Will the Second Amendment eventually become obsolete?
Some day, in the not too distant future, advancing technology will render the guns we have today obsolete. We see evidence of this in the way guns have evolved since this nation was created.
We will one day have weapons that will more closely resemble those seen in “Star Wars” movies than today’s AR-15-style weapons. That brings me to my question. When that day comes, will the Second Amendment become obsolete?
People cannot debate the Second Amendment without using the word “gun.” But where does the word “gun” appear in the Second Amendment? I will save you a Google search and tell you that it does not. The Second Amendment very specifically talks about the right to “keep and bear arms.”
We often hear people argue that the authors of the Constitution weren’t thinking about assault weapons when they wrote it. I don’t think that is true, and the fact that the Second Amendment makes no mention of guns supports my opinion. How could the authors of the Constitution have foreseen the types of arms we have today? They would have done so by looking back at the history of arms, starting with … well, arms. Humans once fought with their actual arms and fists. After what I would imagine was a very short period of time, they figured out that a stick or rock was more effective. And bigger sticks and bigger rocks were even more effective. Sticks became spears, and spears became arrows. But they were still “arms.”
The authors of the Constitution knew that the evolution of weapons would not stop with muskets. So they very intentionally used words that would encompass any and all weapons that would be used in the future. If you don’t believe me, feel free to consult Federalist No. 46 and read James Madison’s views on the subject.
