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Gerrymandering is a problem the founding fathers didn’t foresee when they met in Philadelphia in 1787. They didn’t foresee the problem of how to draw congressional district lines because it was never their intent to cut up the states into artificial districts. According to the Constitution, the House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen by the, “People of the several States.” In setting the residency requirement for members the House, the Constitution simple says that a member be an Inhabitant of the State. Nothing in Article 1 of the Constitution, which created the legislative branch, says anything about congressional districts. The solution to the problem of gerrymandering is simple, don’t divide the states up into artificial districts which basically rig elections to favor one party over another. If a member of congress is supposed to represent the people of an entire state shouldn’t the people of the entire state have a vote in their selection? Instead of trying to solve the problem of how to fairly draw district lines by drawing the lines differently, erase the lines and elect the entire house congressional delegation, at-large. Each voter would have one vote and the candidates with the most votes, equal to the number of representatives allotted to the state, would become the members of the House of Representatives from the state. This method would also give minority parties a better chance of having representation in Congress. Bob Haran, Arizona.

At the time Madison worked on The Constitution, the population gap between small and large states was relatively minor. It was an agricultural economy, with the population spread out amongst the states. But times and population densities have changed drastically since then, especially with the growth of major metropolitan areas. And whereas Madison envisioned each House member representing a roughly equal number of citizens (the electoral College math is based on House representation), today the limit of 435 members leads to some districts holding far more citizens than those in other states, skewing the numbers that lead to Electoral College vote counts by state. Is it time to abolish the Electoral College, or is it still just as relevant today as it was then?

The gun lobby often cites the theory that if good guys carried guns, they would thwart bad guys with guns and there would be no need for gun regulation. Does the Las Vegas mass shooting force them to change their narrative?