FOR those outside the U.S. who wonder with bewilderment why in America a child of 18 or a drooling octogenarian of 81 can buy assault weapons in the gun store around the corner, answer: because it’s in the U.S. Constitution, and has been for 229 years.
You can change a law in an instant. The constitution you can’t.
An amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires first a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and then the approval of three-quarters of all 50 states. In America’s reality, where there is no two-thirds unanimity on any subject except hamburgers and baseball, let alone three-quarters, proposed constitutional amendments rarely make it to the finish line.
Since 1789, more than 11,000 amendments have been proposed in the House of Representatives, 33 reached the two-thirds majority, but six of them fell in the states. The Constitution counts 27 amendments, the most recent dating from 1992, regarding limiting salary increases for members of the Congress, and that proposal took 202 years to be ratified.
America will remain armed to the teeth for decades to come.
