The most endangered species in Washington, D.C. isn’t the panda bear. It’s a pro-Second Amendment Democratic congresscritter. The NRA’s Political Victory Fund has released its grades of candidates in the 2020 elections, and just one single, solitary Democratic member of Congress received an “A+” from the Second Amendment group. Minnesota Democrat Collin Petersen, who has represented the state’s 7th Congressional District since 1991, not only received the highest grade that the NRA offers, he also has the official endorsement of the organization.

That’s not surprising, given the NRA’s pro-incumbent policy, though the group did give Petersen’s Republican opponent, former Lt. Governor Michelle Fischbach, a slightly lower “A” grade as well.

As the Michael Bloomberg-backed website The Trace notes, however, the real story is that pro-Second Amendment Democrats have become an endangered species in Congress over the past decade. As recently as 2010, fully 25% of congressional Democrats received the highest rating from the NRA. Now, it’s less than 1%, with more than 90% of Democrats getting an “F” from the gun rights organization.

The Trace says this is “a snapshot of America’s widening political polarization,” but really it’s just clear evidence that Democrats have abandoned support for the right to keep and bear arms as the Democratic Party itself has embraced a sweeping anti-gun agenda that’s alienated many traditional Democrats.

Later today on Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co, you can watch my interview with Jerry Wayne, the Detroit-area union member who confronted Joe Biden about his hostility towards the right to keep and bear arms. Wayne says that many rank-and-file union members have been left cold by the anti-gun stance of the Democratic Party, and he believes that, despite the endorsements for Biden by many unions, the actual members won’t be voting blue this November.

I believe it, and Democrats have only themselves to blame. As a Second Amendment supporter, I’ve always believed that our rights are more secure when members of both parties back our right to self-defense, and though I’m a conservative, it would be nice to feel like I had truly difficult decision to make when choosing between the Democrat or Republican in the voting booth.

Those days are gone, at least for now, though I still suspect that Democrats are going to eventually have to reckon with the fact that the party wants to re-invent policing and the criminal justice system, while putting an ever-increasing number of gun control laws on the books that turn the exercise of a constitutional right into a criminal offense. If the Let honestly believes that the criminal justice system is inherently biased, then every new gun law that criminalizes the Second Amendment is disproportionately used to put minorities in prison, many of whom have no serious criminal record. Ultimately Democrats are going to have to decide what they despise more; our nation’s law enforcement or our constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.