Russ Vance/Shutterstock
November 26, 2024
By David Codrea
“Trump promises to ‘rip up’ ATF rules,” Gun Owners of America announced in a YouTube video released shortly after the once and future president’s landslide electoral victory was confirmed. “We're going to hold President Trump to all his campaign promises.”
“Under a Trump Administration, all of those Biden disasters get ripped up and torn out my first week, but maybe my first day in office,” the president declared “Okay maybe my first.”
Expectations among gun owners are understandably high. They need to be tempered, though, because some things Donald Trump can do, others Constitutionally require an act of Congress, and all could be subject to legal challenges.
Starting At the Top Within the purview of the Executive branch is the ultimate control of BATFE under a Department of Justice reporting to the president. Trump’s initial nominee for attorney general, Rep. Matt Gaetz, had demonstrated understanding and leadership in opposing the Bureau’s arbitrary and mutable approach to rules and definitions, demanding “ATF to cease taking any actions and reconsider or rescind any secret determinations which call into question the legality of firearms owned by millions of law-abiding Americans.”
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But Gaetz dropped out of consideration after a concerted attack by leftists and “moderate” Republicans raising scandalous accusations that had been dismissed by investigators, and Trump didn’t miss a beat in nominating Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to fill the slot.
“Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again," Trump declared. "I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!"
Fox News readers agreed, with thousands of gushing comments of approval, oblivious to her selection being nothing less than an affront to gun rights advocates. NRA had called Bondi a “bully” in 2018 after she demanded a federal court deny anonymity to a 19-year-old woman who had requested it in a challenge to Florida’s new age restrictions on gun purchases.
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NRA went on to sue Bondi over denial of rights for 18-20-year-olds, but the 11th Circuit, contrary to the Bruen standard of history, text, and tradition at the time of ratification, “decided that historical sources from Reconstruction are more probative of the Second Amendment’s scope than those from the Founding.”
Additionally, Bondi enthusiastically endorsed due process-denying “red flag” laws and was a prominent voice in opposition to overturning Florida’s ban on open carry, a position Senate President Ben Albritton and Establishment Republicans share with zealous Democrat gun prohibitionists. Her office asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Florida’s “bump stock” ban as an unconstitutional taking of property. And, per a deep dive into the case by The Last Refuge, she also “was part of that fraudulent prosecution architecture” in the George Zimmerman case. “In fact, without her origination the state case against [him] was non-existent.”
These actions all directly contradict Donald Trump’s campaign promise that “Your Second Amendment will always be safe with me as your president when I'm back in the Oval Office.” So, what made him make this pick without even consulting “Gun Owners for Trump,” the coalition of gun rights leaders and organizations who mobilized their followers to support his campaign with the understanding that they’d have the president’s ear on Second Amendment policy decisions?
First, her positions weren’t that different from contradictory Trump’s own statements and actions, from “[T]ake the guns first, go through due process second,” to endorsing raising the minimum age to buy firearms to 21, to his own penchant for banning rapid fire devices, and not just bump stocks, but trigger cranks, binary triggers, forced reset triggers and any devices, considering his memorandum instructing the Attorney General “to dedicate all available resources to… propose for notice and comment a rule banning all devices that turn legal weapons into machineguns.”
And per the Associated Press, after the Parkland killings, “Trump thanked Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a close political ally who attended the ball, and told everyone he's ‘doing a great job.’" Scott, in addition to supporting red flag disarmament, signed legislation to “raise the age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21, require a three-day waiting period for most gun purchases, and ban the sale or possession of ‘bump stocks.”
For Trump, it’s personal. Per ABC News, Bondi has backed him on election fraud claims, “railed against criminal indictments against him,” and has promised to prosecute “bad” DOJ prosecutors and “implied action could be taken against President Joe Biden. It’s not a stretch, especially with actions against him for his rhetoric during the January 6, 2021, Capitol protest, to presume he prioritizes that above campaign sloganeering he used to bring cheering gun owners to their feet. But it does not have to be that way—he could have picked an AG who backed him on all the above but also did not carry Bondi’s gun-grabber baggage.
Whoever is ultimately confirmed – and we’ll see if gun owners protest loudly enough to force a reconsideration on Bondi, although Trump is nothing if not unyieldingly stubborn – perhaps with enough pressure ATF could have their current efforts to ban or redefine devices (braces, forced reset triggers, unfinished gun parts, etc.) curtailed by direction and with budget mandates. We might also look for the Trump administration to stop attacks on gun dealers over minor paperwork errors under “zero tolerance,” to forbid lists identifying gun owners in violation of the Firearms Owners Protection Act proscription against gun registries, and to reverse the Biden administration’s attack on private gun transfers through its disingenuous redefinition of what it means to “be in the business of.”
