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In an insane political comeback, Donald J Trump has pulled off the “Grover Cleveland” and secured a second term, non-consecutively, as President of the United States. As we know, he won a surprise victory in 2016, was unseated by the Biden-Harris regime in 2020, and despite the odds, clinched victory in the early hours of November 6th, 2024. Team Trump’s ground game was impressive in the sense that he also secured the popular vote, showing American discontent with the failures and arrogance of the Biden-Harris regime. To be fair, Trump got some lucky breaks along the way. Two assassination attempts didn’t hurt his campaign one bit.
Everyone likes a fighter, and Trump getting back up without missing a beat after getting grazed by a 5.56mm round played very well amongst the undecideds. And of course Biden’s complete collapse during the first debate didn’t hurt, either.
Trump being convicted of what amounted to technical fouls seemingly didn’t take the wind out of his sails, surprisingly. A defiant DJT railed against these convictions, perhaps appealing to the American population’s love of rebels.
On the other side, the Democrats made many unforced errors, such as championing Harris as the candidate, without much input from the Democratic voters. Disenfranchised Dems crossed party lines and voted for Trump. Additionally this boded well for Congress as well, with the GOP regaining control of the Senate, and control of the House.
Despite early predictions of another flame-out, Trump prevailed immensely, and by the evening following Election Day, Kamala Harris conceded the election.
Of course, Trump couldn’t have done this without a broad coalition of support. In an effort to shore this up, he reached out to key demographics populated by conservatives and moderates, including armed citizens and Second Amendment Radicals. Breaking from tradition, he even did a video address to the Gun Owners of America, a group that’s far more uncompromising on the Second Amendment than other more mainstream groups. In this address he promised to uphold and promote the values of the Second Amendment, among other things.
Now that he’s scheduled to become the 47th President of the United States, what can Donald Trump do for the Second Amendment?
It’s no secret that Donald Trump has had varying opinions on the right to keep and bear arms. Prior to his career in politics, Trump endorsed the idea of making the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban permanent. In his first term as President, Trump did express support for red flag laws, as well as dabbled with the idea of completely banning silencers for some reason. Additionally, who could forget about his executive order classifying bump stocks as machine guns, and thus banning citizen possession of them, since all bump stocks were made after May 19th, 1986. Thankfully, that error was struck down by the Supreme Court, but nonetheless he enacted it.
Conversely, Trump has supported the idea and concept of an armed citizenry, specifically endorsing national reciprocity of concealed carry permits (more on that later), as well as taking the time this past election season to stop off at places like Palmetto State Armory, in an attempt to get to know the perspectives of real people working in the firearms industry, and real gun owners. That little visit probably gave his protective detail a coronary.
Symbolic speeches and public appearances account for something, but the real meat and potatoes will be in just what Donald Trump does for our Second Amendment community and rights. To be fair, he’s not an ‘expert’ at firearms or firearms law. His actions seem to be dictated by people in his inner circle. This time around it does seem a little better, notably with JD Vance as his Vice President. Vance calling so-called “gun violence” a “fake problem” is a troll-worthy response, and certainly does a lot to put him on our side of things.
Be that as it may, Trump will likely need some external guidance on the matter, such as from sometimes-informative, sometimes-patently-offensive gun bloggers.
Anyway, here’s a little breakdown of just what Donald J Trump can do for the Second Amendment.
What Can President Donald Trump Do For The Second Amendment
In an ideal world, this wouldn’t be a conversation. The Second Amendment says what it says, in the plain language of it’s day. We have the right to keep and bear arms free from government meddling. Simple as that. If this were the case, Trump could devote more energy to things like the economy, border security, and the like. But we haven’t been dealt a fair shake on 2A, so unfortunately the easiest cures to our woes are legislative, judicial, with a dash of executive, such as…
President Donald Trump Can Unilaterally Repeal Anti-2A Executive Orders
As pointed out recently by Open Source Defense (follow and subscribe, they are great!) Donald Trump can act unilaterally and repeal existing executive orders that are repugnant to the Second Amendment.
Traditionally executive orders are just supposed to be clarifications on existing laws and to promote stuff like “Today Is National Cream Cheese Day”, things that don’t require legislation. For example, a valid executive order would be “The President requests that a cost benefit analysis be done for any bill in Congress”. The President isn’t interfering in the lawmaking process, he just wants more information put into a bill so he can make a better decision on whether to sign it into law or not. An invalid executive order would be akin to the Biden regime’s various anti-2A orders, or Trump’s own anti-2A bump stock ban from his first term. You can’t just redefine something to fit an existing law because Congress isn’t generating the legislation you want.
