In the battle between those wanting to destroy the Second Amendment and those who understand the words “shall not be infringed,” Donald Trump did something Barack Obama never did when he issued an executive order banning bump stocks. But in a court challenge to the unconstitutional directive, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals struck it down.
Despite promising in 2016 and 2020 to oppose the gun control agenda and defend the Second Amendment, Donald Trump — the man the National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsed for reelection because he had “done more than any president to protect the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms” — showed how he has always been pro-gun control and anti-Second Amendment.
During his four years in office, Trump openly embraced Nancy Pelosi’s gun-control agenda, pushed for enhanced background checks, proposed expanding red flag laws on a national level, and banned bump stocks via executive order.
This double-mindedness on the part of the New York liberal was evident during the 2016 campaign. In the aftermath of the mass murder and wounding of over 100 people at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Trump joined Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and an army of Democrats and jumped on the anti-gun bandwagon calling for “serious suggestions on gun control,” even though the incident was tied to ISIS and radical Islam.
In the aftermath of the shooting at a Florida High School a little over three years ago, Trump joined with the Democrats to once again discuss the need for more gun control. In that meeting, Trump openly promoted several Democrat-friendly anti-gun measures and he promised to take an Obama-sized bite out of the Second Amendment.
Included in his punch list of anti-Second Amendment priorities were: raising the age to 21 to buy a rifle (a nod to Dianne Feinstein), expanding background checks (a priority of Chuck Schumer), and his infamous “with or without Congress” bump stock ban.
With Dianne Feinstein sitting so close that she was practically his lap, Trump declared:
“I’m going to write that out. We can do that with an executive order. You won’t have to worry about bump stocks. We can do it without Congress. We have to act.”
When Trump followed through on his promise in 2019, a lawsuit was filed to challenge the administration’s claim that bump stocks were “machine guns” and therefore, subject to prohibition under the 1934 National Firearms Act banning machine guns.
Early challenges to the unconstitutional order were unsuccessful.
One year ago, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case challenging Trump’s bump stock ban, thus allowing a lower court decision that agreed with Trump’s redefinition of bump stocks as machine guns to remain. Neil Gorsuch, the darling of faux conservatives everywhere, agreed with the decision not to hear the appeal, by the way.
But Gorsuch and the rest of the so-called conservative court might be asked again to hear the challenge now that a different lower court has ruled against the bump stock ban. Gun Owners of America is celebrating a recent ruling by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that bump stocks are not machine guns.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the district court’s decision, which had denied GOA’s motion for a preliminary injunction on bump stocks. Gun Owners of America is seeking an injunction to prevent ATF from implementing a final rule incorrectly classifying bump stocks as machineguns under federal law.
This case was brought by Gun Owners of America (GOA), Gun Owners Foundation (GOF), the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), Matt Watkins, Tim Harmsen of the Military Arms Channel, and GOA’s Texas Director, Rachel Malone.
“Today’s court decision is great news and told gun owners what they already knew,” said GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt. “We are glad the court applied the statute accurately, and struck down the ATF’s illegal overreach and infringement of gun owners’ rights.”
Looking back, there are Trumpists and other sycophants who still believe that gun control would have been worse if Hillary had won, and there are so-called conservatives who believe that some form of “regulation” of our gun rights (i.e. bump stock ban) is constitutionally permitted, Michael Maharrey with the Tenth Amendment Center says you’re wrong on both counts.
“Some might argue it would have been worse if Hillary Clinton had won. Perhaps. But if you support the Second Amendment, don’t you find it problematic that the president who’s supposed to be the good guy continue[d] to ratchet up enforcement of existing unconstitutional federal laws?
“A true supporter of the right to keep and bear arms would do better.
“And make no mistake; all federal gun control laws are unconstitutional.
“Even among the strongest supporters of “gun rights,” most hold the view that the Second Amendment allows for “reasonable” federal regulation of firearms. But as originally understood, the Second Amendment includes no such exceptions. Constitutionally speaking, the federal government should not regulate the manufacture or private ownership of firearms.
There wasn’t an asterisk after “shall not be infringed.” No terms and conditions apply. (emphasis mine)
Unfortunately, a generation of constitutionally immature and/or ignorant Americans are being used as pawns in the gun control debate.
According to a recent USA Today-Ipsos poll on the subject of gun control following the mass shooting in Boulder, CO, nearly two-thirds of Americans support tougher gun laws.
Among those surveyed, 65 percent of respondents said that current gun laws should be stricter with 41 percent saying they should be “a lot more strict” than they currently are and 24 percent saying they should be “somewhat more strict.”
When you take unibrow politicians in Congress and mix it with that kind of anti-gun climate, the future of the Second Amendment isn’t looking too good.
Regardless of the outcome of the bump stock ban, the bottom line is that we can’t trust Congress, the courts, or the president in either party to uphold the Second Amendment; that was true under Donald Trump and continues to be true under Joe Biden.
By the way, Trump’s desire to expand background checks recently received a boost after passage of H.R. 8 in the House. Meanwhile, Joe Biden is promising to take “executive action” if Congress fails to take action following the Boulder, Colorado mass shooting which, ironically, might be tied to ISIS and radical Islam.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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