Recently, a friend of mine (yes, I have friends!) and I were having a discussion on the various state-level gun control and gun rights proposals working their way through the legislatures. As a background, this friend of mine does not own a firearm, but does generally identify and support liberty-minded causes and personalities. If I recall correctly, our conversation was started because of a notorious shooting incident somewhere, and his theory was that either the federal “assault weapons” ban would be reinstated permanently, or that half the states in the US would enact some form of a ban on their own. Erroneously, he thinks the states have the right to bypass the federal Constitution, but that discussion is for another blog.

Anyways, the conversation continued on amiably, but he left it with the (paraphrasing from memory…) statement of “I have no horse in this race, but you gun guys have to figure this all out before they start banning stuff. They banned AR-15s once, they’ll do it again!”

Yes but no. Outside of rabid gun-grabber circles, hardware bans don’t play well even in the vast middle of the electorate. However, what really got me thinking is the phrase “I have no horse in this race…”

Whether you own a firearm or not, you do indeed have a horse in the Second Amendment race. The right to keep and bear arms includes being able to purchase them, free of government meddling, at any time…

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For decades, the typical progressive talking point when firearms owners have ripped into gun control-promoting politicians is that “nobody is coming for your guns”. They point to a long line of fellow traveler Congresspeople, Presidents, and bureaucrats who have voiced gun control proposals, but have never explicitly mentioned confiscation. Some have, like when Senator Feinstein expressed a desire to have a mandatory confiscation law put into place, or when VP (and P candidate) Harris threatened to ban ARs via executive action within 100 days of her assuming office? But overall the public face of gun control is usually cloaked in platitudes and “safety”. They haven’t accomplished confiscation, not from a lack of trying, but from the fact that the core groups of Second Amendment Radicals and armed citizens push back, since today’s appeasement is tomorrow’s loophole.

However, after the notorious shooting incident in Georgia a few weeks back, and the second attempt on the life of Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, the mask has slipped a little bit more. The lunatic fringe feels a little more emboldened, especially since it’s a federal election year, and has actively called for the ban of private firearms ownership, and the confiscation of existing stock.

You may be wondering, if the unthinkable were to be ordered, what would happen in reality?

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Almost two months ago on Saturday July 13th, 2024, the 45th and potentially the 47th President of the United States, Donald John Trump, was the target of an assassination attempt at a highly-attended rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter, one Thomas Crooks, used an AR-15, purchased by his father around 11 years ago, to make an attempt on the life of Trump. With a volley of shots, Crooks narrowly missed the Republican nominee for President, grazing his ear. Unfortunately a dedicated fan of Trump’s, firefighter Corey Comperatore, was struck and lost his life as a result. Moments later, law enforcement on the scene neutralized Crooks before he could cause further damage. In the surprising chaos following the shooting, Trump rose from the phalanx of his protective detail and shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”. The iconic photo says it all.

Of course, we all know about the ensuing debate as to why it happened and how it happened. Since this is a Second Amendment blog, I’ll leave the speculations about the obvious security failures to the hive mind on X.

Anyways, it only took about an hour before the usual suspects blamed Trump’s own gun policies (wait, he passed pro-2A stuff in his first term?) for the situation. That, with a dash of progressives wishing Crooks had “aimed better” added some fuel to the fire, leading to speculations that Donald Trump, known for being mercurial in his speech, would make statements supporting gun control…

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When the NYSRPA vs Bruen case, usually just referred to as Bruen, was resolved in the favor of the New York State Rifle And Pistol Association by the Supreme Court of the United States, it was cause for celebration in the community of Second Amendment Radicals and armed citizens. Finally, after over a decade since the Heller decision, which affirmed the Second Amendment as an individual right, there was federal-level movement on 2A in a positive way. In a nutshell, Bruen determined that governments could no longer impose arbitrary and vague conditions on the right to carry a firearm in public. The days of may-issue firearm carry permits were at a close. Permits could no longer be denied just because the issuing authority was having a bad day, hated the race of the person requesting one, or hated guns in general. Permits had to be issued within a clear and simple framework, not connected to finance, the person’s situation, i.e. “good reason”, and so forth. On the books, every state in the Union is now at least shall-issue, with the majority of states being some form of permitless carry as of August 2024.

More importantly, Bruen also established a new metric for firearms laws in the US. Any law on the books, or proposed law, must meet a requirement of historical tradition in order to be consistent with the Second Amendment. For example, laws that prohibit adults between the ages of 18 and 21 from purchasing or carrying a pistol are no longer considered valid post-Bruen, with several state laws restricting the carry of a pistol to those over 21 having fallen in recent months. When the nation was founded, there was no codified age requirement for someone to carry a pistol, thus laws restricting that are now commonly considered repugnant to the Second Amendment…

With the Bruen test in place, an obvious target of course would be the National Firearms Act, aka the NFA. The infamous law heavily restricts and taxes all the fun stuff. Machine guns, short-barreled rifles & shotguns, silencers, and things that really go boom. As there were no restrictions on action, accessories, and barrel lengths of firearms during the time of the founding, the NFA should be invalid under Bruen, and thus subject to repeal, right?

