A Look at Trump's Potential Pro-Gun Efforts

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Donald Trump won on Tuesday at least in part on the strength of his support for the right to keep and bear arms. While it wasn't the most important issue for most voters, it was for a lot of them. Throughout the campaign, he vowed to protect the Second Amendment and now he's back in office where he'll have the chance to make good on that.

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Plus, it looks like at least part of Congress will be a Republican majority, if not both chambers--as of this writing, there are still a number of races outstanding, including more than enough where the GOP candidate leads to suggest a House majority is feasible--and so there isn't much chance of Congress overriding him on guns.

But where should he start?

Well, there are a few things near the top of the agenda.

Trump said in May he will end the more than 50 executive orders Joe Biden has issued about guns and the Second Amendment.

Biden has signed executive orders covering homemade kit guns that do not use serial numbers, stabilizing braces for ARs, which he wanted the owners to have to register as short-barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act, as well as safe storage requirements. Biden even created a task force to consider 3D printed firearms and fully automatic conversion devices that are already regulated as machine guns.

“In my second term, we will roll back every Biden attack on the Second Amendment — the attacks are fast and furious — starting the minute that Crooked Joe shuffles his way out of the White House,” Trump said.

Trump told senior NRA executives he will fire Steve Dettelbach, who was Joe Biden’s second choice to lead the ATF. “Have you heard of him? He’s a disaster,” Trump told the NRA.

While firing Dettelbach would be a great start, there are other issues that need to go too, such as the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which has billions for Red Flag laws and other litigation.

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Writer Lee Williams also notes that the ATF needs to be abolished, which I totally agree with.

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden overturned every executive order Trump signed while in the White House, including those that had absolutely no controversy attached to them. It's only fitting if Trump returns the favor. The benefit of that would be a strong defense for the Second Amendment all on its own. Especially since the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention was created by an executive order.

Now, the existence of such an office isn't the worst thing ever. Such an office could be used to advance all sorts of policies that would reduce so-called gun violence without infringing on people's rights.

The issue is that such an office would never stay that way. The next anti-gun president would revert it.

So, abolish it and make them start from scratch. It might not keep them from re-opening such an office, but it'll make it enough of a pain in the butt that at least some might not even bother.

Getting rid of the ATF will take a little longer, but is still a worthwhile goal.

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