The deadline for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s autopsy on the Second Amendment has come and gone. The order, Protecting Second Amendment Rights, issued on February 7, provided a thirty-day period for the Attorney General to “examine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies to assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens, and present a proposed plan of action to the President, through the Domestic Policy Advisor, to protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.”
So, what does this delay mean? Given the historical analysis of the situation, it could mean that the Second Amendment rights of American citizens are not really a priority, at least not as much as the ability to sip a soft drink through a proper plastic straw versus one of those wretched paper abominations. However, it could mean something diametrically opposite if you subscribe to promises and a sense of rejuvenated allegiance to the Bill of Rights from those who have a track record on the matter that isn’t quite stellar.
I’m not telling you to stow your faith. On the contrary, I recognize my cynicism comes from a place of deep-seated disappointment in our leadership and their pattern of treating the Second Amendment like some second-class liberty. That pattern has not only been established by the federal government with disgraced legislation like the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), and the Hughes Amendment in the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 (FOPA) but it has been upheld in the courts by activist judges and has encouraged lawmakers in states only pretending to be American to increasingly enact authoritarian and unconstitutional regulations on gun rights. Don’t even get me started on the damage allowed to be inflicted upon law-abiding gun owners by the ATF, a regulatory agency whose uniform should rightfully be swapped out for a brownish-colored top.
With that being said, I want to be proven wrong. Rarely in my life have I ever wanted to be wrong so intensely. However, I am far more prone to trusting the historical analysis of behavior patterns than I am to promises of a new leaf. If my pessimism annoys you, good, join the club. It annoys me also, but not as much as the solid foundation that supports it. Believe me when I say I will happily take the stage for a tomato-throwing exhibition if I’m wrong.
If the cycle is broken, however, what could that look like? It is, after all, possible to see the tardiness as a good thing, as if AG Bondi has decided to go through ongoing Second Amendment infringements with a fine-tooth comb, tirelessly dedicated to developing the most clever legal strategy to restore rights unduly withheld from Americans for so long. Perhaps that conspicuously absent first-week national reciprocity promise could be rolled up into this effort as well.
Just yesterday, the Attorney General’s office announced a new working group within the Department of Justice whose task is to analyze many instances of gun rights prohibitions upon individuals to determine if they, in fact, clear Constitutional scrutiny, as in United States v. Rahimi, where the Supreme Court affirmed that an individual found by a court to pose a credible threat to the safety of another may temporarily be disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment, the key word here being temporary.
While I’ll support the effort, I have a nagging feeling that this administration’s duty to the Second Amendment may amount to nothing more than the need to put a stick in the eye of the Biden Administration by rolling back the measures taken by that regime against Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) and possibly putting the brakes on other infringement orders carried out by the ATF. If that is the case, any perceived restoration of Second Amendment rights will hardly be tangible to the average law-abiding gun owner.
American conservatives need to stop celebrating the 2024 election and realize that this is but the beginning of a journey, and if we don’t hold feet to the fire, we are not likely to see any real change when it comes to gun rights. I can hear the arguments now, telling me I’m a single-issue voter. That’s just plain dumb. I write about guns and the Second Amendment, so don’t expect to see articles from me surrounding reproductive rights or men using women’s bathrooms, even though I find the left grossly perverse on those subjects and like to poke fun at them for it fairly often. Remember that if we’re slinging hyperbole, I could respond by suggesting your lack of passion on the subject is indicative of your left-leaning distaste for gun rights. In any event, I suppose we’ll all sit tight for Bondi’s response. I hope it’s worth the wait.
Unless you want to call for the former california ag cackles harris to straighten Bondi out it’s best to take a ticket and have a seat.
I hope you’re right also. But history and reality are replete with examples of the one thing that all governing bodies have in common. They always look out for their own interests above all else. As has been said; True power is never given, it is always taken. occasionally by voting processes, but far more often thru deception, trickery, and violence.
