By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The Huffington Post is lamenting that Donald Trump’s re-election as president means the “movement to expand gun rights” has gained “further momentum,” while “efforts to reform gun laws have stalled,” and that the former president’s victory “promises to make the burgeoning Second Amendment movement stronger.”
Writer Roque Planas uses just over 1,000 words to define restrictive gun control as “reform,” which the Second Amendment community regards as ludicrous. Instead of expanding gun rights, grassroots activists counter that court victories and a return of pro-gun policies actually restore rights which have been eroded over the past several decades by gun-hating extremists in Congress and state legislatures.
The Second Amendment community is hailing Trump’s re-election. The HuffPo article quotes Nick Perrine, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, who provided a statement, “Gun owners across the country will once again have a strong advocate for their Second Amendment rights in the White House. We are proud to have also helped deliver a pro-gun majority in the U.S. Senate to work with President Trump to defend the right to keep and bear arms.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation issued a statement congratulating gun owners who voted.
“There’s only one way to put it – gun owners, hunters, outdoorsmen and women, firearm and ammunition industry members and Second Amendment supporters across the country made their voices loudly heard last night and gave a resounding victory to President-elect Donald Trump and pro-Second Amendment Members of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate,” NSSF said.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, observed, “Millions of ‘gun voters’ turned out to reverse the nation’s course on firearms rights, and keep Kamala out of the Oval Office. It was gun owners who also made the difference in Montana, re-electing pro-gun Gov. Greg Gianforte and replacing Democrat Sen. Jon Tester with Republican Tim Sheehy, thus shifting the Senate majority to GOP control.
“In this election,” Gottlieb said, “the Democrats shot blanks and the voters buried their gun ban agenda.”
Among the so-called “reforms” instituted by the Biden-Harris administration was the reclassification of pistol braces as “as items subject to the restrictions of the National Firearms Act of 1934.” It garnered a federal lawsuit.
Biden also changed the definition of who is a firearms dealer, which the HuffPo article justifies as “an attempt to keep people from using gun shows as a way to evade background checks when buying firearms.” In actuality it provides a way for the government to harass private citizens who may buy, sell or trade guns at a gun show. It was designed to essentially put a major crimp in gun shows, which are seen as places where gun owners can gather, share ideas and enjoy rights protected by the Second Amendment, say critics of the regulation.
“Conservative states and gun groups have challenged that rule in court, but the Trump administration will likely rescind it,” the article states.
Nothing will be known until Trump actually takes office. That won’t be until Jan. 20, 2025. Between now and then, the effort to restore, rather then “expand,” gun rights may be in the spotlight.
