Ex-Supreme Court justice urges 2nd Amendment repeal in U.S. gun rights debate
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - A retired U.S. Supreme Court justice yesterday called for the repeal of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, which gives Americans the right to keep and bear firearms, and the White House responded by reaffirming its support for the provision.
Former Justice John Paul Stevens, who sat on the country’s highest court for 35 years before retiring in 2010, is one of the highest-profile legal figures to join the national debate on school shootings, gun violence and firearms ownership.
The long-running debate flared anew after a gunman killed 17 students and faculty at a Florida high school in February, prompting an upsurge of gun control activism by teenage students, including mass protests nationwide last weekend.
“Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday,” Stevens, 97, wrote in an opinion article in the New York Times. “These demonstrations demand our respect.”
His repeal proposal goes further than demands by the student demonstrators, who have generally called for measures such as raising the minimum age for purchasing guns from 18 to 21 and requiring more comprehensive background checks for buying firearms.
Asked about Stevens’ call for repeal, presidential spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said, “The president and the administration still fully support the Second Amendment.