Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for the Second Amendment to be repealed in a condemnatory op-ed published in The New York Times on Tuesday. "Concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states led to the adoption of that amendment," writes Stevens, adding: "Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century."
Stevens, the third longest serving justice who was on the liberal side of the court at the time of his retirement in 2010, naturally built his argument off legal precedent. "In 1939 the Supreme Court unanimously held that Congress could prohibit the possession of a sawed-off shotgun because that weapon had no reasonable relation to the preservation or efficiency of a 'well regulated militia,'" he points out.
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