There’s something else Trump could do quickly that would not require Congressional approval. Back in 1989, George H.W. Bush (the “Read my lips, no new gun laws” president who quit the NRA over its then-Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre repeating Democrat Rep. John Dingell’s “jackbooted thugs” reference to ATF) imposed “a permanent import ban on 43 types of semiautomatic assault rifles, including the Chinese-made AK47 and Israeli-made Uzi carbine,” per The Washington Post. The excuse given was they “were not being used for sport as required by the Gun Control Act of 1968.”
That would be “very easy” to overturn, Firearms News Editor-in Chief, Vincent L. DeNiro, who has a nine-page resume in the gun industry going back to 1982, assesses. “President Trump doesn’t even need Congress to get rid of the unconstitutional 1989 “assault weapons” import ban, he just needs to order the BATFE to declare all imported semi-auto rifles as ‘sporting,’ which is what these same models are considered when domestically produced.” (True, “sporting use” is a term originated in a 1938 German gun control law, and “swords and every terrible implement of the soldier are the birthright of an American,” but it will get the job done and we know why we want them.)
DeNiro knows this very well as he led the fight of a municipal “assault weapons” ban in 1989, which was the first one defeated in the U.S. after the Purdy mass shooting that sparked Bush’s import ban. DeNiro’s efforts, from January to March of that year, made national news and stopped many other proposed city and state “assault weapons” bans from going further. DeNiro continues, “If he [President Trump] wants to go down in history as a Second Amendment hero, he can make this happen on day one.”
As for eliminating ATF altogether, even though it was established by the Treasury Department and not by Congress, it is recognized under U.S. Code and responding Congressional objections and lawsuits by prohibitionist groups and states, would drag such an effort on for years. Besides, without eliminating the edicts ATF enforces first and just transferring its functions to another agency like the FBI, the problem of infringements wouldn’t go away, they’d just be assigned to different enforcers.
“At noon on Inauguration Day, we will sack the anti-gun fanatic Steve Dettelbach … and replace him with an ATF director who respects the sacred rights to keep and bear arms,” Trump has declared to enthusiastic gun owner approval. How that’s even possible remains unsaid. While some gun owners are clamoring for the self-nominated “AK Guy” and narrowly defeated Congressional candidate Brandon Herrera to be appointed, the same question of how one can rule hell without being a devil applies to him, or to anyone else who takes the post and enforces any infringement. Trump can and will also appoint heads of other agencies that discriminate against citizens and the Second Amendment, including the Department of Veterans Affairs that has sought to deny firearms to veterans who had a fiduciary appointed to them to manage their finances.
There Oughta Be a Law Foremost in the minds of many gun owners is a bill establishing national concealed carry reciprocity, which Trump promised he would sign.
“My administration will protect the right of self-defense wherever it is under siege,” Trump asserted. “I will sign concealed carry reciprocity — your Second Amendment does not end at the state line.”
The first question is “Which kind?” Will it require states to honor the permits of other states the way they do drivers licenses, or will it establish permitless carry, as introduced in a bill by Rep. Thomas Massie, legislation that recognizes rights don’t need anybody’s permission. Already factions are splitting between gun owners who say the latter is a bridge too far so it’s best to take things incrementally. Realistically, either way would result in lawsuits that would go on for years. Those getting their hopes up are also ignoring another reality that could make either effort a moot point: The margins of Republican victories in both the House and the Senate mean the anti-gunners would only need a few crossover votes with GOP “moderates” joining Democrats to keep any gun bill from reaching the president’s desk. Giffords-endorsed Pennsylvania “Republican” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and all the House and Senate quislings who voted for Joe Biden’s “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” come to mind.
Due process-denying “red flag laws,” unserialized 3D printed “ghost gun” bans, restoration of rights (in spite of GCA’s provision to allow “prohibited” persons to regain their rights, Chuck Schumer added a longstanding appropriations rider denying funds to process firearms rights-restoration forms), “gun-free” zones, the Lautenberg Amendment, and more, you name the infringement, and good luck getting a majority to agree to roll back anything and get it to Trump’s desk. He can lead and he can cajole, but he can’t force. As for deregulating suppressors, as much as Democrats try to swindle the Fudds into believing they’re “pro-gun,” every sponsor of Sen. Mike Crapo’s S. 401 “Hearing Protection” Act is a Republican.
And then there are still all those unconstitutional state gun laws and bans passed during Trumps’ first four years with no fight from his Attorney General William Barr last time. It’s important to note that Barr supported the Bush imported “assault weapons” ban as well as proposed domestic semiauto and “high capacity” magazine bans while he was Bush’s AG. Recall it was Trump who said, “States can do what they want [regarding gun control]” during the infamous Feinstein bump stock ban meeting, and there are no indications his AG nominee Bondi will be anything but Barr 2.0.
There is also the continual lawfare that threatens to impose disarmament from the bench. If the election results don’t make those go away, what chance do some of the more grandiose plans, like elimination of the Hughes Amendment banning post 1986 machineguns, overturning the 1968 Gun Control Act, or cleansing the original sin, the 1934 National Firearms Act? Or actually promoting the core purpose behind the Constitutional Militia?
