By AWR Hawkins
Washington DC – -(Ammoland.com)- During a recent appearance on Newsmax TV, Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said the Second Amendment is an “absurd thing” in our constitution and that our legal framework needs to be adjusted “to create a presumption against gun ownership instead of a presumption in favor of gun ownership.”
We have tried an experiment for the last 250 years and it’s failed miserably and we have to start a new approach. The new approach has to be guns should not be available to people generally, except if they have a significant need.
If I could write the Bill of Rights over again, I would skip amendment number two. We’re the only country in the world that puts in our Constitution the right to bear arms. It’s an absurd thing to be in our Constitution, but it’s in our Constitution. We have to live with it.
He then referenced the attack that killed two people in the Grand Theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana, saying,
“Guns have to be well regulated and they are not well regulated in this country. We’re going to have these kinds of massacres over and over and over again until we change the gun culture and the National Rifle Association is part of the problem, not part of the solution.”
Dershowitz contends that if you want a gun you should have to go to the police or other authorities, borrow a gun for self-defense purposes or hunting, then be required to return it when finished using it.
He added:
What is needed is some very tough legislation both on the federal and state level to make it much, much harder to get guns and to create a presumption against gun ownership instead of a presumption in favor of gun ownership, consistent with the well-regulated militia language of the Second Amendment.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins.
Hippy biker, you Proctologist delight. The Jews were being murdered in Russia for hundreds of years. The Russian Orthodox Church made sure of that by calling the Jews the Christ killers. The Crusaders killed Jews on the way to the Crusades. The Germans and Hitler weren’t being controlled by the Jews you low IQ, gullible white trash moron.
Dershowitz is Orwellian – as elite as one can be…
the whole reason for the 2nd amendment was to make sure we would last this long.
Dershowitz misses the point entirely. The “experiment” that he claims to have “failed miserably” created the longest lasting government currently on the face of the Earth. The “absurd thing” – the constitutional protection of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (RKBA) – is very likely the single feature of our Constitution that has let us avoid military coups, dictatorships and other oppressive forms of government, unlike most every other country in existence today. As “gun control” becomes more restrictive, the USA devolves to the point where oppression becomes more possible and likely. Dershowitz has no sense of history, ignoring… Read more »
A bunch of Ammosexual misfits, — the AWGOTS (Angry White Guys Of Teabilly-Terrorism) living in their parents’ basement massaging their surrogate penis gun barrels.
Freedom Guy: Hey, BOZO, thanks to your ignorant, racist and despicable comment about Jews now the anti-gunners have more fodder to bash gun owners. Do us all a favor and keep your psycho thoughts to yourself (and seek professional mental health counseling).
Hey Clark Kent! It was the Jewish controlled Wiemar Republic that passed and instituted the gun control laws that Hitler enforced. Try reading some history for a change. And, just remember that it was the Zionist Jews that controlled the USSR that killed some 100 million white Russians and Ukrainians after they were disarmed. Read some REAL history, instead of spouting progressive tripe!
Gee another load of BS from another marxist law professor. Was he in the same class as Obama? Doesn’t any law professor realize they are supposed to teach law not pervert it to suit their unreasonable ideas about how the rest of the world believes we should act? Law professors are supposed to teach how to uphold the law, not to belittle the Constitution.He sounds like a lawyer that couldn’t hack his profession so he took the easy path and became a professor.
To all the anti-gun people I say this to you. Please tell all the bad people who do bad things to others,to stop doing the bad things they do. A big problem would be solved if you put your efforts into stopping bad people doing bad things to lawful citizens. Just tell the bad people to stop. Surly they’ll stop if you just tell them too! Tell those bad people it’s against the law to do unlawful things. Leave us law abiding gun owners alone and focus on the criminals. It’s not our guns, it’s the bad criminals!
Where do we keep finding these disoriented, non-educated, political wanta-be P.O.S! Isn’t there a fertilizer plant somewhere in the U.S. that is low on inventory, and needs a fresh supply of natural methane gas!
Alan Douche-O-Wits missed the boat again. This guy is just irrelevant. He is better at protecting the thugs and the “hands-up, don’t-shoot” crowd than advocating for REAL rights. Ignore him, and he might go away.
Bit o’ poster philosophy for Mr. Deshowitz:
I once saw a movie where only the police and military had guns; it was called Schindler’s List.
Mr. Dershowitz, I usually find your point of view quite refreshing. Your stance that the prosecution against George Zimmerman was not just uncalled for, but an example of prosecutorial overreach was a classic example of LIBERAL thought, rather than PROGRESSIVE thought. I applaud you for it. However, sir, on this, you are completely out to lunch. The right to defend oneself at all times is encoded from the Magna Carta on. The people in Lafayette did not know, thus did not live by the dictates of the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson stated that the Constitution asserts… That it is the Right… Read more »
Dershowitz & others like him simply need to find a country to relocate themselves where they can abide by the founding laws of the land! There are a number of countries he could select from, but none of these are true republics & therefore
are lacking in liberties & freedom! I sincerely hope Dershowitz finds a country he can fully support!
