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September 26, 2024
By David Codrea
Rep. Thomas Massie made the news recently when he introduced HR9534, the National Constitutional Carry Act, correctly noting “No one should have to beg the government to exercise a constitutionally protected right anywhere in the country.”
Massie has been one of the very few in public life who makes his principles clear and acts on them. The unlikelihood of such a bill passing in today’s political climate, and the fact that those principles have in the recent past resulted in a furious demand from Donald Trump to literally expel him from the GOP, should interest all gun owner advocates, especially at a time when we need to pull together against the existential threat to the right to arms represented by Kamala Harris and the Democrats.
To that end, Firearms News submitted two questions to Rep. Massie, which he has answered below.
FN: Surely, you’re aware that legislative monitoring website GovTrack.us gives the “Prognosis” that there’s a “1% chance of being enacted.”
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There is growing jaded gun owner sentiment that politicians on both sides introduce bills they know have no chance of passing for political points. Your own experience, as you related to Armed American Radio host Mark Walters in 2017, when you informed him that then-speaker Paul Ryan said the timing wasn’t right for the D.C. Personal Protection Reciprocity Act, shows that when in power, the GOP leadership finds a way to avoid giving the words they use to get elected any real meaning.
Why introduce your bill now instead of after the November elections, and if the GOP succeeds in holding on to the House and winning back the Senate and the White House, what prognosis do you give for this bill, a hearing protection (suppressor) bill, and other pre-election promises being passed and enacted?
TM: “The time to stand up for our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is always: Now. Constitutional Carry is recognized by 29 states, and it is important to keep building on this momentum. If we win the House, the Senate, and the White House we will have a running start on getting this legislation enacted next year.”
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FN: Donald Trump and establishment Republicans – members of what he has previously referred to as “the Swamp,” went ballistic on you for insisting on the Constitutionally-required quorum for the “Save Our Workers Act,” with the former president calling you “a third-rate Grandstander” and demanding “throw Massie out of Republican Party!” This was at a time when your primary challenger was Todd McMurtry, not just a Never Trumper, but a documented Trump hater, who said “I hate to say that Hillary [Clinton] is right, but he is temperamentally unqualified to be President.”
What do you have to say to President Trump and his supporters? Noting the Democrat/Harris/Walz platform on guns, do you agree the November elections represent an existential and binary choice for gun owners, and will you vote for him even if there is no personal reconciliation?
TM: “Vice President Harris is part of an administration that has already weaponized the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) rulemaking powers to attack gun rights, and there is no doubt that Trump would be better for our gun rights.”
As this correspondent wrote in an April 2020 AmmoLand article, “Trump Attack on Massie Self-Defeating and Wrong.” His ad hominem attack was a logical fallacy, resorted to by those trying to incite support by hurling insults. Constitutionally speaking, Massie was right, and those manipulated to scream against a recorded vote because it was "their guy" doing it were enabling the tyranny relied on when it’s the other guy doing it – just look at the results of the unaccountable voice vote on the Hughes Amendment to the so-called “Firearms Owners Protection Act,” banning ownership of machine guns manufactured after May 19th, 1986.
An interesting side note is that in the 2020 election, the National Rifle Association downgraded Massie’s grade to a B + because he correctly objected to adding “Fix NICS” background check prior restraint infringements in a reciprocity bill and gave his primary opponent McMurtry an AQ (questionnaire-based) grade.
As Rep. Massie continues to insist that the GOP leadership follows the Constitution on foreign and domestic special interest issues, he will continue to take hits from the very Swamp that Trump is supposed to be draining. And rather than help his own candidacy, the former president’s pettiness will continue to be a major weakness in his campaign. He would do well to realize MAGA throngs are not excited into political frenzy because they support Republican establishment concessions, and to reach out to Massie and learn from him.
It’s a safe bet his ego will keep that from happening. Meaning it’s up to informed gun owners to realize, like Massie acknowledges, “there is no doubt that Trump would be better for our gun rights,” and like him, to continue the hostility-inviting task of showing Republicans nominally on “our side” why they’re wrong when they’re wrong.
About the Author David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. In addition to being a regular featured contributor for Firearms News and AmmoLand Shooting Sports News , he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts onTwitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
If you have any thoughts or comments on this article, we’d love to hear them. Email us at FirearmsNews@Outdoorsg.com .
