The Trump administration has had some missteps recently, but those came after a very strong start to his second term. Since they've amounted to little more than words, I'm prepared to sort of shrug them away for the time being, but I'm cautiously watching the administration. It's clear they're not quite as good friends as we might hope.
But the Republican Party, as a whole, hasn't really delivered much for us. All the gains we've made since Trump took office are either through executive orders, which I'm not a huge fan of anyway, or through the courts.
Congress hasn't given us much of anything to cheer for beyond the Big, Beautiful Bill and the end of the $200 tax stamp for suppressors and short-barreled long guns.
Even that was a bit of a disappointment, though, since we hoped to see those items completely deregulated.
Over at Ammoland, writer Bill Cawthon is also disappointed, and he's got a warning for the GOP come the midterms.
As I write this, we are fast approaching the 2026 midterm elections. Sounds like a lot of time, but it’s not.
The conventional wisdom says Congress changes parties at the midterms. With the razor-thin margins Republicans hold now, damage control has to be a priority.
There’s a four-seat majority in the House; all 435 seats are up for grabs. Fifty-one representatives are retiring or leaving to run for other offices. The majority of them are Republican.
There’s a six-seat majority in the Senate. However, that includes at least two RINOs (Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski), who can be counted on to join the Democrats on 2A issues.
Thirteen Democrats and 20 Republicans are retiring. Mitch McConnell is among them, but that probably won’t keep the Senate Red. It may well be the best strategy is to do everything in our power to prevent the Democrats from winning 60 seats.
Gun owners and pro-Second Amendment advocates made a difference in the 2024 general election. According to the 2021 National Firearms Survey, there are about 81.4 million gun owners in the United States. Out of a population of 342 million, that doesn’t seem like much, but looking at data from the 2022 midterms, that 81.4 million would equal more than 72% of the total number of ballots counted.
...The current Congress can’t pass gas, let alone any pro-2A legislation. The Supreme Court seems to be content to smile benignly on lower courts’ defiance of its decisions. The burden of inspiring pro-2A voters to show up at the polls falls squarely on President Trump, the actions of his administration, and the efforts of pro-gun groups and gun owners to persuade them to get back on track.
The man ain't wrong.
Yes, the Trump administration has done more for gun rights than any previous administration, probably in history, but definitely in my 52 years on this Earth.
But, as Cawthon noted and as I've said repeatedly, that ain't a tough bar to clear. I mean, after Biden, the bar was lying on the ground. You'd almost have to dig to go under it.
Last January, we had so many hopes. We sincerely hoped we'd see a lot of big things happen legislatively, and what we got was not much of anything. A nerfed-down version of the Hearing Protection Act and the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today Act. Yeah, it's a win, but we expected a bit better than that from a GOP majority.
While there's no doubt that a Democratic majority would try to do a lot more damage to our Second Amendment rights than a Republican one will, right now we're not seeing much benefit.
For many gun owners, the status quo is acceptable over the alternative, but for many others, they're going to wonder why they should even bother turning out in November. Some, such as myself, live in such blue districts that it's hard to believe our vote could make a difference--I'll still vote, if nothing else, to try and give John Ossoff the boot--and so without some reason to feel motivated, they'll stay home.
And the truth is that if every gun owner turned out, as Cawthon notes, we'd dictate the terms of the election entirely.
Yeah, not every gun owner supports gun rights. A surprising number of anti-gunners own guns, after all, and while they want to deny us our rights, they're figuring they'll be exempt.
Still, they're the minority of gun owners, and we all know it.
If Republicans want the gun vote, they need to earn it. They need to stop endorsing anti-gun Republicans like Tony Gonzales while trying to keep a vehemently pro-gun Brandon Herrera out of office, just to name one example. Especially because Brandon doesn't cheat on his wife with staffers who later self-immolate. Allegedly.
They need to act in the halls of Congress and make something happen.
Otherwise, say goodbye to the majority come November.
Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country need to do more to show they will protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.
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