Posted: 12/11/2008 5:16:24 PM EDT
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I don't mean to increase the tin foil hat quotient but..............
I don't know if anyone has heard about this, but 32 states have called for a constitutional convention to add a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. A balanced budget is fine with me, but as we have seen from the recent POTUS (President of the United States) election Americans will vote for any damned thing, like making firearm ownership illegal. I found several web pages talking about this. If I can find this with my meager google skills, I am sure that someone on here who knows their way around the internetz can find a lot more. I am showing two links about the story. (not linked someone will have to fix that for me) http://www.rense.com/general84/consttit.htm http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread418570/pg1 |
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NRA started tossing around the Convention talk when McCain/Fiengold passed. That's about the only recent time I remember hearing about one. Well, other than when Ahnold talked about amending it so that Foreign Born people could run for Prez...
I hadn't heard about this one at all, i'll have to read up on it. |
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I'm always skeptical when I find things on the interwebs, especially in regards to politics. With that said, here is the Ohio State Legislature Bill in regards to calling a Con-Con.
H. J. R. No. 8 Now, to find the passed resolutions from the other 32 states  .
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A Constitutional Convention is not something for us to be afraid of as gun owners, at least not yet. Yes, it takes 34 states and congress must call for one. Yes 32 have passed resolutions asking for one (for balanced budget amendments). Some of those states seem to have withdrawn their requests, so the actual number is probably 27 and not 32.
But, a convention just proposes amendments - nothing else. The mechanism is in the constitution to provide a path around congress (who normally would propose amendments). They propose amendments that still must be ratified by 38 states. There are not 38 states that want to ban guns - not yet, anyway. There may well be 38 states that would ratify a balanced budget amendment - or at least there probably were before the recent economic turmoil. |
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Quoted:
The problem I have with it is the fact that you can already add amendments w/o doing this. So if they want an amendment, just do it already. No need to re-write the whole thing which is what they would try and do. The founding fathers thought that Congress might be a block to needed changes to the constitution, so the procedure for a convention was placed in article 5. It does NOT re-write it from scratch as some people seem to think - it just proposes new amendments to the existing constitution. Amendments to the constitution can come either from Congress (the normal way) or from a convention instigated by the states. In either case, they must be ratified by 38 states. The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate. Pretty straightforward. |