Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens isn’t subtle. He also isn’t going to be popular with red-state Democrats.
The retired Supreme Court justice wants to repeal the Second Amendment. It’s the only real way, Stevens writes in a New York Times op-ed, to end gun violence. But it’s also an absolute nonstarter in the current Congress. Exhibit A: Incumbent Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.
“I strongly support the Second Amendment,” Donnelly told the Washington Examiner, “and disagree with Justice Stevens that it should be repealed.” He finds cutting the right to bear arms from the Constitution an anathema.
The nine other Democrats up for election in states President Trump won ought to take notice. Good fodder for an op-ed, calling for the Bill of Rights to be edited is like swallowing battery acid on the campaign trail. Impossible and counterproductive, it only makes the conservative base see red. Thanks to Stevens, incumbents like Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, must now convince the electorate that their support for “common-sense gun control” isn’t part of some insidious plot to do away with a fundamental freedom.
Next door in Indiana, Donnelly won’t have that problem. While Stevens was still on the court, the Indiana Democrat signed two amicus briefs in support of an individual’s right to keep and bear arms, first when the court heard District of Columbia v. Heller and second during McDonald v. Chicago.
That record will help Donnelly this November, and it shows why the Stevens suggestion will always backfire. Calls on Congress for a constitutional amendment repealing the Second Amendment will go unanswered so long as Democrats stand for re-election in the Midwest.
