A Match Made In Hell

I received an email today from the Everytown Victory Fund which is their PAC. They are now have formed a coalition with the Planned Parenthood Votes PAC to produce a pro-Kamala, anti-Trump online advertisement. The ad touts how Kamala is pro-abortion and pro-gun control. This is juxtaposed against Trump on his appointments to the Supreme Court and speaking about his record on gun rights.

Now anyone who knows anything about gun rights and Trump knows he is not perfect on gun rights despite what they have him saying in this ad. The now overturned bump stock ban is evidence of this.

I don’t care what your position is on abortion but I am having a bit of cognitive dissonance seeing these two leftist organizations in a coalition. One promotes killing the unborn while the other thinks restricting firearms is a safety (sic) measure. Perhaps I should view Everytown as not so much as a gun control organization but rather an organization that is doing everything in its power to limit the basic human right of self-defense. Seen that way, this coalition does make some sense.

I do understand that if you want a free vasectomy or abortion pills, they are both available at the Democratic National Convention. I guess that is one way to limit the spread of leftism.

Everytown Fundraising Off Trump Announcement

Unless you were living under a rock, you know the former President Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. It is was not unexpected nor were the fundraising appeals based upon his announcement.

However, one fundraising appeal that appeared in my in-box today was somewhat unexpected. It was from Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety (sic).

Yesterday, Donald Trump announced that he is running for president in 2024.

Time and again President Trump has shown himself to be unfit for office. The NRA has long been one of Donald Trump’s top supporters, spending tens of millions to support his presidential bids in 2016 and 2020. As president, he was the NRA’s number one ally, fomenting the gun lobby’s dangerous agenda and emboldening far right extremists.

Donald Trump is a threat to democracy and a threat to gun safety.

No matter who the gun lobby decides to support in 2024, Everytown and Moms Demand Action will always be the counterweight to their far-right extremism. We are a grassroots movement of parents, students, survivors, educators, gun owners, community leaders, and concerned citizens working together to fight for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence—and we rely on your support to power our work.

In my opinion, this appeal was targeted to the low-information voter and donor. While President Trump had a great relationship with Wayne LaPierre and the NRA, other than his appointments to the Federal judiciary including the Supreme Court, he did not do a lot for gun rights. We never got national carry reciprocity and we never got the hearing protection act. Instead we got President Trump pressuring the DOJ and BATFE to concoct a ban on bump stocks by reclassifying them as machine guns. This was despite the clear intent of Congress and the clear wording of the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act of 1968. Thus to say Donald Trump is a threat to “gun safety” (sic) aka gun control is farcical.

Observations On The Midterm Elections

The pollsters took another election on the chin. Few races turned out anywhere near what was predicted. The so-called red wave or tsunami has turned into, at best, a red rivulet. The US House may be Republican majority but it will be only so marginally. We still don’t know about the Senate. The Georgia senate runoff may be the deciding factor there.

In North Carolina, it was generally a good night for Republicans and conservatives. Rep. Tedd Budd (R-NC) defeated former Ch. Justice Cheri Beasley. He had a positive vote margin of approximately 135,000 votes. In my district, St. Sen. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) beat Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara (R) by over 30,000 votes.

In the North Carolina statewide judicial races for Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, it was a Republican sweep. Republicans will now have a 5-2 majority on the Supreme Court with the addition of Judge Richard Deitz and Trey Allen. With the US Supreme Court hearing Moore et al v. Harper et al, a case involving redistricting and the legislative prerogative, redistricting will probably come before the NC Supreme Court again.

Speaking of redistricting, the forced redistricting of Congressional districts by the NC Supreme Court resulted in a 7-7 split between Republicans and Democrats. Without this forced redistricting, it probably would have been 9-4.

The other NC results of note are that the Republicans regained a supermajority in the State Senate and are only one short in the State House. This bodes well for both the elimination of the pistol purchase permit as well as allowing church carry when the church has an attached school. Both bills were vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) and had his veto sustained in this past session.

