Could America Ever Vote On Gun Control?

A new gun control amendment would have "huge" support but would be difficult to achieve, a constitutional expert has said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has been among those backing a new amendment to the United States Constitution to restrict gun ownership as America's gun deaths climb to nearly 40,000 this year.

Peter Shane, a New York University constitutional law professor, told Newsweek that, while the American public would welcome an amendment on gun control, repeal of the Second Amendment would be almost impossible. The Second Amendment guarantees the right to gun ownership.

"An amendment clarifying the range of permissible reasonable regulation would have a lot of popular support. Of course, translating even huge majority support into congressional votes can prove absurdly difficult, but might be worth the effort to try," he said.

"An amendment requires a vote of 2/3 of both Houses of Congress and ratification by 3/4 of the states, i.e., 37 [states]. I cannot imagine outright repeal," Shane said.

The late Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was among those who called for the complete repeal of the Second Amendment.

Shane said the need for clarity on gun ownership has been elevated by last year's Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, in which the Supreme Court urged lower courts to ensure that gun laws are "consistent with the nation's historical tradition."

"There are a lot of gun regulations on the books throughout the country. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court decision in Bruen has generated huge uncertainty as to what kinds of regulation are permissible," Shane said.

Some academics have suggested a second Constitutional Convention, similar to the original convention in 1787, in which politicians from both sides would agree to rework whole sections of the Constitution to bring it up to date with modern views, especially on gun control.

Shane said that a second constitutional convention "would be a horrible idea" and would overcomplicate the process of reform.

So far in 2023, over 39,000 people have been killed by firearms in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an organization that tracks shootings. There have been at least 619 mass shootings and 33 mass murders this year, prompting calls for Congress to strengthen national gun laws, as gun control remains a tensely divided matter in the United States.

Proponents of gun control say limiting the ability of individuals to buy some weapons, such as assault rifles, would mitigate the number of shootings. Others, however, say stronger gun laws would impede the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

On June 8, California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a 28th Amendment that would restrict gun ownership "while leaving the Second Amendment unchanged."

Newsom's proposed 28th Amendment would introduce "universal background checks, raising the firearm purchase age to 21, instituting a firearm purchase waiting period, and barring the civilian purchase of assault weapons," according to Newsom's press release.

A year before his death in 2019, John Paul Stevens called for the complete repeal of the Second Amendment.

Writing in The New York Times in March 2018, Stevens said that "a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple" and would "honor the memories of the many, indeed far too many, victims of recent gun violence."

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana was confronted on Tuesday about the high firearms death rate in his home state during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence.

During Tuesday's hearing, Kennedy asked Dr. Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health, about gun violence in Chicago, Illinois, a city conservatives frequently say has a high crime rate due to progressive prosecutorial policies.

Ranney responded by pointing out that Kennedy's home state of Louisiana has a higher firearms death rate than Chicago.

According to a study conducted by the Violence Policy Center, Louisiana had a gun rate death of 28.42 in 2022. Chicago had a gun death rate of roughly 25.82 for that same year, according to a Newsweek analysis of the city's 2022 crime data.