Regardless of that, both valid and invalid executive orders are routinely put into place by every President. However, since they are not law, they don’t have to have Congressional action to be modified or revoked. What one President can order, another can undo.
Most executive orders are technically generated by an executive branch agency like the Department of Justice or the ATF. However, they all go out under the name of the President. Thus the President has the ultimate power over them. Open Source Defense cites 10 different executive orders put into place by George H Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden that are repugnant to the Second Amendment. Those Presidents drafted those up quickly, Trump could repeal them just as quickly on Day 1 of his term. In theory by January 21st, 2025, Trump could knock out these orders and we could see the return of importing foreign-made AKs, ARs, and other rifle types for example. To be fair you can import a foreign made AK, but it must be in a “neutered” configuration that a domestic manufacturer can rebuild into a functional weapon.
This action would clear up a lot of vague inefficiencies in firearms policy in the United States, in addition to casting even more light on the abuse of executive orders. People would be astounded as to just how damaging they could be.
President Trump Could Unilaterally Gut Rogue Agencies Like The ATF
In a post on X a few days back, Trump did promote the fact that would vest himself with the power once again to remove troublesome actors from the employ of executive branch agencies such as the ATF. Now, to be sure, there’s undoubtedly going to be some limitations to this power, but it appears that this will enable the President to have the final say on personnel who work for the Executive Branch, of which Donald Trump is the boss of. It would be a tricky power move, but Trump could essentially downsize the ATF to near-zero. Certainly there’d still be the issue of the ATF’s budget, which comes from Congress, but a good first step would to be ensure there’s no one in the agency to begin with. With the flick of his pen, thousands of rogue bureaucrats will have to find work elsewhere.
Trump Needs To Work To Get Congress To Send Him At Least One Solid Pro-2A Bill
Even when abused, executive orders can only do so much. Eventually even Congress will take notice and the courts will cry foul and “check” these orders, much like they did with Trump’s bump stock ban. Garland v Cargill, decided in Michael D Cargill’s favor, ruled that the Executive Branch cannot exceed it’s statutory authority and make things up just to bypass Congress. Gun control-friendly legislators realize this, which is why they continuously introduce bills into Congress, hoping that one may stick. Along the same lines, 2A-friendly legislators need to do the same. And it shouldn’t be a “managerial” bill either, like “Here’s a bill to authorize X billions of dollars to protect hunting lands in X states – it involves guns in a way so that’s good, right?”
The bill in question needs to be a solid home run that even the non-gun normies will notice. Think suppressor deregulation. Think doing away with the SBR classification of the NFA. That sort of thing. A slick home run that will energize the Second Amendment community for 2028 and get the normies thinking. Something historical and significant, like denting the crown jewel of gun control, the National Firearms Act of 1934.
Now, Trump cannot introduce legislation, but he can have a friendly Senator or member of the House do it on his behalf, and then use his powers to get the GOP in line and get it up the ladder to his desk. The GOP got it’s trifecta, so it shouldn’t be too hard for Trump to lay down the hammer and get this done. He’s term-limited out, so he doesn’t have to worry about re-election. If someone complains about silencers being deregulated, he can tell them to pound sand and yell at the next guy. If the “next guy” is Vance, this won’t be a problem. Vance will post a meme mocking them and get on with his day.
The Obstacles Trump Could Face Against The Second Amendment
Outside of repealing prior executive orders, and using his executive power to reduce rogue bureaucracies, Trump would have a bit of a battle getting some key restorations of the Second Amendment implemented.
Congress Itself
As it stands right now, the Republican Party has control of the Senate and will likely have control of the House. However, unlike the Democrats, the GOP doesn’t always vote as a bloc, with some notable defectors “going Dem” on key issues such as taxation, healthcare, and yes, gun laws. Especially with gun laws, you can sadly count on a few GOPers defecting to the other side habitually.
Or you’ll see the heads of powerful committees responsible for drafting legislation just not place the bill out for consideration. There’s been innumerable pro-2A bills that have “died in committee”, or through administrative actions, have not been slated to be heard and debated in front of the full Senate or House. Paul Ryan infamously shelved the Hearing Protection Act, an Act which would have made silencers no more difficult to get at retail than a handgun. Citing the terrorist attack on Vegas in 2017 (where no silencers were used), Ryan claimed that it wasn’t good timing, and the HPA hasn’t really been heard from since.
Along those lines, it’s rather concerning that as of this writing, the three choices for Senate Majority Leader are Rick Scott, John Cornyn and John Thune. As we know, Rick Scott championed and signed into law a Red Flag scheme in Florida when he was Governor. Anti-2A forces took advantage of the Parkland incident, coupled with Scott running for his first Senate term that year, and rammed through gun control in the Gunshine State.
