Gun control, the 2nd amendment, and the midnight knock at the door

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Ed.

These are all modest proposals, none of which involve banning guns or repealing the second amendment.

• Require a ballistics test be filed for all guns, public and private.

• Muskets and  Blunderbusses.  When the founding fathers wrote the constitution and amendments, they only knew of single loading arms like the musket and blunderbuss.  We know that Justices Scalia, Thomas, and others are fairly strict constitutionalists, who believe in interpreting the constitution according to the framer's intentions.  When the congress passed the second amendment, they could not even conceive of automatic weapons or multi-cartridge, quick change, ammunition clips.  Therefore we believe the amendment should be interpreted as applying to single shot, weapons, or to compromise, limit magazines to six or seven rounds, with no removable/quick load clips.

• The Barney Fife solution. Everyone gets one bullet, which must be carried apart from their weapon.

• Ammo Tax: $500 a bullet.  I think Chris Rock came up with a solution like this one.  Or maybe require that the casings of ammunition be made from gold. 

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