As Cam noted on Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that is basically a move to undo pretty much every Biden-era order on guns. This is a massive win for gun rights, of course, and it's something Trump vowed to do if he was to return to the Oval Office.

Promise made, promise kept.

Unsurprisingly, gun rights groups had thoughts on the move.

Email accounts were abuzz with press releases from those groups. Let's start with Gun Owners of America.

Aidan Johnston, GOA’s Director of Federal Affairs, issued the following statement: 

"Gun owners fought hard to elect a president who would take a sledgehammer to Biden’s unconstitutional gun control policies, and today, President Trump proved he’s serious about that fight. We hope that this executive order is just the first of many victories reestablishing our Second Amendment rights during the Trump administration. GOA will not rest until every illegal gun grab from the Biden administration is fully repealed and the Second Amendment is fully restored." 

Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of GOA, added: 

"By planning to dismantle Biden’s anti-gun agenda and rein in the ATF, President Trump is making good on his word to protect and defend the Second Amendment. The ATF has been weaponized for too long against law-abiding Americans, and it’s past time to rein in this rogue agency. GOA looks forward to working with this administration to restore and expand gun rights across the country." 

The National Rifle Association expressed similar thoughts.

“Promises made to law-abiding gun owners are being kept by President Donald J. Trump,” said Doug Hamlin, NRA Executive Vice President and CEO. “NRA members were instrumental, turning out in record numbers to secure his victory, and he is proving worthy of their votes, faith, and confidence in his first days in office.”

...

“After a long four years, law-abiding gun owners no longer have to worry about being the target of an anti-gun radical administration,” said John Commerford, Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA).  “NRA looks forward to the advances and restoration of our rights that will come from President Trump’s respect for the Constitution.”

The NSSF had the following to say:

“The announcement this evening by President Donald Trump that he is taking swift and thorough actions to protect not just the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans, but also the industry that provides the means to exercise that sacred right, is welcomed news and should be celebrated by all gun owners,” stated Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President for Government and Public Affairs and General Counsel. “For the past four years, the previous president and his administration attacked law-abiding gun owners and the lawful firearm industry at every opportunity, crippling small businesses and turning law-abiding Americans into criminals overnight, all while trampling on Constitutional rights and ignoring laws passed by Congress. No more – gone are those days. President Trump’s welcomed Executive Order means those exercising their rights to keep and bear arms will be able to continue protecting their loved ones, homes and property and do so knowing the President of the United States has their back.

Thank you, President Trump. The firearm industry looks forward to working with you to keep Americans safe, while at the same time honoring and protecting the U.S. Constitution.”

The Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms offered this:

“It is reassuring that after four long years of the executive branch assaulting our Second Amendment rights that the Trump Administration is investigating avenues to undo the damage inflicted by the prior administration,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “We look forward to seeing tangible results benefiting gun owners and the individual liberty of every American.”

“We are delighted that President Trump is following through on his promises to gun owners during the campaign,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “We are particularly grateful to see he is directing the Attorney General to examine all orders, regulations and other actions taken by the Biden administration affecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens during Joe Biden’s entire term in office.”

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“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris waged war on American gun owners and the Second Amendment for four long years,” Gottlieb recalled, “treating the right to keep and bear arms like a government-regulated privilege. That ended January 20, and we are looking ahead to actions by the Trump administration which will reverse Biden’s policies and correct the harm he has done.”

Through them all, there is a very common thread. Through the last four years, things royally sucked because an anti-gun president did everything he could think of to restrict our rights with the stroke of a pen and those days are over. Now, the president we helped elect has fulfilled his promise to the American people and taken the vital step of undoing the damage done.

This is completely accurate.

However, in his piece reporting on the EO itself, he mentions some nerves regarding how far Bondi will actually go. Her vehement defense of post-Parkland gun control as attorney general in Florida does suggest that she might not go as far as many gun rights advocates might prefer. After all, the EO puts the ball in her court and she's shown some hesitance in fully embracing gun rights.

That said, we're dealing with regulations that weren't voted on by duly elected legislators, which puts the Biden-era orders in a very different light. 

Then there's the fact that as attorney general in Florida, Bondi was an elected official. Now, she answers to President Trump, which means she will have to follow the spirit of the order, not the letter.

And there's absolutely no way our lot in life will be worse than it was under Biden and Merrick Garland.

I sincerely hope the reservations I have about Bondi are nothing to worry about. As I said, there's no way I see her being worse than what we've dealt with, and the key thing here is that President Trump kept his word.

The only thing he didn't do is issue the order in the first week, as he said, but as Trump is known for hyperbole, he might well have simply meant "in the early days" instead of the literally first seven days.

What matters is that he delivered on his promise, among others.

Gun rights groups are happy, and they should be. It doesn't mean anyone should kick back and chill for the next four years, obviously, but it does mean there's a good foundation to build on.