While there is nothing in the Republican Party's 2024 platform that suggests they're going to start favoring gun control--quite the contrary, to be fair--the document isn't as strong in its language toward gun rights as it has been in previous years. This is concerning to a lot of folks in the gun rights community.

I figure that it's, at best, a commitment to hold the line on gun rights rather than try to advance anything.

While that beats the alternative, it's not really good enough after nearly a century of infringement on our right to keep and bear arms.

Former president Donald Trump has the firm support of the NRA, but not all gun rights groups are thrilled with the direction things are going. It seems Gun Owners of America are fully prepared to turn their back on not just Trump, but the GOP as a whole.

A growing gun rights group is threatening to turn its back on former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party for leaving protections for firearm owners off the party platform. 

“Our stance is very simple,” Luis Valdes, national spokesman for Gun Owners of America, told the Washington Examiner. “We will not compromise, and we will be relentless in holding Republicans accountable to their campaign promises. Republicans campaign that they are pro-gun. We will hold their feet to the fire.”

That includes Trump for the GOP, Valdes said. 

“[The GOP] platform for the last eight years was very solid, and for that to be all scrapped and thrown away is quite perplexing and foreboding for gun owners, especially because of the past history of the Trump administration,” he added. 

Valdes faulted Trump for waffling on gun control, specifically pointing out that he praised Florida’s state legislature in March 2018 for passing gun-control measures. Valdes predicted Trump and the GOP’s snub to gun rights activists in the party platform could backfire. 

“The Republican Party has forsaken one of the most die-hard bases of the party,” he said.  

Valdes makes a good point. The gun rights community has long been a dependable, solid base for Republicans.

The issue is that I don't know that it matters.

The truth of the matter is that while the Republicans are pulling back a bit from their commitment to the Second Amendment, offering only soft support for defending it--though, again, they do say that's the intention going forward--where else do gun rights supporters have to go?

Democrats aren't exactly courting the Second Amendment vote by any stretch of the imagination, so even soft support is better than no support.

The Libertarian Party is more than willing to defend the right to keep and bear arms, but there's no chance of them being elected to office even if gun rights supporters decided to back the party almost exclusively. Plus, it's not likely to happen because many gun rights supporters don't support a lot of other positions Libertarians favor.

So, who else are we going to vote for?

At least, that's likely what many at the highest echelons of Republican leadership may figure.

I don't know that it's a wise approach on their part. Every vote matters, after all, and if a few million voters just decide to not bother, well, that could be disastrous. That's essentially what GOA may be warning against, and in that, he's completely correct. If my litmus test is a commitment to protecting and restoring my Second Amendment rights and no one passes it, why should I bother voting for anyone?

It's definitely something the GOP should think about. Having the backing of the NRA is great and all, but a lot of gun rights advocates aren't ready to accept the NRA's leadership a second time without knowing definitively that the organization is on the right track. That hasn't happened yet, and groups like GOA issuing warnings like this need to be listened to.