Moving on from NC, let’s look at Pennsylvania. I think it was widely expected that AG Josh Shapiro (D) was going to win the governorship over St. Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) and he did. It was the Senate race between Mehmet Oz and John Fetterman that got most national attention. It appears that Fetterman, damaged as he was from his stroke, has won that race by about 200,000 votes. I have looked at the results and one thing stands out to me. The PA Secretary of State’s office shows the votes on the day of the election and “mail in” votes. Fetterman got 886,217 mail in votes versus 217,932 for Oz. A 4-1 split like that is statistically suspicious in my opinion. This is especially true given that Oz had about 45,000 more election day votes than Fetterman. It just doesn’t pass the smell test.

As to Fetterman serving a full term, I’m going to go out on a limb and say he will be gone by mid-year 2023 due to “health reasons” with Shapiro then appointing a replacement to serve until Jan. 2025. I just can’t see Fetterman as being much more than a placeholder given his condition.

J. D. Vance along with Republicans in general had a good day in Ohio. They took the governorship, Vance’s senate seat, and the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court along the rest of the Council of State offices.

Oregonians decided that they wanted to stick with the leftist policies of Gov. Kate Brown and elected Tina Kotek (D) as governor. Again, polls were deceiving as it appeared that Republican Christine Drazan might have been in the lead. Also, voters barely passed anti-gun Measure 114 which contains a magazine ban as well as requirements to obtain a permit before purchasing any firearm. Multnomah County, the home of Portland, provided the most votes for it. Why am I not shocked. I foresee that this will be challenged in Federal court given the Bruen precedents.

One last observation is that former President Trump was good at pushing candidates in the primaries. He was not so good at getting candidates that could actually win a general election. If you look at both New Hampshire and Georgia, Republican governors cruised to re-election while the Trump-backed Senate candidates struggled. Bolduc lost in New Hampshire and Hershel Walker is slightly behind Warnock at they are headed to a run-off. Meanwhile in Florida, both Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio who have been dissed by Trump won handily. I know Trump wants vindication for his 2020 loss to Joe Biden but there comes a time when you just have to suck it up and move on. Now that I’m officially a senior citizen, I think I can say we need a 2024 presidential candidate that is younger than me which automatically precludes him.

Red Flag Laws Are Getting Trump’s Support

In his remarks today on the mass murders in El Paso and Dayton, President Trump called for the passage of red flag laws.

Fourth, we must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms, and that, if they do, those firearms can be taken through rapid due process. That is why I have called for red flag laws, also known as extreme risk protection orders.

If a person is such a danger, they need to be confined. Mentally disturbed individuals as well as terrorists have used many other instruments besides firearms to kill large numbers of innocent people. Little more than two weeks ago, an disturbed individual killed 33 people in an anime studio in Japan by setting it in fire. This followed an earlier stabbing rampage in May that left one schoolgirl dead and 16 more injured. Islamofascists in Europe have used cars and trucks to run down people attending street fairs. They have attacked and killed people in New York City using rented trucks. So why just guns when flammables, knives, and vehicles have all been used in mass attacks in recent times?

Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned brings up an interesting point. Now that Chris Cox has left or been ousted from the NRA, it is left to Wayne LaPierre to try and control Trump’s worst impulses regarding firearms. I doubt Wayne is up to the task.

You can be sure that the gun prohibitionists will laugh in Trump’s face as they rush to pass more gun control without the quid pro quo that he thinks supporting it will get.

The Firearms Policy Coalition released a statement which I will quote in part below. I think they have a very good understanding of what these calls for more restrictions on our freedoms and liberties mean for us as individuals and as a nation.

It is disingenuous and immoral to ratify and incent evil acts of the very few by responding in kind with broad restrictions on the fundamental human rights of the People that pre-exist government itself. We will not accept this as a means of affecting change in a free society. The loss of human lives will always affect and change us, but they must never be allowed to alter our fundamental principles, freedoms, and commitment to individual liberty.

To be sure, our Constitution and society are at an unprecedented crossroads. Politicians and presidential candidates now openly call for a fundamental transformation of our system of laws: from a constitutional republic of free men and women founded in federalism and individual liberty, to a nation-state of subjects ruled with an iron fist from ivory towers and Washington, D.C.

Protecting the People and their human rights and property from the tyranny of mob rule and capricious political winds is a unique feature of our Republic—one that we fiercely defend even when doing so may be unpopular.

