Constitutional law professor: ‘Second Amendment must be repealed’

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From The Washington Times

A constitutional law professor penned an op-ed for Rolling Stone Monday calling for the “outdated” Second Amendment to be repealed, saying America’s Founding Fathers “got it wrong” on the right to bear arms.

“I teach the Constitution for a living,” wrote David S. Cohen, a professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia. “I revere the document when it is used to further social justice and make our country a more inclusive one. I admire the Founders for establishing a representative democracy that has survived for over two centuries.

“But sometimes we just have to acknowledge that the Founders and the Constitution are wrong. This is one of those times. We need to say loud and clear: The Second Amendment must be repealed,” he argued. “They were deeply flawed people, it was and is a flawed document, and when we think about how to make our country a more perfect union, we must operate with those principles in mind.”

Mr. Cohen wrote that the Second Amendment is “is outdated, a threat to liberty and a suicide pact” and should be repealed with a Constitutional amendment.

“When the Second Amendment was adopted in 1791, there were no weapons remotely like the AR-15 assault rifle and many of the advances of modern weaponry were long from being invented or popularized,” he said.

He referenced Sunday’s terrorist attack at an Orlando nightclub that left 49 people dead and 53 injured, arguing that the Founders never could have foreseen that level of carnage at the hands of a lone gunman.

“Gun-rights advocates like to make this all about liberty, insisting that their freedom to bear arms is of utmost importance and that restricting their freedom would be a violation of basic rights,” Mr. Cohen continued. “But liberty is not a one way street. It also includes the liberty to enjoy a night out with friends, loving who you want to love, dancing how you want to dance, in a club that has historically provided a refuge from the hate and fear that surrounds you.

“The liberty of some to own guns cannot take precedence over the liberty of everyone to live their lives free from the risk of being easily murdered. It has for too long, and we must now say no more,” he wrote. “We need a mass movement of those who are fed up with the long-dead Founders’ view of the world ruling current day politics. A mass movement of those who will stand up and say that our founding document was wrong and needs to be changed. A mass movement of those who will thumb their nose at the NRA, an organization that is nothing more than the political wing of the country’s gun manufacturers, and say enough is enough.The Second Amendment must be repealed, and it is the essence of American democracy to say so.”

Mr. Cohen teaches a Constitutional Law class that Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law requires for students to graduate, Campus Reform reported.

He also serves on the board of directors for the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia and the national Abortion Care Network. He continues to work on pro bono cases affecting abortion access and LGBT rights, his bio states.

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