Trump's First Actions Related to Firearm Freedom

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of political activity. We even recorded a whole podcast episode about the speed, surprise, and violence of action demonstrated by the brand-new Trump administration during their first week in office.

However, there were no real mentions of firearms policy until two and a half weeks in, when Donald Trump issued an executive order requesting his new Attorney General to spend 30 days examining the actions of the federal Government to find any infringements against the Second Amendment rights of Americans.

If you want more analysis on that executive order, and the policies that might result, check out this video which goes into detail on how Pam Bondi can write a plan to “protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.”

Overall, it is a surprisingly strongly worded directive for a president who spent very little time campaigning on the Second Amendment, and did not have the strongest position on the second amendment during his first term. It should also be noted that he is giving this executive order to an attorney general with an equally uninspiring track record on firearm laws.

However, I think that we should be encouraged by this executive order, and some of the actions taken so far, such as Pam Bondi’s firing of Pamela Hicks, formerly the general counsel for the BATFE and Trump’s appointing of Kash Patel and Dan Bongino as Acting Director and Deputy Director, respectively.

That being said, now is the time to let the White House know that we want more protections for our 2A rights than new directors and the to-do list provided in the Executive Order. You can do this on social media, call the White House directly, or attach your name to letters from 2A organizations. The deadline for Pam Bondi to present the new plan of action for gun rights is March 9th, so our time to be heard on this issue may be limited.

And, as usual, there is a huge amount of gun rights work needed at the state level. Colorado is in the news again as incredibly draconian semi-automatic weapon restrictions have just passed Senate and are now facing the House. Colorado readers should be writing and calling their representatives now.

Here in Tennessee, we don't have any pending legislation that is as extreme, and several of our bills filed this year would substantially expand gun rights. But our current docket is a mixed bag, and we’ve also had more lobbyists register this year from anti-gun organizations than any year in recent memory.

Apparently, despite so much attention being given to all the action taking place in Washington, many people have not lost focus on local legislators, and the work that can be done at lower levels. Make sure that you don't lose sight of this either.