Stabbed In The Back Again

Eight years of Obama brought no new gun control at the federal level. Three years of President Trump has brought an unconstitutional ban on bumpstocks, no Hearing Protection Act, no national reciprocity, and now a call for more gun control in the wake of the murders in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.

If he thinks that Democrats will trade gun control for funding a “the wall”, he is sadly mistaken. They will do a bait and switch saying they will support “the wall” after passing red flag laws and universal background checks (and other gun control) but then do nothing about funding the wall.

Right now I don’t give a big rat’s ass about a wall along the border that would have marginal effectiveness. I do care about any denigration of the Second Amendment and gun rights.

By the way, all indications are that virtually every mass murderer in the last 10 years has gone through a NICS check. These bills would do nothing to have prevented them from obtaining the firearm in question.

Quote Of The Day – Editorial Version

Jim Shepherd of The Outdoor Wire had an interesting editorial today discussing the latest earnings report from Ruger along with some recent pronouncements from President Trump. After discussing the earnings report, he noted that much of the good news and bad news for the firearms industry seem to tied to President Trump.

He continues:

That’s because his announcement earlier this week that he wants a ban on bump fire stocks and other devices that increase the rate-of-fire of AR-style rifles is viewed as a politician, once again, throwing gun right supporters under the bus after wooing their support to get elected.

Indeed, candidate Trump and later President Trump could be characterized, at least until Tuesday’s announcement, as having a simple message for gun owners: “we will never, never, never infringe on our Second Amendment Rights.”

Now it may seem that our definitions on what Second Amendment protections really mean may differ significantly. For most Second Amendment supporters, any additional regulations on guns are beyond the pale. In fact, many gun rights groups have already begun to spread the word they will seek legal remedies should Attorney General Sessions make a move to place restrictions on either bump stocks or binary style triggers.

Seems a fight with the man gun owners helped put in the White House is brewing over gun rights. If that happens, Mr. Trump may learn that formerly ardent supports make the most fierce opponents.

Like Trump, gun owners don’t easily forgive- or forget- a betrayal.

We’ll keep you posted.

 Jim’s absolutely correct. Instead of kow-towing to a bunch of people that never supported him and never will support him, Mr. Trump needs to remember just who put him over the top in the battleground states. It sure as hell wasn’t members of Moms Demand Action.

“Be Like Kim Kardashian” – My Presentation At 2017 Gun Rights Policy Conference

I teased people before my presentation on the Using New Media To Advance Gun Rights panel at the 2017 GRPC that I would be talking about Kim Kardashian.

And I did.

You can read and see my whole presentation below. I do think it is important that we adopt all forms of social media to inform and persuade the Millennials and iGeneration about freedom and the Second Amendment.

Hi. I’m John Richardson.

I have the gun blog No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money and I’m a co-host of the Polite Society Podcast.

In past years I’ve spoken about how bloggers have worked to advance gun rights, how they’ve exposed gun walking in the Obama Administration, and also how we can use new media as a tool to fight the enemies of freedom ranging from the Mainstream Media to the well-funded gun control lobby.

This year when I was putting together my notes for this talk I thought about things like fake news, the bias of the mainstream media, how balanced in their lexicon means always quoting a gun banner in reference to crime, and how ridiculous it is that the media takes anything Gabby Giffords says seriously.

However, last Saturday morning while I was sitting in bed drinking my coffee I watched a report on CBS Saturday which encapsulated what we in the gun rights community need to do: we need to become Social Media Influencers.

Put another way, we need to become like Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian. I know you are probably saying right now that you can maybe understand Trump but a Kardashian? Really?

Think about this – you have a young woman with virtually no discernible talents, with no education past high school, and no employment history to speak of who got upwards of $1 million for merely attending a party due to the attention she draws.

That is social media influence. We may think it is absurd but it is the new reality.

Big business understands this. They have made it a $1 billion annual industry because it conveys authenticity and because it goes around the gatekeepers to put their message directly into the pockets of Millennials and Gen. Z aka the iGeneration.

The reason I care and you should care about reaching the Millennials and the iGeneration is that we are in the long war. If we don’t reach them with the message that gun rights are important, that the shooting sports are fun, and that our opponents are the enemies of freedom, then the Second Amendment will be effectively dead within our lifetimes.