It’s obvious that Dershowitz is stumping for his Jew Masters that want us all disarmed—COLD DAY IN HELL JEWBOY!!
there’s a movie Dershowitz should go see where only the police and army had guns, it was called Schindler’s list.
Perhaps Mr. Dershowitz should go to Israel and convince the Israelis to follow his gun control proposals first… then he can come back here and tell us how it worked out for them.
After reading this article the scariest thing to me is that this guy is a professor “teaching” our youth and young adults. The only thing that I can agree with what he is saying in that the NRA is part of the problem. The NRA is way to quick to compromise with our rights. My right are not to be “compromised” they are my rights. Look where all that compromising has taken us. Any and all laws regarding guns, knifes, or even sharp sticks are null and void in my opinion, unconstitutional on there face.
If this pacifist Jew was in Germany before or during WW-2, most likely he would have ended up in a Gas Chamber. It seems that too much education causes a person to lose their common sense. We wouldn’t have the freedom we have now if it wasn’t for the 2nd amendment, and we are slowly losing it a little piece at a time. You hear all the time, go to Collage, and make something out of your self. What does that statement mean, that you are nothing because you didn’t go to College? I was a painting contractor, an actually… Read more »
Yup well pointed the Anti Gun Jew just another on the list. No doubt maybe hes afraid of those hes been in Litigation with, and lives he ruined in Court, that they may come after him. Think hes even been on Murder OOJ Simpsons team and some other High profile cases. This Kike or sour Pickle should be reported to the Bar Assoc. in the State hes from.
Its way too late to come up with this sort of thinking because the guns will not just disappear if outlawed. Only thing that will change is that MILLIONS of formally lawful gun owners would become criminals, along with all the other criminals out there who have ILLEGAL possessed guns. I don’t know the number, but I know it huge, the number of innocent people whose lives have been saved because they or someone with them had a legally possessed gun and used it for self defense during home invasions or robberies or car jackings and attempted rapes or attacks… Read more »
Awww isnt it cute how he thinks his opinion matters… if he does not like the 2nd.. he can move his arse to a high crime Euro nation that has taken their SUBJECTS freedoms away from their now subjects and join them..
Mr. Dershowitz remarks indicate a complete lack of understanding of American bill of rights history, as well as a lack of interest in alleviating that knowledge defficit. “Well regulated” simply meant effective or proficient, not government regulated, and militia was a term often equated with the people because it was often defined as “composed of” or “including” the body of the people. That is why the well regulated militia language in the Second Amendment was understood by those who wrote and adopted it as protecting against government tampering of a defensively effective armed population that was in control of the… Read more »
Dershowitz, who consistently defends other rights in our Constitution, thinks that self-defense is “absurd”. I would ask Mr. Legal Scholar to expand on his assertion that the 2A should be abolished. Clearly, the Founders felt that it was important enough to be the very second amendment in the Bill of Rights. If our nations’ laws are not to be built on a foundation of personal freedom, what will they sit upon??!!!! Oh yeah, Dershowitz is merely one more stateist posing as a deep thinker of jurisprudence. Sad man.
One would think that anybody but an idiot/imbecile would think self-preservation / self-defense was against human nature. Nobody but an idiot would argue against self-preservation / self-defense and therefore, no need to codify it. But, boys and girls, there it is in the Constitution and liberals continue to whine about it instead of the criminals. Those brave enough to defend themselves do so in fear of being prosecuted and then sued by the perp and/or their family. Shouldn’t it be the perp that is in fear of a) being killed in an attempt to commit a crime; b) going to… Read more »
It is a firm principal of legal construction that once any term is defined by the document in which it is found, no other definition has any application to the term being used. The term “militia” in the Second “Amendment”, as with any other legal term, can only be defined by the way the term is defined in the document the “Amendment” amends, in this case the Constitution. “Militia” in the original Constitution as amended by the Second is defined in 3 places: Article 1, Section 8, clause 15 and 16 Congress is granted these powers related to the Constitutional… Read more »
At the time the Constitution was written the Militia referred to the people, it was the people themselves that rose up to defend, not an ordered army.
Yup. And “well regulated” did NOT mean government run. It meant orderly, trained and equipped. Just one more thing lost on progressives.
I think Mr. Dershowitz understands very clearly what the Constitution says and what the authors meant at the time. Unfortunately he thinks culture has changed and the Constitution as originally drafted is no longer a document that should be followed. That tells me he has an attitude that he knows better that we do what’s best for us and our families. Typical elitist, leftist attitude!
