideal of a citizens’ militia would be preserved.”
The court found that the District of Columbia’s prohibition on the possession of usable handguns in the home violated the Second Amendment.
In the U.S. Congress, the Democrat-led House has acted quickly on its first major gun legislation, passing H.R. 8, the “Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019,” late last month.
The bill would make it illegal for any person who is not a licensed firearm importer, manufacturer, or dealer to transfer a firearm to any other person who is not so licensed without a background check.
In other words, all private gun sales would have to go through a licensed firearms dealer before the transfer could be finalized.
The NRA called the bill “misguided and ineffective legislation that is designed to score political points, not address crime, violence or mental health.”
It has no chance of becoming law at this time, with Republicans in control of the Senate and the White House.
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