The Millennials and the iGeneration don’t read newspapers. They don’t watch network news. Half the time they’ve replaced cable with Netflix and Amazon Prime. They don’t have landlines and their cell phones are more often used to text than to talk to friends. More importantly, they don’t trust traditional media and they value authenticity. This means they give greater weight to user-generated social media than virtually anything else.

The other thing to understand is that there is New Social Media and Old Social Media. The latter would include things like blogs, podcasts, Facebook, and, to some extent, Twitter. New Social Media is centered on things like Instagram, SnapChat, and Periscope with YouTube somewhere in between the two. To give you an idea of the reach of Instagram as a means of social influence, the Kardashian-Jenner daughters have 410 MILLION followers combined.

So how do you use it?

Number one – download the app to your smart phone and register an account.

Number two – start posting pictures when you take a new shooter to the range. Or alternatively, post pictures from GRPC. Just make sure to put hashtags with them. You know – those little cross-hatched number signs with a word or two after them. Stuff like “#newshooter” or “#grpc2017”.

Number three – if you feel this is beyond what you can do, enlist your kids and grandkids. Take them shooting and have THEM post the pictures to their accounts.

Finally, keep it fun and keep it light. If we need serious, we have people like Alan Gura for the legal stuff, Dr. John Lott to challenge the anti’s statistics, and my friend sociologist David Yamane for studies on GunCulture 2.0.

We can win at this because we are the real grassroots. Social media influence comes from below and not from above. But we need to start doing it NOW.

I will be posting my notes and associated video from the 2017 Gun Rights Policy Conference throughout the week.

Happy New Year!

As we approach 2017, we, in the gun culture, have good reason to be optimistic. While we lost some referenda in the West, we now have a President, Senate, and House that should be able to work together to enact legislation such as the Hearing Protection Act and national reciprocity. More importantly, soon to be President Trump will not only get to appoint one or more justices to the Supreme Court but also 100 or more Federal judges at the District and Circuit levels. We may finally get to a point where the lower courts can no longer pay lip service to the Heller and McDonald decisions.

So, as we close 2016, I want to leave you with this rendition of Auld Lang Syne by my good friend Charlie Cook. His musical interpretations of various songs and themes are wonderfully unique.

Happy New Year!

Rep. Ryan Zinke’s Nomination For Interior Secretary Garners Approval

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) was selected by President-elect Donald Trump to be his Secretary of the Interior. Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, is the lone Congressman from Montana and was rumored to have been a potential candidate to take on Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) in 2018. Zinke’s selection has garnered approval from the NRA, the NSSF, and other organizations.

From the NRA-ILA:

Fairfax, Va.— Chris W. Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, issued the following statement on the nomination of Congressman Ryan Zinke to be the Secretary of the Interior:

“On behalf of our 5 million members, we commend President-Elect Donald Trump for nominating Congressman Ryan Zinke of Montana to be our next Secretary of the Interior,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action. “The sportsmen and women of this nation have long waited for an Interior Secretary who understands the need to preserve America’s outdoor heritage for generations to come. Ryan Zinke will champion those traditions with the devotion of a true outdoorsman while serving as our next Secretary of the Interior.”

From the National Shooting Sports Foundation:

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industries, today praised President-Elect Donald Trump’s selection of U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) to become Secretary of the Department of the Interior.

“In Congressman Zinke we have a true friend of American sportsmen who believes in the inestimable value of our public lands. We are confident Congressman Zinke will work to preserve and promote our hunting and related outdoor traditions. He is an American hero, a lifelong hunter and angler, and a true conservationist in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “The Secretary of the Interior is arguably the nation’s single most important position with regard to the management of federal lands, wildlife habitat and natural resources. Competing interests must be balanced with what will be in the best long-term interest of the nation. We look forward to enthusiastically supporting his nomination in Congress and then working with Secretary Zinke to help him achieve that mission.”

“We are very pleased that President-Elect Trump is listening to the voices of American sportsmen and conservationists, but no one should be surprised. That positive influence has been close at hand for many years in the form of his son, Donald Jr.,” Keane added.

