The Gun Question No One Asks

Yesterday's sit-in by House Democrats was an impressive display of the power of Periscope and Facebook Video, and it certainly got a lot of publicity, but it's not going to change anything as long as Republicans hold the majority in both houses of Congress. They'll do anything to avoid endangering the flow of funds they receive from the NRA.

One of their favorite arguments against any sort of gun safety legislation is that it's akin to abolishing the Second Amendment when it's not actually about revoking the right of Americans to be armed, but modifying it.

If I interviewed any of the pro-gun legislators -- which is not going to happen -- I'd first ask about why it's okay to legislate limits on the First Amendment, but not the Second. What kind of limits am I talking about? Addressing only the free speech clause of the First Amendment, here are four examples: If the First Amendment is open to such modifications, why isn't the Second Amendment malleable enough to allow universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons?

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