Lot of deadwood and worse to clear. Deadlines are nice and all if followed but longer term less corrupt government is a must if we are going to get anywhere. Cue typical commie copypasta on a tangential orange man bad/still happy with your vote nonsense.
I’ve never had much faith in Bondi, I do however have quite a bit of faith in Patel. If Patel fails us, we’re in big trouble and Trump has another problem, a completely unexpected problem, he will have to deal with.
I’m certainly hoping I’m right about Patel and he get this resolved asap.
The Right to Bear Golf Clubs.
An infringement on that would get EO’d in a hurry.
I would tend to share your guarded pessimism. Bondi wasn’t a purely enthusiastic pro-2A choice to begin with, actually somewhat the opposite. And Trump, as much as I applaud a lot of his current efforts, has historically been pretty good with drumming up support among the 2A crowd, without showing much gratitude in response – and I’d think he’d be big on showing gratitude, with Zelenskyy and all…
I”m going to hope for the best, but not expect much. At the very least from the Executive Branch, I’d expect:
A reversal of rulemaking on bump stocks, pistol braces, and forced reset triggers.
Elimination of zero-tolerance for FFL administrative errors
Relaxation of Federal “engaged in the business” definitions
Refocusing ATF enforcement from easy to nab civilian errors to actual crimes
At the Executive/Legislative level:
Dismantle ATF and reassign components to FBI, IRS, US Marshalls Service, and Secret Service
Remove suppressors from NFA and GCA
Remove SBRs and SBS from NFA
Eliminate state level AWBs, mag restrictions, and Red Flag laws
Anyone here done an indepth investigation into organized crime? No, Yes….its complicated and complex. I am betting Bondi is peeling the onion. We literally have how many decades of abuse. Not counting 8 …well 12 years of Obamster.
The main thing we need is a new law that allows citizens who have been wronged by the Federal Agents to sue the agents individually.
“The main thing we need is a new law that allows citizens who have been wronged by the Federal Agents to sue the agents individually.”
Here’s the thing… the second amendment of the Constitution, all 27 words and three punctuation marks of it, enumerates the right to firearms as a civil right. End of story. Every law restricting that is a violation, every act supporting any such restrictive law is in fact an obstruction of a civil right. Qualified immunity does in fact become null and void for the individual administrating such a civil rights violation.
I still cannot understand why no lawyer for any pro 2A organization has not stood on this. Pure malpractice.
Prove me wrong.
If person or organization tried to violate any other civil right there would be gnashing of teeth, verbal outrage, possible violent protests, and lawsuits out the wazoo.
Try to violate the 13th Amendment (abolishes slavery). Oops, oh wait, the US is the #1 country in the world for sex trafficking slavery.
Try to violate the 15th Amendment (the right to vote regardless of race or creed), or the 19th Amendment (the right to vote for women).
Politicians depend on citizens to sleep walk thru their daily existence.
“Hold their feet to a fire” indeed!
Let’s start with a Burning Man bonfire.
Surprise Shocker! Mexico vs US gun industry: Mexico lied to SCOTUS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwgKlIc-Cjs
Did you really expect her to make the 2nd Amendment a priority with her record on the 2nd Amendment issues. Just remember how many so called Republicans sold us 2nd Amendment supporters down the river since the days of President Reagan signing anti-2nd Amendment bills in the 1980s, President Reagan and other former Presidents supporting the Assault Weapons Ban in the 1990s except for President Bush , into today President Trump and the NRA supporting the Bump Stock Ban through the ATF. The 2nd Amendment is not a priority to any of the so called Republicans in congress, otherwise we would already have seen Bills in the House and Senate reversing anti-2nd Amendment Acts, such as the 1934 NFA, 1968 Gun Control Act, 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act, and lots of other anti-2nd Amendment articles that are hidden in many other Acts. Is congress going do anything to reverse these acts, I would said its all lip service till the bills are passed.
And the censorship continues and apparently grows here at TTAG.
Having just penned & posted a non-blue, non violent comment expressing my opinion, it has gone into the ether.
Sad.
How can we expect anything from our government when our “supporting community” fails us.