Political debate is going overboard these days. I travel overseas all the time and if I reveal I live in the USA, you can't stop people from asking about Trump. It's getting frustrating and boring. But to avoid contentious topics, let's talk about guns!

As a Canadian, I've seen how the gun rules in Canada work. It's the culture most similar to the USA in the world, with tons of rifle ownership, but almost no handguns and comparatively no handgun deaths. So I don't doubt that something can be done. On the other hand, I also am a strong supporter of the bill of rights, and even though I don't like the 2nd amendment, I can't disregard it or pretend that it's weakened very much by the Militia clause. And for the future we can see, the second amendment is not going to be repealed. Without repealing it, you can't do a lot. In spite of all the bad press, the AR-15 was easily redesigned to comply with the "assault weapon ban" that was temporarily in effect, and unless they can figure out how to ban the semi-automatic hunting rifle under the 2nd amendment, it's not likely much can happen here.

Here's a much more radical proposal. Modify the second amendment to reserve the power to regulate firearms to the states. In other words, make it a states rights issue more than a weapons issue. The new amendment would empower a state's constitution to supersede the 2nd amendment. If the state does not include such a rule in its constitution, the original 2nd amendment would still apply there. Each state would have to follow its own constitutional procedures to declare new rules, explicitly declaring them as replacing the 2nd amendment.

This is not really ideal, of course. There would be a patchwork of laws. Many guns would end up being illegal in some states and legal in others. And of course, it would not be that hard to illegally move such guns into a state where they are not legal for use in criminal activities. As such, there would still be a fair bit of gun crime using guns supposedly banned in a location. Still, I think it could cause a significant reduction in gun crime.

It's also the only thing I can think of that has a chance of passing. Many of those who champion gun rights also champion states' rights. While clearly some states would move to restrict gun ownership, gun proponents could not only keep their state unrestricted, but they could actually reduce gun restrictions if they wished to, even removing any effect of the Militia clause.

Illegal weapons would still be present, but these changes would reduce the culture of gun ownership and gun use. In Canada, many of us have rifles, including semi-automatic hunting rifles. I was taught to shoot as a child, as were most kids I knew. But handguns are almost unknown. It seems to make a difference -- it seems people are less likely to end up shooting somebody in a domestic dispute if they have to handle a physically large weapon. It seems the guns are less likely to be used in anger. It seems that the less the weapons are around, the less they are used, not by criminals, but by ordinary people who get angry. Canada had 172 firearm homicides compared to the USA's 8,800, with just a handful caused by handguns. Canadians have 10 million guns (and a million handguns allowed only for police and guards or for use on a gun range.)

With this change, some states would have the power to make themselves a bit more like Canada if their democratic will is that way.

Clinton and Trump

Now that the parties have their candidates (I bet wrong on Trump) one thing I have been disappointed to see is Clinton (and Obama) ripping into Trump, calling him out on his lies and crazy statements. Do they imagine the electorate that listens to them don't know about these things?

I would have loved to see Clinton make a decision to not mention the word Trump for the rest of the election. If she absolutely has to, get surrogates like Bill Clinton and President Obama to do it, but ideally not even them. Run a clean campaign, with all the focus on why she would be a good President. The reality is that there is tons of coverage of the negatives of what Trump says. Getting into a mud battle with him is the wrong decision. He likes mud, is already covered in it, and is better at it.

But it seems I may not get my wish.