Gun owners’ biggest hope lies with the federal courts, and with Donald Trump’s prerogative to nominate candidates who will uphold the Second Amendment in the Supreme and inferior courts. The problem that needs to be overcome there is the Senate’s “advise and consent” power to confirm nominees. “At issue,” Congressional Research Service reports, “has been whether, or to what extent, questions by committee members should seek out a nominee’s personal views on current legal or constitutional issues or on past Supreme Court decisions that have involved those issues.”
In other words, nominees can play coy with how they really feel about the Second Amendment, and if they turn out to be a pig in a poke it may not be clear until they rule on a case. Trump needs to ensure serious vetting takes place before offering up a name. And he doesn’t need to do it alone.
A Government of the People “Today we are also announcing the launch of Gun Owners for Trump, and this is to get out the vote,” the Trump campaign announced in June. Firearms News recalled a similar effort launched in 2020 and noted that was a reboot of sorts of 2016’s Second Amendment Coalition, jointly chaired by Donald Trump Jr. and then-NRA ILA head Chris Cox along with 62 co-chairs. After the election, we never heard from them again.
There is no reason why that should be allowed by gun owners to happen again. It’s crucial that those who understand the issues have a say in the administration’s handling of Second Amendment-related issues and have the president’s ear so his decision making can be influenced and informed by their experience and knowledge, something he did not do with his Bondi nomination.
But to that end, there are two things the president could do that would help: Disband the White House Office of Gun Safety and replace it with the Office of Second Amendment Protection. If Biden could appoint Kamala Harris to lend authority to his venture, Trump could assign the duties to Vice President JD Vance.
Gun rights leaders and legal scholars could be identified and nominated to analyze and prioritize bills, lawsuits, regulations, opportunities, and threats, to advise on judicial and other federal nominees, and to help educate the public. The Office would provide a way for the public to express their concerns and to offer ideas and suggestions, meaning gun owners would have a conduit.
Putting Teeth in It Back in 2001, John Ashcroft, Attorney General under President George W. Bush, stated his legal opinion that "the text and the original intent of the Second Amendment clearly protect the right of individuals to keep and bear firearms."
Using that, this correspondent and a handful of colleagues in California reasoned that on many occasions the U.S. Justice Department had sent teams of lawyers to force states, municipalities, agencies, and officials to obey civil rights statutes, resulting in laws being overturned and in legal actions against individuals. To that end, we created “A Petition for Enforcement of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States” asking AG Ashcroft to protect our right to keep and bear arms just as the government had done in the past when other civil rights had been violated.
This was in the days before social media and many gun owners were still getting used to dial-up internet and just discovering the power of access to information, with only a fraction of what we enjoy today. Despite that, we managed to get our message out and ended up sending over 40,000 signatures, hand gathered and mailed into us, to Ashcroft who, predictably, ignored us because he didn’t really mean it and because he could.
Imagine now the Department of Justice under an actual Second Amendment advocate, and what it could do fighting infringements and prohibitionist lawfare waged by states with unlimited tax war chests in tandem with Astroturf prohibitionist groups funded by antigun elites. Right now, the costs to defend against these innumerable assaults on all levels are borne by gun rights groups and members of mostly modest means who can only support a fraction of what is needed. That equation could be turned on its head.
There’s much Donald Trump won’t be able to do, but a lot that he can if he means to keep his pledge to the gun owners he could not have won without. Rein in ATF, Mr. President. Do what you can with your bully pulpit to influence American citizens and your unique power to influence your party and the Congress. Make informed judicial appointments. Listen to gun rights leaders. And task the Justice Department with the Constitutional imperative to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
All this is what the Bondi nomination would stop in its tracks. Rather than ushering in a Renaissance of Rights, Trump is imposing an AG who not only has a history of enforcing existing Intolerable Acts, but who craves more. For apologists who excuse her by saying she was just doing her job, what happened to the oath to the Constitution coming first? Those of us who wouldn’t do a job that required us to deny rights to others have no sympathy for the counter that at least she’ll be better than Merrick Garland, and no tolerance for the idiot question “Would you rather have Kamala Harris?”
We didn’t vote for “at least.” We have a chance to make real strides, and Trump is blowing it right out of the starting gate. At this writing, and hopefully that will change by the time this piece hits the newsstands, the National Association for Gun Rights has issued a warning and Gun Owners of America has released a statement declaring “GOA is pressing for Senators to openly question Pam Bondi on where she currently stands on the Second Amendment.” It’s not unreasonable to expect our gun rights leaders to lead on this, to loudly condemn her selection, and to urge their millions of members to join them in vigorously protesting this to both Trump and their “A”-rated senators who will vote on her confirmation.
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 on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
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