The results of the poll above is a small sample size, but it reflects something I hear a lot, and the majority is just wrong. This is the best administration on the Second Amendment since Reconstruction. That’s just objectively true.
No other administration has filed lawsuits (let alone multiple) to vindicate gun rights. And besides a lone amicus brief in Trump’s first term, no prior admin has filed amicus briefs to fight against state “assault weapons” bans, magazine bans, ammo background checks, sensitive places, etc.
If you are unhappy with the Trump administration on Second Amendment grounds, you basically fall into one of two camps…or both:
- You expected the administration to not defend federal gun laws.
- You live in a red state and have it pretty good already, so you undervalue how big a help they are to those of us behind enemy lines.
It was never reasonable to expect this administration to not defend existing federal laws. The DOJ choosing not to defend laws is relatively rare, and it’s a good thing that it is, when you take a longer-term view.
Example: Remember how much Biden and his administration hated the PLCAA? Yes, well the Biden DOJ still defended the law in court despite their hatred of it. Because it’s their job. I don’t want a Gavin Newsom DOJ deciding to not defend laws we like.
That’s not to say Trump get perfect marks from me. I continue to be annoyed on the scope of relief issue, lack of an Adamiak/Hoover pardon, and the way they rushed Hemani up to SCOTUS (though that may yet end up OK for us). And of course we’ve sued about the NFA, though again, I never expected otherwise on that one.
But it’s just nonsense to focus exclusively on that and undervalue the much more massively important efforts the administration has made against state AWBs, mag bans, sensitive places, federal rights restoration, and more. Just last week we had the DOJ showing up in court to help argue against California’s ammunition background checks, a law that denies thousands of people the ability to buy ammo, and yet all I heard the last couple weeks from political GunTube was largely misleading outraged takes on the pistol brace stuff (TL:DR — the brace law is just back to what it was before the rule existed).
If an administration is taking unprecedented efforts on Second Amendment rights while getting nothing but grief for it, I worry that they’ll prioritize something else instead. It’s not like DOJ Civil Rights has any shortage of things to do.
Kostas Moros is Director of Legal Research and Education for the Second Amendment Foundation. This post was adapted by SNW from an article posted at X.