From the Boone and Crockett Club:

The Boone and Crockett Club, the oldest wildlife conservation group in the U.S., founded by Theodore Roosevelt, praises President-Elect Donald Trump’s announcement of U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) to become Secretary of the Department of the Interior.

“Ryan Zinke has already demonstrated the leadership required as America’s top conservation steward, and the president-elect has done likewise in embracing it.” said Ben B. Hollingsworth Jr., president of the B&C Club. “The congressman has seen that frustrations with federal land management are the driver of many controversies and has rejected surrendering those federal lands as a supposed solution. Ryan Zinke and Donald Trump know that ever since Theodore Roosevelt made federal lands and conservation a national priority, hunters and other sportsmen-conservationists have carried out the work on the ground that ensures America’s wildlife heritage.”

The Boone and Crockett Club moved its national headquarters to the Rocky Mountain west in Missoula, Montana in 1992 because the Club’s leadership at the time felt this would be the epicenter of many future conservation challenges for land and wildlife.

In a statement released by Zinke, the new Interior Secretary said he would uphold Theodore Roosevelt’s belief that public lands are “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” He continued by assuring the public that he will “work tirelessly to ensure our public lands are managed and preserved in a way that benefits everyone for generations to come.”

Hollingsworth said, “We are proud that Montana, where we call home and where the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch is located, is the source of so much conservation leadership at this moment in history. With the state so well represented in Congress, having a Montanan in the administration is a prime opportunity to restore working relationships in Washington to the benefit of conservation work on the ground.”

From the Dallas Safari Club:

DSC congratulates Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke on his recent nomination to lead the Department of Interior. Zinke will be charged with protecting the natural resources of the U.S., which includes federal lands and overseeing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. DSC is pleased to see the position filled by an ardent proponent of continued access to public lands and a champion of conservation.

“DSC has supported Representative Zinke since his first run in Congress,” said DSC Executive Director Ben Carter. “He symbolizes the DSC mission of ensuring the future of conservation through hunting and protecting hunter’s rights. We are excited to see how he handles the critical issues facing wildlife and wild places. Our membership respects and appreciates his dedicated service to this Nation as a former Navy Seal and as a Congressman. He has proven to be a straight shooter in all aspects, and we look forward to working with the newly nominated Interior Secretary.”

Zinke is a native of Montana and has a lifelong love of hunting and fishing. During his time in Congress, Zinke has a track record of backing hunter’s rights. He announced his support for the Sportsmen’s Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Enhancement Act, which contained seven provisions to reauthorize or implement ways to fund conservation programs on federal and private lands.

In a released statement, Zinke stated, “As inscribed in the stone archway of Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Montana, I shall faithfully uphold Teddy Roosevelt’s belief that our treasured public lands are ‘for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.’ I will work tirelessly to ensure our public lands are managed and preserved in a way that benefits everyone for generations to come.”

“Zinke is a sportsman just like the members of DSC,” said Carter. “His heart lies in the same place as ours and we feel he is the perfect person to direct management of our lands and wildlife. This is a great step in ensuring the future of hunting, fishing and the outdoor life for upcoming generations.”

Finally, in what I consider the greatest endorsement of Zinke yet, is this statement from the Center for Biological Diversity. They have been consistently a thorn in the side to hunters, anglers, and shooters with their constant lawsuits against lead-based ammunition and professional wildlife conservation management efforts.

TUCSON, Ariz.— Freshman congressman Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) has reportedly been picked by Donald Trump to serve as secretary of the Interior to oversee endangered species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, hundreds of millions of acres of public land including the national parks, Bureau of Land Management lands and national wildlife refuges and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Zinke was a staunch, early and controversial supporter of Trump throughout the presidential campaign. Trump has picked his wife Lola Zinke to oversee the transition of the Veteran’s Administration.


Statement of Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity:


“Ryan Zinke has a dismal 3 percent lifetime environmental voting record. His brief political career has been substantially devoted to attacking endangered species and the Endangered Species Act. He led efforts to strip federal protections for endangered wolves, lynx and sage grouse, voted to exempt massive agribusiness and water developers from Endangered Species Act limitations, and opposed efforts to crack down on the international black market ivory trade.”


