Former Justice Stevens: Five Words to Correct Second Amendment

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is set to release a new book in which he argues that the phrase “when serving in the militia” should be added to the Second Amendment.

The book is titled, “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution,” and the change Stevens has in mind for the Second Amendment would alter the language so as to render it a protection of a collective right instead of an individual one. 

Moreover, it would be a right that the government–at all levels–could regulate without hesitation.

Currently, the Second Amendment reads: 

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.

Stevens’ contends that this was intended as a collective right only and that it was “limited in scope to the uses of arms related to military activity.” 

According to The Washington Post, Stevens claims this was changed via the Supreme Court’s District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) decision. He says this decision suddenly introduced protections for “a civilian’s right to keep a handgun in his home for purposes of self-defense.” 

Stevens says the McDonald v. Chicago (2010) decision furthered these changes by using “the due process clause of the 14th Amendment” to limit the ability of cities to ban the possession of handguns.

He says this can all be remedied by adding five words to the Second Amendment:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms [when serving in the Militia] shall not be infringed.

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