Trump V.P. Pick J.D. Vance Solid On Second Amendment

If you thought it wouldn’t be possible for former President Donald Trump to pick a running mate that gun-ban groups would hate as much as Trump himself, well, think again.

On Monday, Trump named Republican U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate in his quest for a second term. And a look at Vance’s record on guns and gun control reveals that he is a very strong proponent of gun owners’ rights.

“Joe Biden and anti-democracy multinational companies are trying to find new ways to take guns away from law-abiding citizens,” Vance said when running for the Senate in 2021. “They’re making it harder to buy firearms and ammunition, and imposing new, unconstitutional regulations on American citizens. I will fight the gun grabbers, whether they’re federal bureaucrats enacting regulations or multinational companies punishing people for exercising their rights.”

In a guest column for the Columbus Dispatch in July 2021, Vance wrote of growing up using firearms and of an “unholy alliance” coming for our guns.

“Worryingly, perhaps the biggest threat to the Second Amendment comes not from the Biden Administration, but from some of our biggest companies,” Vance wrote. “Unfortunately, the unholy alliance between government and business won’t stop at the Second Amendment. Eventually, they’ll come for other cherished American liberties, too.”

The next year, Vance questioned whether limiting access to guns would have any effect at all on gun violence, which he said was tied to “inner-city urban crime” and which he said until recently dropped generally over decades during a time when guns became more widely available.

“None of us like the school shootings,” he told Breitbart News. “None of us likes the fact that if you live near a big city, you hear about gun violence nearly every week. So, we have to not take the left’s bait and say, ‘Well, this is going to make us safer at the expense of our Second Amendment rights.’ I don’t think it’s going to do either.”

Concerning other 2A matters, Vance supports right-to-carry reciprocity legislation, opposes gun-confiscation schemes that would strip Americans of their rights without due process (red-flag legislation), opposed bans on AR-style rifles and common standard-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, opposes universal background checks and supports legislation that would protect veterans’ Second Amendment rights. In fact, his dedication to freedom landed him the full support of the National Rifles Association during his Senate run.

Most recently, Vance created an uproar with remarks he made about a newly proposed bump stock ban in the Senate. Last month, he called the effort by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other anti-gun Democrats to ban bump stocks a “huge distraction.”

“I think that we have to ask ourselves: What is the real gun violence problem in this country, and are we legislating in a way that solves fake problems? Or solves real problems?” Vance told reporters. “And my very strong suspicion is that the Schumer legislation is aimed at a PR problem, not something that’s going to meaningfully reduce gun violence in this country.”

Vance added that he was concerned the bill could “end up just inhibiting the rights of law-abiding Americans.” In addressing the mass murder in Las Vegas by a man using a bump stock, he said: “The question is: How many people would have been shot alternatively? And you have to ask yourself the question: Will anyone actually not choose a bump stock because Chuck Schumer passes a piece of legislation?”

Most gun -rights supporters should be pleased with Trump naming Vance as his running mate, thereby shoring up any dissent among 2A voters who weren’t already on the Trump Train. As for gun-ban groups and gun haters, they’ll now have someone else on the Republican ticket to hate other than just the former president.

In comparing the two V.P. candidates—Vance and Democrat Kamala Harris—on Second Amendment issues, there really is no comparison. While Vance has proven himself a strong supporter of gun owners and the Second Amendment, Harris has fought for more, and more restrictive, gun schemes at every turn, mostly unsuccessfully thank goodness.