Okay, November 5, 2024, was a great day for gunowners, who can now hope to be ignored for four years by the incoming Trump Administration, which is set to be sworn in on January 20, 2025. What, you ask, is so great about being ignored? Well, like when Donald J. Trump vanquished the absurdly anti-gun Hillary Clinton back in 2016, everything else was gravy. Not having the evil eye of Mordor washing over us every day was quite the blessing. Same is true of the outgoing vice president in 2024, Kamala Harris. Sending her back to California, or wherever, is just the best news I’ve heard in well, four years. Everything after firing her in a landslide vote is gravy.
But if we’re to hope for more than being ignored, I’m happy to list a few things I’d like done this time around, when President Trump will have “no guardrails,” as the crying losers bemoaned on the alphabet networks. So, here’s a short list of good gun-related things I hope we’ll get:
- Kill the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. What, hadn’t heard of the WHOGVP? President Hoarse Whisperer added this to VP Harris’s portfolio in September 2023, and she was as successful at running this boondoggle as she was overseeing the border.
- Or, relaunch the WHOGVP as the White House Office of 2A Liberty, making the office a platform to spread information on gun ownership that is favorable to the gun-owning community, with someone like Dr. John Lott, Jr. at its head. Lott, the former economist and Trump administration alum, disseminates truthful and unflinching crime statistics touted by Republican lawmakers and the gun-rights community.
- Fire Steven Dettelbach, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). “At noon on Inauguration Day, we will sack the anti-gun fanatic Steve Dettelbach,” Trump told NRA conventioneers in May 2023. “Have you ever heard of him? He’s a disaster.” The ATF revoked more gun store licenses in 2024 than in any year over at least the past two decades.
- Abolish or drastically cut funding for the ATF. House Republicans have said they want to defund ATF, so get after it!
- Repeal the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), or if that’s not possible, change where the money goes. Congress funded the BSCA through 2026, but a Trump administration could alter grant programs to favor gun-promotion programs over red flag laws or try to shift money from community-based programs to law-enforcement initiatives. It matters who is in these positions within the different parts of the executive branch. Also, the BSCA was heavily promoted by Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, so endorse whoever challenges Cornyn in the state’s 2026 primary.
- Appoint a pro-gun attorney general “who will stop the weaponization of government against lawful gun ownership and who will prioritize traditional law enforcement by catching and punishing criminals,” Trump has said.
- Reverse Biden’s executive order that directed the ATF to issue regulations on ghost guns and other unserialized firearms, requiring buyers to undergo background checks. That would moot the rules that are currently before the Supreme Court.
- Reverse ATF’s rule for regulating stabilizing braces.
- Repeal the Gun Control Act of 1968.
- Repeal the National Firearms Act of 1934.
- Or at the minimum, get suppressors and short-barreled rifles (SBRs) removed from NFA control.
- Pass a nationwide carry-rights bill. California Attorney Kostas Moros calls it the Carry Rights Protection Act (CRPA): It should have three broad components: 1. If you have a valid CCW permit from any state, it is now valid in all of the United States. 2. State-level “sensitive places” laws are invalid to the extent they go further than federal law. They interfere with interstate commerce and restrict the right to travel as well as the Second Amendment. 3. A cap on fees and wait times for CCW permits. If the wait exceeds the limit, your application functions as a tentative permit to carry, unless you are a prohibited person.
There are many other ideas to consider, but these are just a few. Let us know your ideas in the comments below.
