After four years in which the Biden administration waged a legal and regulatory war on responsible gun owners nationwide, Second Amendment advocates have reason to be excited with Donald Trump back in the White House.
Pro-Second Amendment organizations, including the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Gun Owners of America (GOA), have rightly called Trump’s comeback last November a major victory for gun owners. Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, has said that under Trump, “gun owners across the country will once again have a strong advocate for their Second Amendment rights in the White House.” Aidan Johnston, the director of federal affairs for GOA, believes that “the Second Amendment was on the ballot and the Second Amendment won. The American people clearly elected a pro-gun presidential ticket.”
During his 2024 campaign, Trump was quite clear that not only would he undo the Biden-Harris gun-control agenda, he would also enact further protections for responsible gun owners. Trump told thousands of NRA members and visitors during his visit to the 2024 Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that he would ensure “no one will lay a finger on your firearms.”
Trump has specifically promised that during his second term he will work toward establishing “national concealed carry reciprocity,” which would allow Americans with concealed carry permits to carry their sidearm in all 50 states, even those that currently do not honor out-of-state permits.
Trump also pledged during his 2024 campaign to nominate a pro-Second Amendment attorney general “who will stop the weaponization of government against lawful gun ownership and who will prioritize traditional law enforcement by catching and punishing criminals.”
On this front, it’s more of a “wait and see” for gun owners. Several Second Amendment groups have raised concerns about the record of Pam Bondi, who was just confirmed at attorney general. But Bondi stressed during her Senate confirmation hearing that she would work to defend the Second Amendment.
Notably, other Trump nominees like Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, have a strong record of support for the Second Amendment, with Patel receiving an endorsement from GOA.
But Bondi, Patel, and anyone else Trump appoints will almost certainly be more friendly to gun owners than Biden administration officials who led a crusade to dismantle the Second Amendment for four years. As AMAC Newsline has previously reported, a key player in that effort was Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris. After Biden’s gun control efforts stalled at the federal level, the Biden Justice Department even released “model legislation” instructing states on how to erode Second Amendment freedoms.
Steve Dettelbach, Biden’s head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) emerged as another prominent anti-gun figure. Despite displaying complete ignorance of basic information regarding firearms, Dettelbach’s agency rewrote federal firearms regulations to target gun owners, leading to a flurry of lawsuits.
Biden himself stated in his 2023 State of the Union Address that he was proud to fight the NRA, calling on Congress to grant him more power to seize Americans’ firearms. “I’m proud we beat the NRA when I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years because of this Congress,” Biden said, “We now must beat the NRA again. I’m demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Pass universal background checks.”
Of course, by “assault weapons” and “high-capacity magazines,” Biden meant all semi-automatic firearms, including those commonly used for hunting and self-defense.
Now, gun-owning Americans can expect a return to the friendly policies seen during Trump’s first term. From 2017-2021, federal agencies reversed many of the Obama-era gun regulations and ended Obama administration lawsuits against gun owners and gun manufacturers. Amy Swearer, Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, analyzed that, “In his first term, President Trump largely lived up to his promise to protect Americans’ Second Amendment rights.”
Trump also came up huge for gun owners by appointing three originalist judges to the Supreme Court who are committed to defending the Second Amendment. The Court’s 6-3 conservative majority, anchored by Trump’s picks, delivered a significant Second Amendment victory in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, in which the Court struck down a New York law requiring applicants for a concealed carry license to show “proper cause” for needing a firearm. In effect, this ruling meant that “may-issue” systems that use “arbitrary” evaluations of the need to carry a firearm are unconstitutional – expanding access to concealed carry opportunities for law-abiding Americans in anti-gun states.
Trump’s first term did, however, create some moments of tension with gun owners. Following the tragic 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump ordered the ATF to enforce an executive order banning bump stocks, later struck down by the Supreme Court. In the wake of the 2018 Parkland School shooting, Trump also called for stricter gun legislation. After the 2019 mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Trump likewise reiterated his support for the controversial “red flag” laws and strengthening background checks.
But overall Trump remained a staunch defender of Second Amendment freedoms throughout his first term, and gun owners can expect more of the same over the next four years.
Hunter Oswald is a Research Fellow for The American Spectator. He is an alum of Grove City College, where he graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in Political Science. You can follow him on X @HunterOswald8.