Similarly, John Cornyn voted in the affirmative on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act which among other things, treats 18-20 year old adults as veritable terrorists just because they want to buy a firearm.
South Dakota’s John Thune claims to be about Second Amendment rights and has voiced opinions concurrent with this, but since there has been no meaningful pro-2A legislation in Congress in many years, he hasn’t had much chance to prove it, other than voting No on the BSCA. Update: Thune is now Senate Majority Leader. We’ll see what happens.
Of course, a GOP majority doesn’t mean the Democrats have magically gone away. They are still part of Congress, and will wield all the dirty tricks they have to block meaningful pro-2A actions, especially considering gun control is literally a plank of their platform.
The Voters
Trump has grown up some since his first term. Ironically, after his first assassination attempt, he really dialed back the ‘sick burns’, and instead let his political opponents back themselves into a corner to some degree. It was rare to see a Democrat politician condemn the actions of their likely voters on social media who wished for the shooter to “not miss”, or things like that. Trump was amazingly quiet for a few days after, and let his enemies make some unforced errors.
However, there’s always the chance a little bit of the “old Trump” could surface. For his second term, Trump won the election by a significant margin by building a broad coalition of supporters. People concerned about the dismal economy, pointless foreign wars, the border, firearms rights, and free speech all lined up to cast their ballot for him. Additionally high-profile political and business movers and shakers joined him, such as Tulsi, RFK, Elon, and more. The voters, and his electoral partners all have their own pet issues as priorities, and may tell him to dial back any 2A actions lest he lose support of the voters as time goes on, potentially damaging the stage for his successor. Trump himself may not be running in 2028, but he will want Trumpism, aka MAGA, to go on. It’s an ego thing, and even New Trump has an ego.
The Democratic Party
The Democrats took a beating nationwide on Election Night. The biggest “red shift” in decades occurred, and by sunrise, the Party had essentially conceded victory in the bulk of the races. To the casual observer, the Democrats displayed “maturity” and took the L. However, the Democratic power play has been going on since around the time of Woodrow Wilson, thus the Democrats aren’t going to blink much at having to wait 2 to 4 more years to try again. Already, 99 percent of the Democratic Party’s politicians and influencers have stated they will try to counter and block every GOP move they can, regardless of what it is. Especially on 2A, they’ll use every trick in the book to block GOP efforts, and it actually wouldn’t be terribly surprising to see attempts at disrupting Trump being confirmed as President before Inauguration Day.
Trump Himself
Unfortunately, due to the ramifications of the political theory called Duverger’s Law the United States is in reality a two-party nation. So, unless things really change wholesale in the way our elections are run, we’re stuck with one part or the other. Lesser of two evils unfortunately. By words, Trump is superior on the Second Amendment. However, Trump isn’t perfect. Trump is Trump. He has his own motivations and ego, and under duress, it’s entirely possible we’ll end up with a net negative with regards to the Second Amendment at the federal level, because Trump let one sail into the goal for various reasons. Hopefully since it’s his last term, and preservation of the MAGA movement hopefully being on his mind, he’ll not fall victim to his own flaws.
Trump May Not Be Ideal On The Second Amendment, But It Is The Hand That Has Been Played
Trump started life as a New York City Democrat. Despite his penchant for big business and big yuge real estate deals, his personal politics leaned into the Democratic playbook. He supported gun control until it became a liability to do so. He supported loose border controls until it became a liability to do so. However whether it is because of personal growth or political expediency, he has landed on the side of nominally supporting conservative views on most key issues. However, his motivation doesn’t matter.
The simple fact is he ran his campaign with the tenets of an even more aggressive support of the Second Amendment. He’s promised to undo Biden (and hopefully other) executive orders concerning gun control. He’s promised to use his executive power to gut the administrative state, including the ATF. It’s likely that his newfound pal (and recent fan of the Second Amendment) Elon Musk will assume the role of head of the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and hopefully clean house some more.
With that in mind, we have to play for his ego. A central tenet of MAGA is a love of the Second Amendment. Regardless of your politics and nuances, the simple fact is that the “red hat” is prominent in the firearms community, and Trump knows it. In this, MAGA has power, and can hold him accountable on his promises to the Second Amendment. Votes are earned, not expected. MAGA decides to shift and dissolve due to a hypothetical wavering of Trump’s 2A support, and Trump’s political legacy goes with it. Hold his feet to the fire.
The community of Second Amendment Radicals and Armed Citizens has a unique opportunity here. Let’s not waste it.
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