During the recent unpleasantness in Minneapolis, a surprising number of prominent gun-grabbers claimed they supported the Second Amendment. Admittedly, they did this to lash out at President Trump and ICE, but they actually said it.
Gabrielle Giffords claimed to support the right of the people to be armed. “ …(T)he Trump administration has attacked the First and Second Amendments. Every legal gun owner should be horrified.”
Giffords burnished her credentials by reminding everyone she owns a gun. “As a gun owner myself and the leader of Giffords Gun Owners for Safety, I am alarmed by how brazenly the Trump administration is threatening our rights.”
However, in April 2023, it was Giffords who said, “Guns, guns, guns. No more guns. Gone.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom used a January 27, 2026, press release to announce his support for the Second Amendment. “We should all be outraged not only by the senseless deaths at the hands of federal officials, but also by the erosion of our rights. We must act fast to protect them and prevent any further tragic loss of life.”
Back in 2023, Newsom introduced a 28th Amendment. Intended to replace the Second Amendment, it would have eviscerated the right to keep and bear arms, turning it into a government-controlled privilege.
It’s only fair that we should ask them if they understood what they said.
Hey there, gun control fans! We’re always happy to welcome folks to freedom, but we wonder if you realize what it means to support the Second Amendment.
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
This is the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. It became part of the Constitution when it was ratified on December 15, 1791. It became binding on the individual states on July 9, 1868, with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, and was fully incorporated into the amendment on June 28, 2010 when the Supreme Court issued its ruling in McDonald v. Chicago.
The Second Amendment is very straightforward. The first 13 words state a reason for including the protected right in the federal Constitution. The next 10 words identify the right — to keep and bear arms — without any limitations on the type or quantity of the arms or how they might be borne. The final four words are a prohibition, barring the federal government from violating the right.*
The right to seek and bear arms was not granted by the Constitution and does not depend on it for its existence.**
The scope of the protected right includes acquisition, possession, and carriage of weapons and the acquisition, possession, and carriage of ammunition. Technically speaking, there is nothing in the Second Amendment that would allow for permits to purchase, permits to possess, or permits to carry.
Furthermore, since none existed at the Founding or the Reconstruction, the Second Amendment doesn’t allow wide-ranging bans. It doesn’t have to make allowances for changes in technology. Repeating rifles were used by the Danish Army in 1659; the Austrian Army adopted a repeating air rifle with a 20-round magazine in 1780, and the British used the Ferguson breech-loading rifle at the Battle of Yorktown.
Incidentally, contrary to the delusional assertions of a recent President, the Second Amendment does not prohibit buying cannons. George Washington bought two. Even today, American citizens can own fully functional military tanks.
That’s the real Second Amendment. It doesn’t allow provisos or quid pro quos like ‘commonsense’. But it’s what you claim to support.
The Founders had just prevailed in an eight-year war with the world’s dominant military power. Do you really think these men would not eagerly embrace a game-changing firearm like the AR-15? Or a Henry Rifle, Spencer Rifle, or Colt revolver? Even the bolt-action Springfield M1903 had a rate of fire 3-5 times that of the British Brown Bess.
We could give you the benefit of the doubt and excuse your ignorance. But we have a hunch you really support an entirely different Second Amendment. Something along the lines of Gavin Newsom’s 28th Amendment, filled with bans and barricades to gun ownership.
However, changing even a word in the Second Amendment requires a new amendment.
Getting supermajorities in the House and Senate to pass a new amendment is most likely a non-starter.
This means you need to corral 34 states to call a constitutional convention. If you get your amendment through a convention, you have to get 38 states to ratify it. If just 13 states refuse to ratify, your amendment is dead in the water.
Reality check: There are 16 states with Second Amendment protection or Second Amendment Sanctuary laws and resolutions. There are 45 states with Second Amendment analogs in their state constitutions. Do the math and stop kidding yourselves.
*The Second Amendment was extended to the states by the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. The right to keep and bear arms was fully incorporated into the amendment under the Due Process Clause in 2010.
**U.S. Supreme Court United States v. Cruickshank (1875). Majority opinion written by Chief Justice Morrison Waite.
The 2nd Amendment: America’s Timeless Equalizer for the Weak & Vulnerable
U.S. Second Amendment: Means ALL Weapons & ZERO Infringements ~ VIDEO
About Bill Cawthon
Bill Cawthon first became a gun owner 55 years ago. He has been an active advocate for Americans’ civil liberties for more than a decade. He is the information director for the Second Amendment Society of Texas.
My wife worked with two Russian speaking Jews from Uzbekistan. One of their adult daughters claimed to speak fluent Hebrew, but then she would explain that her Hebrew wasn’t the Hebrew that other people spoke. The Left claims to support the Second Amendment. But by their actions, that claim becomes suspect. Their Second Amendment is not absolute. The “fly in the soup” comes from the very nature of the Bill of Rights and the left’s relationship with government. All of the first 10 amendments, the ones we call the Bill of Rights, are in essence restraints on government. The Left… Read more »
The late Dianne Frankenstein always insisted that she supported the 2A 1000% Yet spent her entire adult life trying to wreck it. In fact, Frankenstein engineered many of the dirty tactics used against everybody now. The new “extra-extended” background check and the brainy gun free zone theory were both Frankenstein offshoots.
The 2nd denies all government entities authority over our right to keep and bear arms, prohibiting them from limiting, restricting or otherwise infringing on the right in any way. All permits, licenses, taxes, bans, limits and restrictions are blatantly unconstitutional, from NICS checks to NFA taxes, FOID cards to CCW’s.
Three things you can count on from a liberal LYING, STEALING and CHEATING!!!
Every time that broad Gabrielle Giffords, opens her cock holster she costs me money. I buy another gun or two.
The liberals are seeing their straight gun ban talk not working so they are now taking a different track for the purposes of deluding the voters. The shame of it is most folks aren’t paying attention.
Like five year olds, but powerful.
Yeah, the chocolate cake is still on your hands and face, but we can’t see it. It’s insulting.
OK, Bill, you are trying to hold the Progressive New Left to logical standards. That is not fair. On a broader spectrum, abortion advocates like Hillary Clinton claim to be followers of Jesus. Rainbow Jihad people the same. They are all operating under a biblical concept called strong delusion. Their minds are so twisted they cannot see the logical fallacies standing before them. Were it not for the disastrous effect these fools have on public policy we could simply write them off as pathetic. But they have legions of likewise deluged people following them. Therein lies the danger. In their… Read more »
Love is something that is freely given but trust and respect must be earned. What we have here is a croc that is smiling and saying, “Trust me, I haven’t killed anyone in a month”. A tree is known by it’s fruit. Communists, that’s what demoncraps are now in reality, have ALWAYS been anti gun, anti freedom, anti rights, anti GOD. They do this to cement their power and authority once they weasel their way into it. Leopards do not change their spots. Do not let down your guard. A wise man recently told me that government does not like… Read more »
The only time a dRat claims to support the 2A is when they’ve purposely / purposefully created SHTF conditions so they can justify their – and their supporters – use of deadly force against any / all who oppose them.