– – – Against All Enemies Both Foreign And Domestic – – – All of human history, at least as far as written language goes, shows endless examples of civilizations / kingdoms / nations / rule of law wherein the the power and/or right to rule, of the monarch, emperor, king, church, dictator or whatever flavor of oligarchy as has ever existed, was always expressed as some form of “divine right” to rule over the common people. The legal basis for whichever form of oligarchy was always all about the (divine) right of the leaders to rule pretty much as… Read more »
Excellent comment, PaJohn
Excellent comment, pa John. You are correct!
Pa John, you have written a very well thought out article. Thank you. Just to add a bit extra, the maggot media also does not pay attention to the recent mass murder in Oklahoma. This guy killed several of his family members. But the media is silent. Because the murderer DID NOT use a gun.
I actually agree with Dershowitz. It is absurd to have it in as an amendment to our constitution. Our forefathers, however, seemed to know that it was needed so they put it in there.
One of these days you might wish you had the ability to defend yourself, what are you going to do if some thug breaks into your home, when help is needed the police are minutes away. I have been in that place where I needed to defend myself and my family against an intruder that was armed. NO when someone breaks into your home you need help right then not 20 minutes later. I my case I was forced to shoot the intruder in order to save my family, the thug was in my home was armed and had the… Read more »
You may wish to re-read the comment. It wasn’t derogatory IMHO, he was pointing out that the Founders had a hunch that sometime in the future our right to defend ourself from the tyranny of government.
The Founders recognized the need for an armed citizenry to protect the people FROM the government. He also neglects Switzerland’s Military policy. There is a gun in every home that has a male over military age.
This exactly represents what’s wrong in our places of high education in this country. You’d think that a professor at Harvard would fully understand the need for an amendment like the 2nd, unfortunately these types of professors are influencing our college age kids minds everyday in this nation. In many cases if a student questions or disagrees with these types of professors they are punished. So much for critical thinking or open dialogues….
I agree with you! There is great danger coming from the Liberal segment of educators and this is being absorbed by the students. I believe that young students do not question what a Professor says until years later, and perhaps not at all. I would wager that this Prof. has never worked, as an adult, outside of academia. Schools and education are good, however what is taught is often questionable. It is unfortunate that the students can’t or will not question these theories. His ideas, as illustrated in the article demonstrate gross ignorance and manipulation of the masses. If he/she… Read more »
Alien Douchbagofshat is just like all the other liberal lawyers/liars like both Clintons, both Obamas, Holder, Lynch and countless other liberal mental midgets who believe that only their opinions matter. As far as the real reason for the 2nd amendment, it has worked perfectly so far. And that’s what frustrates the elites so much. They must eliminate “The Right to Bear Arms”, in order to fully enslave the masses under the yoke of oppression.
Regulations and laws work really well to solve our illegal drug and alien problem, don’t they, Mr. Dershowitless.
What an AH. People like him should be put on the “NO FLY LIST”.
This guy is a complete POS !
No many how many anti-gun laws are passed, it will NEVER be difficult for a criminal to obtain a firearm. Liberals refuse to accept this fact.
How would you go to the po-po to borrow a gun for self defense? Seems if you need one for self defense that’s the significant need he discusses. He’s an elitist that thinks he knows what’s best for the rest of us.
So if someone breaks into your home you are supposed to tell the bad guy to waitvwhile you go to the pd to get a gun and come back so you can defend yourself what a laugh, this derkowits idiot needs to rethink things, he just is not thinking
What Jerkowitz means by “significant need’ is guns for him but not for you. More elitist BS.
Defenseless , victim , dead , are all absurb if I can not defend my self everywhere , anytime.
Totally missed the reason behind the 2nd amendment.
Alan is a very good Lawyer(part of the problem) and he fails to recognize he has his job because the 2nd protects the 1st. I almost flunked kindergarten and I get it.
I had the dubious task of working with Mr. Dershowitz on a religious freedom legal issue back in the early ’80’s. You make the comment that he is a good lawyer. Thanks to his self-absorbed “help”. we lost many motions and doubled our time and efforts due to his inept interference. We had hired him on his reputation alone and no single move was ever more regretted. In my mind he is the perfect example of the ivory tower “authority” – completely clueless as to actual reality and in love with his fantasy version. The fact is that he chooses… Read more »
Another that thinks he knows everything about our U.S. Constitution and the meaning of the 2A ! What an idiot !
Exactly! He’s an idiot, a fool and completely self-absorbed. His ideas are his own and precisely the opposite of how it is now and how it should be, but he makes this insane proclamation as though HE is the one who knows what is best. People like this need to be shut down from making their comments known.
It’s Domowitz that needs to be eliminated from our media and country!