it was a letter published in The New
York Times after the school shooting at
Parkland that's in shockwaves around the
nation a retired Supreme Court justice
calling for the end of the Second
Amendment that justice is 98 year old
John Paul Stevens who now lives right
here in South Florida after retiring
from the court in 2010 and was the third
longest serving justice in history
tonight in a what an only exclusive
justice Steven sits down with our Louie
Aguirre to talk openly for the first
time about why he felt compelled to
write that letter welcome to the
revolution I was watching television
that weekend when the high school
students from our area here and I was
extremely moving demonstrations I've
ever seen in Washington and one of the
biggest they were huge crowds and I just
fell I got I said to do something what
ninety eight year old retired Supreme
Court Justice John Paul Stevens did was
write a letter to the editor of The New
York Times a letter published just three
days after the March for our lives when
hundreds of thousands of protesters took
to the streets all over the country
demanding gun control and no other
country in the world that has this
problem and it's because of this very
the very narrow particular position in
our law that's quite wrong and is
causing untold damage but in his letter
justice Stevens was calling for more
than gun control
did you remember specifically what you
wrote in that letter yes I recommended
that the country repealed the Second
Amendment because the amendment is a
vested a couple of centuries ago and it
was by no means the first time justice
Stevens had taken on the Second
Amendment the self-described judicial
conservative appointed by President Ford
in 1975 wrote the dissenting opinion in
the District of Columbia versus Heller
the landmark 2008 Supreme Court decision
that for the first time in the history
of the Constitution held five to four
that the Second Amendment protects a
civilians right to keep a handgun at
home for self-defense well I happen to
think they're wrong but I'm sure they
thought they were right justice Stevens
maintains that the Second Amendment was
never intended to be about an
individual's right to bear arms but
rather the collective right of those
individuals serving in state militias
here's exactly what the Second Amendment
says a well-regulated militia being
necessary to the security of a free
State the right of the people to keep
and bear arms shall not be infringed
they were interested in protecting the
militias nobody basic interest in
protecting the right to bear arms in a
private home you don't feel the Second
Amendment guarantees the individual
citizen the right to bear arms no why
well I don't think it does at a much
more limited purpose and it has been it
has been distorted by the National Rifle
Association and many people who are
sympathetic to their their goals but
what about the framers intentions gun
advocates make the case that Americans
need guns to fight against government
tyranny and that's one of the arguments
that we keep hearing over and over again
well it seems to me that there are a lot
of other countries in the world that get
along perfectly well with our Second
Amendment justice Stevens tells me since
his letter was published he's received
plenty of pushback you sir should be
ashamed of yourself
your words and your ultimate wish list
is a disgrace to America but the Justice
remains undeterred it's a Supreme Court
justice duty to interpret the law and
here you are advocating that we change
the Constitution but I'm retired now
that's right that's correct I still have
my citizenship and and and free to say
what I feel and justice Stevens has a
lot more to say he just finished writing
his autobiography which will be out soon
and by the way not the only Supreme
Court justice who took on the Second
Amendment former Chief Justice Warren
burger a conservative Nixon appointee
also famously once said that if he were
writing the Bill of Rights there
wouldn't be a second amendment Jeannine
Calvin well the Justice has his
any sticking to it and his citizenship
so he has a right to express this
opinion Louis thanks a lot