The article is specifically addressing the US's status as a significant outlier WRT gun homicide. The article addresses your point that homicide represents only a fraction of total gun deaths.
I don't see a problem with "modernization". Constitutional documents should be living documents, tuned for clarity and for the times. Of course, such changes should not simply be a matter of passing a new bill. There should be significant political hurdles involved.
No "beginning" does not mean no "big bang", and "big bang" is a completely shite term to begin with. "God Particle", "Y-Chromosomal Adam", "Mitochondrial Eve" ... the boffins who think this shit up should be (metaphorically) shot.
Well, the term "big bang" was originally coined by Fred Hoyle, who was a proponent of the alternative steady state model of cosmology. Many belive that it was meant to be pejorative and to ridicule the idea of a "beginning" of the universe.
Similarly, "God Particle" isn't a term that was ever used in physics. If I recall correctly, it comes from the title of a popular science book, which the author originally wanted to call "The Goddamn Particle" (because the Higgs was so hard to find experimentally), but the publisher didn't like that. Unfortunately "God Particle" stuck in popular science and the media.
It makes an entire blank line, which is sufficient if you have a lot of textual output. It also gets rid of the old stuff from the screen - if you're running a window manager, you can then scroll up if you need the old stuff.