Yes, but the devil is in the details…

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It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a movie review, but after much encouragement from outside sources, I decided to go ahead and dissect another film from the perspective of a firearms autist. This time around, I picked the somewhat-controversial Alex Garland dystopian thriller, Civil War.

The run up to the film had the Second Amendment Radical community abuzz. The trailer, though scant on details at the time, featured a fair amount of firearms-centric action, as well as some iconography we’re all familiar with in the scene, such as Hawaiian-shirt clad fighters, meme-ish looking characters, and hints towards some unidentified armed combat in progressive “havens” such as New York City.

Of course since both director Garland and A24, the studio responsible for bringing this piece to life, are both part of the Hollywood machine, us in the community weren’t expecting a piece sympathetic to the side of freedom and fun…

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A few days ago, occasional liker-of-my-posts-on-X and big-time 2A type Mrgunsngear posted a rather astounding video on X depicting a supposed new recruit to the US Army running a rifle for the first time. Now, for the benefit of the doubt, I will say that it’s a little hard to tell whether this is legit footage from a training exercise, or if it’s just someone cosplaying, thinking they know what they are doing, or trolling for likes and engagement. Not to deviate from the subject but I tried to see if the rifle in question had the third pin, etc. Compression sucks. Anyways, as you can see, the subject of the video is exhibiting remarkably poor marksmanship skills and firearms handling. They learned that from somewhere, or thought that was a good idea somehow…

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Chances are, most of your firearms are the same color scheme as they were when they left the factory. Your black rifles are black, your GLOCK 45 is a dark grey, and even your trusted Mossberg Cruiser shotgun is a dull grey parkerized finish.

Your weapons are black because it’s the most cost-effective finish that kind of applies almost everywhere. It’ll hide the day-to-day wear well, and also kind of blend into most environments. However, most of the time, a black rifle can easily be spotted, even if you yourself aren’t easily spotted.

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It’s 0300. 3 AM. There’s rattling at the door, maybe the sound of glass breaking. Your motion-sensing surveillance system is screaming alerts at your phone. The door finally gives way, the window is breached. Your alarm system goes off, but you’re already popping open that biometric safe next to your bed. Grabbing that well-maintained 9mm pistol, you’re directing your significant other to grab their own sidearm and protect any vulnerable people, i.e. elderly relatives, children, in the home. Your job is to assess and engage the invaders. Thankfully you have some knowledge of their whereabouts already. They’re looking for an easy score in your living room. As you round the corner, one is helping themselves to your PS5, while the other is standing watch, gun in hand…

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On January 5th, 2024, the National Rifle Association of America aka the NRA announced the impending retirement of Executive Vice President (EVP) and CEO Wayne LaPierre. Serving in the position since 1991, LaPierre oversaw the NRA during some of it’s most tumultuous years. From the years of the thankfully-repealed “Assault Weapons” Ban, to the post-Bruen landscape of today, “WLP” proved to be a lightning rod for the anti-2A forces, the mainstream media, and Second Amendment supporters alike. Between this and Texas, 2024 is already lit.

Conveniently enough, LaPierre chose to retire just before his civil trial to combat accusations of fraud was to begin. Filed by anti-2A New York State Attorney General Letita James (the NRA was incorporated in New York State at the time), the suit alleges that LaPierre and other NRA top brass misused charitable funds, engaged in fraud, and other financial crimes. While it’s obvious James filed the charges in a political witch-hunt, the accusations will be hard for LaPierre to fight, owing to his extravagant lifestyle (bespoke suits, private jets, the works) and multi-million dollar yearly salary.

The prevailing theory is that LaPierre chose to retire with some dignity, rather than being forced out of the NRA by the courts. Regardless of his motivations, the seat is now vacant, and no doubt being hotly contested behind the scenes on Waples Mill Road…

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For us Second Amendment Radicals and armed citizens, 2023 was quite the ride. The majority of the country, by landmass, became Constitutional Carry, with even us in the Gunshine State staggering over the finish line (kind of) after over a decade of concentrated effort and false starts. Ownership numbers continued to rise, especially with the Hamas attack on Israel serving as a stark reminder that large-scale and continuous violence can happen to even a somewhat-developed nation. On the legal side, it appears the decades-long federal ban on 18-21 year olds purchasing handguns will fall, and also the Supreme Court granted cert to Garland vs Cargill, which is a challenge to the bump stock ban. The cert was granted on “abuse of power” grounds rather than Second Amendment grounds, but we’ll take it! If (when) SCOTUS rules correctly, it could severely cripple the ATF and other executive branch rulemaking - and good!

Of course, there were some (hopefully temporary) setbacks. The Biden regime’s pistol brace ruling was put into place, though is currently enjoined until most likely the Supreme Court makes a ruling on it. A similar situation exists for the useless and much-maligned “ghost gun” rule, which seemingly gets enjoined, reversed, and enjoined again every other week. On the state level, Illinois’ “assault weapons” ban goes into effect on January 1st, though most likely it won’t stand for the long term once a sympathetic district Court or the Supreme Court rules that it is in violation of the Second Amendment.

Sadly, on December 27th, 2023, the legendary Gaston Glock passed on at the age of 94. Do a few mag dumps from your GLOCK 19 in tribute.

2023 was certainly a rollercoaster. However, 2024 is going to be lit, as the kids would say…

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