The Gun Owners of America issued their version of the State of the Union yesterday via a press release.

GOA’s State of the Second Amendment

Springfield, VA – In light of the traditional State of the Union address, Gun Owners of America (GOA) has issued the “State of the Second Amendment” in 2018.

According to Erich Pratt, executive director of GOA, “The State of our Union is … 1,000% better than it was almost 13 months ago under Barack Obama. But not nearly good enough.”

“Under Barack Obama, we were fighting a new rule that would troll Social Security disability rolls for names to send to the NICS gun-ban list,” Pratt said. “That anti-gun rule has been repealed, thanks to [pro-gun] activists!”

And while President Trump has certainly been more gun friendly than Obama, there are still battles for gun rights under his administration.

“Even under Donald Trump, the ATF is considering, by executive fiat, banning any device that [allegedly] ‘accelerates the rate of fire’ of a semi-automatic firearm,” Pratt said. Furthermore, the dangerous “Traffic Ticket Gun Ban” is still looming in Congress.

However, on the state level, Pratt is very optimistic that many states will adopt pro-gun measures such as Constitutional Carry and Stand Your Ground.

“There are currently 14 Constitutional Carry states,” Pratt said, “and GOA is working in several more states to bring the total to fifteen-and-counting.”

The GOA, and gun owners in general, have some great opportunities to expand gun rights, but it’s clear that our opponents aren’t sitting back. They’re constantly pushing for more and more regulation, even at the federal level where they have little power. It’s clear that the fight to both keep and expand our sacred, God-given right to keep and bear arms isn’t on cruise control at the moment.

Particularly troubling is the ATF’s consideration of a bump stock ban. The Bureau originally permitted the sale of the devices because they didn’t break long-established rules of what constituted a machine gun. Nothing in the design of the gun has changed. Nothing in the law has changed. Instead, the ATF is taking a look at these devices now because of politics, not law.

I tend to disagree with the GOA’s characterization of the Fix NICS bill, which they refer to as a “Traffic Ticket Gun Ban,” though. I’ve read the bill and there’s nothing in there that changes what kind of behavior is grounds for being denied a firearm or anything else that could impede people’s right to keep and bear arms under current rules. It simply encourages agencies to upload relevant information.

That said, though, GOA’s work in expanding constitutional carry is critical and we need to work to make all 50 states constitutional carry. While we already know which states will be the last to get on board, it’s still possible to sway those states into the pro-gun column. It’ll just be a whole lot harder.

The truth is that the State of the Second Amendment is strong, but that’s not to say it’s as strong as it needs to be. Our rights are still infringed, particularly in anti-gun states. There’s still a whole lot more work to do.