Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Can the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution be removed?

Amendments to the United States Constitution cannot be removed, but they can be repealed by adding another amendment. However, it is a difficult process to get a new amendment added, especially when the proposed amendment repeals something that many Americans care passionately about.
There are two ways that an amendment can be added to the Constitution. One is to have Congress propose it, but they need to have at least two-thirds majority vote in the House and in the Senate. A second way is for the two-thirds of state legislatures to convene for a constitutional convention. This would require 34 states. After either one of these occurs, three-quarters of the states, which equates to thirty-eight states, would have to approve the amendment.
To show how difficult this is, a constitutional convention has never approved a new amendment, and only 27 amendments have been added since the Constitution was ratified over 230 years ago. The only amendment that was ever repealed was the 18th amendment, which prohibited the making, transporting, and sale of alcohol.

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