While rolling back onerous Obama-era environmental and business regulations, President Donald Trump has also been quietly dropping gun controls which were either put in place or at least prolonged by the Obama administration.
On February 28 Breitbart News reported that Trump signed the repeal of Obama’s Social Security gun ban; a ban which empowered the Social Security administration to strip away the Second Amendment rights of Social Security beneficiaries without due process. Days later, Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke squashed Obama’s lead ammunition ban for federal lands and waters.
According to McClatchy, Trump’s administration has been quietly working to do away with other Obama-era firearm regulations as well.
For example, “agencies narrowed the definition of ‘fugitive'” which, in turn, limits the number of people barred from gun possession because they are included in a fugitive database. Additionally, Trump “officials have also signaled that they may no longer defend the Army Corps of Engineers’ ban on carrying loaded firearms and ammunition on federal lands.”
The repeal of another ban–the Obama-era gun ban for military veterans–is also on the move in Congress, as is the Hearing Protection Act; an Act which will deregulate firearm suppressors by removing them from the purview of the National Firearms Act (1934). During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump Jr. signaled that his father would sign a bill deregulating firearms if such legislation made it to his desk.
In addition to the things Trump and his administration have done to reduce firearm regulations, one cannot overlook the importance of nominating and securing the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Throughout the campaign Trump pledged to defend the Second Amendment and on October 9, 2016, he promised to nominate a justice would protect gun rights from “people like Hillary Clinton.”
Trump spoke in favor of the ruling in District of Columbia v Heller (2008) during the presidential campaign and Gorsuch did the same during his confirmation hearings. On April 7 Gorsuch was confirmed by a vote of 54 to 45.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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