The endorsement of Donald J. Trump for president by the National Rifle Association during its recent convention in Dallas was essentially a foregone conclusion, and almost simultaneously, the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee announced the launch of “Gun Owners for Trump.”
The proverbial “$64 million question” is whether this will help propel Trump back into the Oval Office, displacing Democrat Joe Biden, who has proven to be more unfriendly to gun owners than former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. After all, it was Biden, not the others, who admitted during a CNN Townhall broadcast three years ago that he not only wants to ban the sale of modern semiautomatic rifles, he also wants to ban 9mm semi-auto pistols.
The Second Amendment Foundation has run a series of ads featuring the actual video clip of Biden saying so. It’s one thing to accuse a president of wanting to ban guns, but when he publicly admits it to a national audience on live television, not even the spinmeisters in the Biden inner circle can walk that one back.
What about “Gun Owners for Trump?” It’s a coalition of more than 50 top names in the firearms community.
The list includes newly-elected NRA President Bob Barr and NRA First Vice President Bill Bachenberg, Second Amendment Foundation founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, Armed American Radio host Mark Walters (also a member of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Board of Directors), former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, NRA-ILA Executive Director Randy Kozuch and several members of the NRA Board of Directors and several more members of Women for Gun Rights.
The challenge for this group, and the NRA and other gun rights organizations, will be to get out the vote for Trump in November. There will be some resistance from gun owners who remain furious about Trump’s decision to ban bump stocks following the 2018 mass shooting in Las Vegas. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a challenge to that ban sometime next month, according to NPR, and if the high court overturns the ban, that issue should become moot.
The NRA’s influence has been diminished over the past few years due to legal battles and revelations of mismanagement. But longtime NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, on whose watch the troubles emerged, resigned earlier this year and the convention in Dallas has produced a largely new leadership team with two “reform” candidates on this year’s Board ballot now elected to top posts. The organization appears determined to rebound in a major way, which could be critical to the “get-out-the-vote” effort this fall.
On the plus side, Trump can run on an unmatched record of federal court appointments, including placing Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett on the U.S. Supreme Court. Their presence resulted in the 2022 landmark ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which nullified “good cause” requirements for concealed carry permits in New York and other states, and also did away with the “two step” process developed by lower federal courts for dealing with Second Amendment cases. Henceforth, courts must consider gun restrictions based on verifiable historical analog rather than compelling government interest.
Trump also filled some 300 federal court vacancies with constitutional judges. Biden, on the other hand, stands accused of “weaponizing” the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives against gun owners.
Still, American gun owners and particularly hunters have established a reputation of lethargy and even apathy when it comes to voting. Too many in this fraternity can complain ad nauseum on social media, but filling out a ballot seems too much of an effort. As activists have repeatedly said, posting on Facebook does not substitute for voting in November.
Here are two things gun owners must do, and the sooner the better:
- Make sure you are registered to vote at your present address.
- If you plan to be hunting on Election Day—Tuesday, Nov. 5—get an absentee ballot and make sure to submit it. The only way to be sure your vote counts is to actually vote.
According to the Trump campaign’s announcement of the gun owners group, “President Trump believes that every American has a God-given right to protect themselves and their family and has proven through his actions that he will defend law-abiding gun owners. Gun owners across the country are working to deliver President Trump a second term, secure a Senate majority, and defend the Republican House majority. President Trump and his Republican allies in the House and Senate will put a stop to the left’s constant attacks on Americans’ Constitutional Rights.”
Many states still have primary elections on the horizon. Check here to see if your state is on the list.
It’s not just the presidency at stake. To make this work in favor of the Second Amendment, the “gun vote” must also have an impact on U.S. Senate and House races, and even state races for governor and legislatures. For example, in Washington, the race for governor will likely pit anti-gun Democrat Attorney General Bob Ferguson against former Republican Congressman and Sheriff Dave Reichert.
One very important argument Gun Owners for Trump cannot over-emphasize is that the president makes federal court nominations, including the Supreme Court, where vacancies are almost certain to occur over the next four-plus years. It is the U.S. Senate which confirms those nominations, and the party in majority can make that easy or difficult. A Republican majority prevented Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland from moving forward, while subsequently confirming Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett during Trump’s administration.
To join, or find out more about, Gun Owners for Trump, gun owners can visit their website here.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