“Zinke consistently votes for the interests of oil and gas companies, which is not surprising since Oasis Petroleum is his largest campaign contributor and the oil and gas industry is his third-largest sector contributor. He has also voted against and attacked the establishment of protective national monuments on public lands.”


“On the bright side, Zinke has spoken and voted against the outright transfer of federal public lands to states and corporations. This is in keeping with positions taken by Donald Trump and his son Donald, Jr. Unfortunately Zinke has championed the same result — greatly increased logging, mining and oil drilling, greatly reduced environmental protections, elimination of federal control, and weakening of environmental standards — by turning over public land management to industry-dominated panels appointed by state governors. In Zinke’s scheme, industry and state interests get all the environmental destruction and profit they want, with the federal government being made to pay for it through nominal retention of land title.”


“Zinke’s cynically named ‘Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015’ was one of several schemes he led to turn control of public land to industry-dominated panels. It was widely opposed by conservationists, sportsmen, businesses and even some timber companies for dispensing with environmental laws and public involvement in order to ramp up unsustainable logging levels.”


“Disturbingly, in 2012 Zinke contradicted his recent stance when he signed the extremist Montana Constitutional Governance Pledge promising to ‘legally and administratively oppose the multitude of bureaucracies that have sprung up to enforce the unlawful seizure of our native land and its resources including, but not limited to: the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Park Service, the various bureaus of Wildlife and Fisheries, etc., and restore the rightful powers over the land to the State and private ownership.’ During confirmation hearings, the Senate needs to grill Zinke on this contradiction and ensure he truly supports keeping public lands in public hands.”

He Beat Us To It

Many in the gun rights community have been coming up with our wish lists now that Donald Trump has been elected President. Given the support from the NRA, other gun rights organizations, and the gun culture was critical in his win, it’s payback time.

Among the things I’ve been hoping for is national concealed carry reciprocity, removal of suppressors from the NFA through passage of the Hearing Protection Act, overturning previous executive orders by Presidents George H. W. Bush and Barack Obama, and the elimination of the sporting use test from the Gun Control Act of 1968. This is in addition to appointing judges and justices that will will uphold and expand Heller and McDonald. Of course that is just a start.

Well it looks like President-elect Trump (has a nice ring to it!) has beat us to the punch on national reciprocity and the elimination of gun free zones on military bases.

From a position paper released today:

GUN AND MAGAZINE BANS. Gun and magazine bans are a total failure. That’s been
proven every time it’s been tried. Opponents of gun rights try to come up with scary
sounding phrases like “assault weapons”, “military-style weapons” and “high capacity
magazines” to confuse people. What they’re really talking about are popular semiautomatic
rifles and standard magazines that are owned by tens of millions of
Americans. Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice.
The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people
are allowed to own.



BACKGROUND CHECKS. There has been a national background check system in
place since 1998. Every time a person buys a gun from a federally licensed gun dealer
– which is the overwhelming majority of all gun purchases – they go through a federal
background check. Study after study has shown that very few criminals are stupid
enough to try and pass a background check – they get their guns from friends/family
members or by stealing them. So the overwhelming majority of people who go through
background checks are law-abiding gun owners. When the system was created, gun
owners were promised that it would be instant, accurate and fair. Unfortunately, that
isn’t the case today. Too many states are failing to put criminal and mental health
records into the system – and it should go without saying that a system’s only going to
be as effective as the records that are put into it. What we need to do is fix the system
we have and make it work as intended. What we don’t need to do is expand a broken
system.



NATIONAL RIGHT TO CARRY. The right of self-defense doesn’t stop at the end of
your driveway. That’s why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of
Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states. A driver’s license works
in every state, so it’s common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every
state. If we can do that for driving – which is a privilege, not a right – then surely we can
do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege.



MILITARY BASES AND RECRUITING CENTERS. Banning our military from carrying
firearms on bases and at recruiting centers is ridiculous. We train our military how to
safely and responsibly use firearms, but our current policies leave them defenseless. To
make America great again, we need a strong military. To have a strong military, we
need to allow them to defend themselves.

The position paper also notes that Trump himself has a concealed carry permit.

This is a great way to end the week!