Armed American Radio's Mark Walters is one of the most informed and engaged Second Amendment advocates I know, and it's always a great conversation when he's able to join me on Bearing Arms Cam & Co. 

Today's visit is no exception. Mark and I had a wide-ranging discussion that included his thoughts on whether or not SCOTUS will grant cert to several "assault weapon" ban cases, this week's NRA Annual Meeting in Dallas, and what a second term for Joe Biden would mean for gun owners and Second Amendment advocates.

I'd encourage you to check out the entire back-and-forth in the video window below, but here are a few highlights. 

On SCOTUS and the potential justices will grant cert to lawsuits taking on "assault weapon" bans in Illinois and Maryland:

I think the 'assault weapons' case ouf of Maryland is ripe for the Court to take. It's already moved through the process. It was granted cert, it was vacated, it was remanded back [after Bruen], so this case is absolutely ripe. I think [Clarence] Thomas is itching to get his hands on this one. And I've talked with Alan Gottlieb about this, and I'm sure you probably have too. He's pretty confident that they'll roll these cases together and turn it into one case, which would be nice. So then you'll see the 'assault weapons' bans and the mag bans taken up in one case at the Supreme Court. 

Walters adds that it might take more than one conference for the Court to announce its decision to grant or deny cert, but he's fairly confident himself that SCOTUS will agree to hear the lawsuits in its fall term. 

On the upcoming NRA Annual Meeting and the first board meeting to take place since the election of a slate of "reform" candidates:

I'm no fan of what's been happening with the NRA over the past few years. I'll be honest, that's why I haven't attended the NRA meetings over the past few years. I was tired of what was happening and I didn't want to be seen as supportive of that at all. Now you have Jeff Knox sitting on the board, okay? A fight that goes back to the 1970s with his family and now he's on the board of directors. I'd like to see the board pared down from 75 to 25, maximum, but that's wishful thinking on my part. Are they gonna get rid of some of the old cronies? All of that's going to eventually come out. What's the New York court going to do as far as overseeing the National Rifle Association? 

The country needs a strong NRA, and I think you'll agree with me that means a lean and mean NRA and staying focused on its mission. Stay focused on the 2A mission. Don't go outside the rails. Stay in your lane and fight for the right to keep and bear arms. Start taking the lead again.

But it's not going to happen overnight. They've done so much damage to themselves and their reputation that I think it's at least four to five years out before we start to see a lean, mean, NRA fighting machine. I hope I'm wrong with that, but I don't know if history's going to prove me right or wrong. 

Honestly, at the rate things are going, I don't think the NRA has four or five years to right the ship. Restoring trust is going to be a process, to be sure, but if we see some major changes as a result of this weekend's Members Meeting and the NRA board meeting next Monday then that work can begin in earnest. Like Mark, I believe that the Second Amendment community is better off with a strong NRA, but reform means more than just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

On a second term for Joe Biden:

 Their ultimate goal is to redefine the language, and we're seeing that with the ATF right now. 'This is now a gun.' Semi-automatic doesn't mean semi-auto, so now bump stocks are machine guns. The ultimate goal is to redefine 'semi-automatic'. Why? Well guess what? I can bump fire a rifle or a pistol without a bump stock. In fact, I can do it by accident, which I've done. You can make that happen. So what do they do? Well, they've banned bump stocks. That's not enough. Maybe we need to redefine the term 'semi-automatic'. 

The gun control lobby is already laying the groundwork for that by going after Glock for the illegal conversions that are being done through the use of switches. The city of Chicago is suing Glock and demanding residents be prohibited from purchasing the company's pistols, while a baker's dozen of blue state attorneys general have sent Glock a letter warning that they're also likely to sue in the near future. It's downright delusion to think the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention is completely oblivious to what the gun control groups are doing here, or that the administration isn't eager to join the fray when they think the time is right. 

This barely scratches the surface of today's conversation, so do check out the entire discussion with Mark Walters and myself in the video window below. Tune in tomorrow as well, when the National Shooting Sports Foundation's Larry Keane joins the show to talk about the Second Amendment Privacy Acts that have been signed into law in a number of 2A-friendly states over the past few weeks, as well as the Biden administration's latest attack on the industry by cracking down on firearm exports.