Breitbart News met up with Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX-13) for some range time Saturday and the congressman expressed his hope that constitutional carry will sweep across this country state by state until all 50 states have adopted it.
Jackson made this point as part of his larger desire to see more legislation that reinforces the Second Amendment instead of undercutting it.
Breitbart News: “President Biden and his fellow Democrats have unleashed a seemingly relentless push for gun control in this country. As a result, many Americans have begun to look at the Second Amendment with greater seriousness. Why does the Second Amendment matter?”
Jackson: “It matters because the Second Amendment is key to making sure that we, down the road, maintain all the other amendments. If we don’t have the ability to keep and bear arms, then who knows when they are going to decide they want to take the First Amendment away from us, or one of the other amendments. The Second Amendment is key to how this country was founded. The Founders put it in place so we could defend ourselves from enemies, foreign and domestic, to be honest with you, and honestly, we need to be able to keep and bear to protect ourselves, to protect our families, and to protect our country.”
Breitbart News: “You were born in Levelland, Texas, and now you are a U.S. Representative for Texas 13th District. Amid the Democrats’ push for gun control, how do you fight to be sure Texans–and Americans at large–retain their ability to keep and bear arms for self-defense?”
Jackson: “Right now, we Republicans are in the minority in Congress, so we fight as hard as we can to stop the nonsense they are trying to push through. They are constantly pushing anti-Second Amendment legislation and they put some cute name on it that is supposed to make us go, “Why wouldn’t someone support that?” They make it sound like a benign background check or something. But what it really is, is another way that they are removing your ability to own a gun. Right now, for instance, they are pushing a 10-day waiting period with the stipulation that you cannot buy a gun until the background check, conducted during that waiting period, is done. If the background check isn’t done at the end of ten days you don’t get the gun. So what they’ll do is sit on that check and guess what? You won’t get the gun. That’s just one example of the stuff they are trying to push through, so we push back. And when we recapture the majority in Congress we’ll go from simply pushing back to pushing legislation that will reinforce the Second Amendment.
Jackson pointed to constitutional carry legislation that passed the Texas legislature as a way to reinforce the Second Amendment. That legislation is designed to remove the requirement that law-abiding Texans get a permit from the state government in order to exercise their right to bear arms for self-defense.
Jackson lauded Texas’ move toward constitutional carry, saying, “It’s about time. Texas should have been leading the way on constitutional carry a long time ago. Ultimately, I’d like to see all 50 states have constitutional carry.”
He added, “I decided a long time ago that protecting our Second Amendment means doing so across the board, no exceptions. I don’t go with all the little things they try to push, where they’re going to put a little rule here and a little rule there. That’s a slippery slope, as soon as you start giving in on the small things they will take your rights altogether.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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