The Republican National Convention started today, and the news cycle is dominated by the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump over the weekend. Historically, Trump has not been a very gun-friendly President. He didn’t do much for gun rights during his term and even used an executed fiat to ban bump stocks. A move illegal enough that the Supreme Court overturned it only recently. While that’s not comforting for gun rights, what’s even less comfortable is the fact the RNC Platform barely mentions gun rights.
In fact, the closest we get to any protection of the 2nd Amendment comes from a passing reference in ‘Twenty Promises’ offered by the Republicans if they win the White House and and the entirety of Congress. The seventh promise pays lip service by stating, “defend our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms.”
That’s all we get from the RNC on the Second Amendment. They offer to protect it but not expand or recapture ground. Their defense of the Second Amendment amounts to a single sentence. The rest of the RNC platform aligns with Trump’s America First vision, but sadly, that doesn’t include a fervent defense of the 2nd Amendment or methods to reclaim lost ground.
The RNC Of Yesteryear
I think it’s worth looking into the RNC of the past to see how they treated the 2nd Amendment. In 2020, the party didn’t release a platform. In 2016, there was a very fervent defense of the 2nd Amendment, which was several paragraphs long and openly supported Constitutional Carry, they praised Congress’ defense of the 2nd Amendment against ‘evisceration.’
Here, read it yourself:
The Second Amendment: Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms
We uphold the right of individuals to keep
and bear arms, a natural, inalienable right that
predates the Constitution and is secured by the
Second Amendment. Lawful gun ownership enables
Americans to exercise their God-given right of self-defense for the safety of their homes,
their loved ones, and their communities.
We salute the Republican Congress for
defending the right to keep and bear arms by
preventing the President from installing a new liberal
majority on the Supreme Court. The confirmation
to the Court of additional anti-gun justices would
eviscerate the Second Amendment’s fundamental
protections. Already, local officials in the nation’s
capital and elsewhere are defying the Court’s
decisions upholding an individual right to bear
arms as affirmed by the Supreme Court in Heller
and McDonald. We support firearm reciprocity
legislation to recognize the right of law-abiding
Americans to carry firearms to protect themselves
and their families in all 50 states. We support
constitutional carry statutes and salute the states
that have passed them. We oppose ill-conceived
laws that would restrict magazine capacity or
ban the sale of the most popular and common
modern rifle. We also oppose any effort to deprive
individuals of their right to keep and bear arms
without due process of law.
We condemn frivolous lawsuits against gun
manufacturers and the current Administration’s
illegal harassment of firearm dealers. We oppose
federal licensing or registration of law-abiding
gun owners, registration of ammunition, and
restoration of the ill-fated Clinton gun ban. We call
for a thorough investigation — by a new Republican
administration — of the deadly “Fast and Furious”
operation perpetrated by Department of Justice
officials who approved and allowed illegal sales of
guns to known violent criminals.
Modern Needs
These days, we don’t face much open anti-gun legislation. What we are facing now is much worse. We are facing restrictions on gun rights through executive power that’s commanding the DOJ and ATF to find every possible means to pursue gun owners. They’ve targeted pistol braces, 80% lower receivers, and tried to make anyone who sells a gun a felon. This led to the murder of Bryan Malinowski by ATF agents in a no-knock raid.
The fact the RNC has done nothing to address that is absurd. Republicans historically aren’t as gun-friendly as the anti-gun rights advocates would have us believe. At the federal level, a recoup of our rights hasn’t taken place, and we can only seem to win at the state and local levels.
What can we do? I think we need to let the RNC and our elected officials know that we demand our 2nd Amendment rights are protected. They need to take gun owners as a voting block seriously, and it’s no longer enough for Republicans to barely mention the 2nd Amendment. Write your elected officials, see them during office hours, and get heard!
As a group, we’ll plop down a grand for a rifle, five hundred bucks on ammo, and buy every gadget and gizmo out there but fail to give to gun rights organizations. I’m guilty of this myself, and this year, we are taking a stance. We need to become the fervent defenders of the 2nd Amendment and stop being complacent.
