When Joe Biden was running for president in 2019, he declared the firearms industry an "enemy", and during his time in office he waged a whole-of-government campaign against gun makers, gun sellers, and gun owners; from crafting ATF rules and regulations that labeled almost anyone who sold a gun from their private collection an "unlicensed gun dealer" to giving gun control groups their very own office in the executive branch.
Now, a bombshell report from the Department of Homeland Security says the anti-gun ideology of the Biden administration permeated agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Administration, which is alleged to have discriminated against gun owners in disaster areas if they openly displayed their support for the Second Amendment.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said evidence is clear of "textbook political discrimination against Americans in crisis."
“The federal government,” Noem said, “was withholding aid against Americans in crisis based on their political beliefs – this should horrify every American, regardless of political persuasion. For years, FEMA employees under the Biden administration intentionally delayed much-needed aid to Americans suffering from natural disasters on purely political grounds.
“They deliberately avoided houses displaying support for President Trump and the Second Amendment, illegally collected and stored information about survivors’ political beliefs, and failed to report their malicious behavior. We will not let this stand.”
... On the Homeland Security report’s map, two notations for North Carolina include instances in October and November last year. The first says, “The survivor had a sign that read NRA, we do our part,” and the second said, “Survivor stated that homes have been damaged, but there are Republicans on the grounds with guns, so please be careful.”
As a result of the DHS investigation, Noem says cases will be referred to the Department of Justice for further investigation and potential prosecution, as well as to the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General.
The DHS secretary also announced that the door-to-door surveys that FEMA used to discriminate against gun owners and conservatives have been discontinued, and she's instructed the Department of Homeland Security's Privacy Office to establish and issue guidance to FEMA so that violations like this don't happen in the future.
Noem is also requiring FEMA to, among other things, clearly define "legitimate safety and hostility concerns to ensure staff make fair and lawful decisions."
You can read the entire report for yourself here, which gets into more detail about discrimination against Trump supporters. According to the report, however, the most common reason for "impermissible and potentially impermissible information collection" was "gun signage." In fact, it's not even close; 83 such incidents involving 2A-related signs, compared to 15 incidents related to Trump signage.
There were 72 incidents related specifically to "gun signage", another five related to "firearm" signs, three involving the word "armed" on signs, two involving NRA-supporting signs, and one related to "weapon" signage.
It would be one thing if these FEMA employees and contractors were bypassing homes with signs that said "FEMA employees will be shot if caught trespassing". But ignoring a home because of a pro-NRA sign or indications of support for the Second Amendment is something else entirely.
One of the signs in question, for instance, read "I'm a bitter gun owner clinging to my religion," which is clearly a reference to Barack Obama's comments about rural Americans "bitterly clinging" to their guns and religion during his first presidential campaign. Another, as mentioned above, simply said "NRA, we do our part," which isn't threatening in any way, shape, or form.
The owners of those signs were living in areas that had been impacted by natural disasters, yet FEMA workers passed them by; either out of misplaced fear for their safety or their own personal animosity towards the right to keep and bear arms. I also find it very curious that these incidents were more common during election years, with a particularly high number of them involving federal employees in 2024. That doesn't mean that FEMA officials explicitly directed staffers to ignore gun owners in the leadup to Election Day, but it at least suggests that as elections approached some FEMA employees and staffers let their political partisanship and anti-gun ideology get in the way of providing information to those in need... particularly those expressing support for our fundamental right to keep and bear arms.
