Donald Trump Jr. says he shares his personal commitment to the Second Amendment and pro-gun policies with his father, presidential candidate Donald J. Trump.
Don Jr. is a competitive high power shooter and a hunter. He talked of how traveling to shoot in competition–particularly entering California with an AR-15–has taught him firsthand the mess that law-abiding citizens face in trying to exercise their right to keep and bear arms.
He then said:
The Second Amendment was not a random afterthought 150 years after the constitution was written. It was the second thing after freedom of speech and religion. The fact that that’s even up for interpretation is even up for interpretation by the left these days is candidly mind boggling.
Don Jr. then spoke of his father, saying:
If you recall San Bernardino, if you recall Paris, he’s the only one of these pro-Second Amendment candidates that said the next day–when things were still a little bit sensitive, when things were still understandably a little bit touchy–he was the only to say, “Hey, California, France, toughest gun laws in the world, if there were bullets going the other way maybe this would be a game changer. Maybe something different would happen.” What kind of a outcomes do you expect when you’re essentially setting up a system where it’s fish in a barrel because we know these gun laws only affect people who are actually willing to play by the rules? They do not affect people who are willing to kill people for their ideology.
We asked Don Jr. about his father’s position that concealed carry is a right, not a privilege, Don Jr. said, “Between myself, my brother, my father, and my wife, we have four of the 1,500 concealed carry permits for New York City, which is one of the most difficult carry licenses to get anywhere in the world and certainly in the United States. It is something we believe in fundamentally.”
He criticized the anti-gun stance of certain lawmakers, whereby they equate honoring the Second Amendment with allowing citizens to keep a “sporting rifle in their home.” Don Jr. made clear such a scenario in unacceptable because it does not allow citizens to protect themselves where they are as they move about their day. Speaking for himself and his father he said, “We believe in the right to carry.“
Don Jr. also spoke to the need for reciprocity between the states, saying, “Why can you get a driver’s license that is recognized state-to-state but a concealed weapons permit is not treated the same? There is a process to do that in a Trump administration because it makes sense.”
This is right in line with what Donald J. Trump said via a policy paper on guns released September 18, 2015. Trump said,
The right of self-defense doesn’t stop at the end of your driveway. That’s why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states. A driver’s license works in every state, so it’s common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every state. If we can do that for driving – which is a privilege, not a right – then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.