This is a Charles point, but I think I’m ahead of him today.

Joe Biden’s shtick about the Second Amendment being “not absolute” is embarrassing, sophomore-debate-team-level stuff.

“Not absolute” does not really mean anything. Of course there are limits on the right to keep and bear arms — we don’t allow felons to buy guns, or allow children to carry them. That doesn’t mean that the president gets to do a bunch of patently unconstitutional stuff just because the right is “not absolute.” The law already recognizes certain appropriate limitations on the way that right is exercised. But the president does not get to break the law, and congressional Democrats do not get to overturn the Constitution.

The First Amendment is not absolute, either. You need a permit to stage a rally in many places, you can be sued for libel, etc. That doesn’t mean that in 2025 President Donald Trump gets to close down the New York Times and just say, “Well, you know, the First Amendment is not absolute.”

Another unserious chapter in an unserious story.