The Second Amendment is pretty safe, but are we?

There's a meme floating around facebook these days that explains how President Obama or President Clinton cannot eliminate the Second Amendment to the Constitution and confiscate everyone's guns.

The process to amend or change the Constitution takes years and first involves approvals by two thirds in Congress or two thirds of state legislatures calling for a constitutional convention. Once proposed it takes a favorable vote from three-fourths of state legislatures. For example, the 19th Amendment which allowed women to vote was proposed in 1878 but was not ratified until 1920, 42 years later. The Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed in 1923, finally got the two-thirds majority in Congress in 1972 is still floating around out there looking for approvals from three-fourths of state legislatures.

It's about time somebody put it out there how difficult it would be for a president to tamper with, let alone remove, the Second Amendment.

The meme showed up again this morning explaining the process.

But conspiracy theorists will not give up.  This was posted as a comment on the meme:

David Engelsman But you fail to see the point it's not the guns they take it's the ammunition that becomes impossible to get for instance since the shooting in newtown conn it's all but impossible to find or buy .22 cal ammo No bullet no gun that's a fact

Yes, the Newton shootings had an effect on the availability of .22 ammunition which has been in short supply in recent years. But it's not what this guy thinks. When it became difficult to find .22 shells I did a little research into why no one had that particular caliber for sale.

And here's the answer. Manufacturers curtailed .22 production in order to meet increased demand for a similar caliber, the .223  or 5.56. Guess what gun uses that size bullet. Yup, the AR-15 assault rifle, the weapon favored by your average neighborhood terrorist. Go to any store selling that sort of thing and you will find empty shelving where the .22 shells should be, but the area allocated to .223 will be overflowing despite the increased demand and it is relatively cheap, costing only a little more than .22 shells.

So yes, the shootings have had an effect on the availability of ammo. They've increased the supply of the ammunition our ingrown terrorists like the best.

Still President Obama most certainly must have ordered the cut in .22 production. It could have had nothing to do with manufacturers cutting one to produce more of the other and in the process increase profits based on fear the president would take assault rifles and ammo away from potential mass shooters.

Interestingly there is another meme floating around that shows the inside of a large empty warehouse with the wording, "All the guns Obama has seized during his eight years in office."

Into the belly of the beast