Today in News: Antiquated Document Used to Undercut Second Amendment Fears
WILMINGTON, NC — GOP candidate Donald Trump has added to his stump speech the threat of a Clinton administration abolishing the constitutional right to bear arms. And although this talking point has ignited many of his most ardent followers, Trump surrogates complain that Democrats are using old texts to quell opposing views.
"The liberal media will stop at nothing to silence the voice of everyday, hard-working people," cried former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. "Now they've dug up an antiquated federal law that supposedly proves Second Amendment voters have nothing to fear."
According to the nearly-230-year-old document in question (titled "Article V of the Constitution of the United States of America"), an amendment can only be proposed with a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress or by a two-thirds vote of the states. It must then be ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures to become a constitutional amendment.
If these instructions are to be taken at face value, then the President and the Supreme Court would play no part in the repeal of the Second Amendment, or any other. But Mr. Trump's campaign says that's exactly what Democrats want voters to think.
"The Clinton campaign would have the American people believe that some tattered, yellowing manuscript—held in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, mind you—would protect gun owners from federal overreach. It's just more Washington insider rhetoric and smoke screen."