Freedom prevailed in the recent election thanks to the tireless work of NRA members, staff and volunteers. Because of that work, we sent Donald Trump back to the White House to be the 47th President of the United States. With this victory, NRA members have once again led the fight to defend liberty for generations to come.
I am always amazed at the unwavering dedication of the people who make up our association. Every election, committed NRA members knock doors, make phone calls, send text messages and, most importantly, vote. They also act as incredible advocates for all gun owners by helping to persuade others to turn out and vote for pro-gun candidates across the country. And, for all that hard work, I am eternally grateful.
Thanks to NRA members, we fired Chuck Schumer as senate majority leader, and we will have a pro-gun majority in the U.S. Senate. The value of a pro-gun U.S. Senate cannot be overstated. The Senate will play a critical role in staffing the next government by providing “advice and consent” for senior executive-branch positions. By helping to win the Senate, NRA members have helped President Trump fill the executive branch with those who will defend liberty, rather than attack it, and that will be a much-needed respite.
Every election, committed NRA members knock doors, make phone calls, send text messages and, most importantly, vote.
For the last four years, we have dealt with repeated attacks on our right to keep and bear arms. The Biden administration pushed out rules that threatened the owners of pistols with stabilizing braces with conviction of a felony, that redefined the term “firearm” in federal law to attack hobbyist firearm-makers, that redefined when a person was a firearms dealer and thus needed a federal firearms license just to sell a gun to a family member and that put firearms dealer after firearms dealer out of business for minor paperwork violations in the name of so-called “zero tolerance.”
Thanks to NRA members, all of that is over. We’re sending President Donald Trump to the White House for another four years, and instead of relentless attacks on our rights, we’ll have a president and administration that respects the Second Amendment. With President Trump in the White House, we’ll have the opportunity to roll-back the Bident administration’s rules and to implement positive regulations for gun owners. No longer will we have to brace for new assaults on our rights at every press conference or executive order announcement; instead, we can rest assured that the Trump Administration will be seeking to protect and expand the right to keep and bear arms.
Thanks to NRA members, President Trump will be able to continue his work reshaping the federal judiciary to guarantee protection of our constitutional freedoms. In his first term, Trump’s commitment to nominating and elevating judges and justices who respect the right to keep and bear arms was, without a doubt, his most important contribution to the future of the Second Amendment.
Because of that effort, the Supreme Court is now firmly committed to enforcing the Constitution and Bill of Rights against state and local governments that ignore the right to keep and bear arms. Our victory in NYSRPA v. Bruen would not have been possible without Trump’s three appointments to the high court: Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Without the Bruen decision, our right to bear arms would be hollowed out to not include the right to legally carry a firearm for self-defense outside the home. Likewise, the Court’s decision last summer to limit federal agencies’ authority to create new law would never have happened without Trump’s appointments.
But it isn’t just in the Supreme Court where we see the benefits of a Trump judiciary on our Second Amendment rights. Shortly before this article was written, Judge Stephen P. McGlynn, a Trump appointee to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, struck down Illinois’ ban on so-called “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines. That NRA-supported case will now make its way to the Seventh Circuit and hopefully to the Supreme Court, where we can put an end to these types of bans once and for all.
While we’re already seeing these benefits from President Trump’s first term of appointments, with four more years of appointments, we will have helped solidify our right to keep and bear arms for generations to come.
So, once again, I’d like to reiterate my thanks to all NRA members who support our great Association and helped deliver another incredible result for freedom in the 2024 elections. Our work protecting the Second Amendment remains far from over, but, with this win, we’ve taken a huge step in the right direction for the right to keep and bear arms.
