America's Problems Can Be Solved By Changing The Constitution, Former Supreme Court Justice Says

A former Supreme Court justice believes the solution to solving what he says are the nation's biggest problems, including gun control and the use of the death penalty, is by changing the U.S. Constitution.

John Paul Stevens, who retired as a Supreme Court justice four years ago, argues that amending the constitution is the way to mend several issues the nation's highest court has ruled incorrectly on or hasn't ruled on at all, USA Today reported. Stevens, 94, makes his case in a new book titled "Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution."

During the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012, Stevens noticed there was a rule that prevented Congress from ordering states to carry out federal requirements. The loophole led to missing information from federal records of gun purchases, USA Today reported.

"It's called the anti-commandeering rule, which turned out to be the first chapter of a book that kind of grew like Topsy," Stevens told USA Today. "I thought that maybe the only way to get rid of the rule is to have a constitutional amendment, and then it occurred to me...that there really are other provisions of the Constitution that should be looked at more closely."

Other amendments the former justice proposes are a ban on the death penalty, one that only allows the state militia to bear arms and another that requires legislative districts be "compact and composed of contiguous territory" to prevent political parties from choosing areas that benefit them.

Steven recognizes that changing the constitution is extremely difficult. In all of U.S. history, a total of 18 amendments to the Constitution have been made.

Ratifying an amendment requires three-fourths of the state legislatures to approve it. The last time an amendment was added to the Constitution was in 1992, which prevented Congress from altering representatives' salaries between elections.

"It's certainly not easy to get the Constitution amended, and perhaps that's one flaw in the Constitution that I don't mention in the book," Stevens told USA Today. "Maybe I should have had seven."