Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday denounced what he termed “the prostitution of the Second Amendment” by pro-rights advocates during an appearance at the University of Pennsylvania, according to MSN, claiming that the amendment is “being badly interpreted (and) not consistent with what our founders intended.”
Since the interpretations are those of the U.S. Supreme Court, gun rights activists might suggest that Biden—who once infamously suggested discharging a shotgun from a rear deck or patio at one’s home as a way to frighten home invasion robbers—spend some time with Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC). He’s the former federal prosecutor who has blistered officials and members of the press about how the Second Amendment is treated differently than all the others.
He is perhaps most famous for his grilling of Homeland Security Deputy Assistant Secretary Kelli Ann Burriesci about safeguards for American citizens whose names are placed on a terror watch list and thus denied their Second Amendment rights. Like any good lawyer, he already knew the answer, because it is only after someone’s name goes on the list that they could appeal, but in the meantime their right to keep and bear arms would be “chilled.”
“Is there another constitutional right that we treat the same way for American citizens that we do the Second Amendment? Can you think of one?”—Rep. Trey Gowdy during Congressional hearing
During another hearing, Gowdy once observed, “There would be apoplexy if we required any kind of test for the exercise of any other right and the Second Amendment is treated as a step child in constitutional jurisprudence and I’m just curious why that is.”
Earlier this week, retired liberal Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens encouraged student anti-gun protesters to push for repeal of the Second Amendment. His Op-Ed in the New York Times has outraged the firearms community and raised the question about how someone with such a hostile attitude toward the amendment, which many believe is the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights, ever was confirmed for a seat on the highest court in the land?
Now comes Biden, telling his university audience, “What’s happened here is the nation as a whole has decided it can no longer, in my view, continue to turn a blind eye to the prostitution of the Second Amendment here and can no longer turn a blind eye to the enormous damage being done not just in our schools but on our streets.”
But the Second Amendment hasn’t damaged anything, its defenders argue. Individuals who engage in the criminal misuse of firearms are the problem, not the guns, nor anyone else who owns one.
Not only Biden, but media darling high schooler David Hogg and many in the media might also need a session with Gowdy, to answer the same questions.
What other constitutionally-protected right is treated the same way as the Second Amendment?
What other right can an American citizen not exercise until after getting permission from the FBI via a background check?
What other right does an American citizen face obstacles exercising – including criminal prosecution – if he or she crosses a state line with a firearm?
What other right is so frequently attacked by newspaper editorial boards exercising the First Amendment?
What other right has been so restricted in many states that it presently amounts to nothing more than a government-regulated privilege?
Gowdy would like to know the answer, and so would tens of millions of honest citizens who have harmed nobody, even though they’ve been treated like criminals by ever-more restrictive gun laws, and accused by the likes of teenage activists and others of having blood on their hands from crimes they didn’t commit?
