If someone were to write out a two-column comparison of the Second Amendment-related policy positions of former President Donald J. Trump (R) and Vice President Kamala Harris (D), they’d see a list of opposites. On the right side, they’d see that Trump sides with our individual freedoms. On the left, they’d see that Harris is for gun confiscations and bans, for nominating judges who don’t believe the Second Amendment protects an individual right and more.
You can find deep analyses of these differences in many articles and videos at America’s 1st Freedom, NRA-ILA.org and from other NRA resources. But, as voters need to be fully informed on this critical issue, we also thought it would be helpful to ask Trump and his team for specifics. So, here is specifically what a second Trump administration would do.
1. During the first Trump presidential term, nearly 300 judges were nominated to the federal bench. These nominations were focused on giving America judges who are most likely to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Will this continue if Trump is elected as America’s 47th president?
No president in almost 100 years so consistently appointed judges who take the U.S. Bill of Rights as seriously as did President Trump. Even President Ronald Reagan (R), who generally appointed excellent judges, appointed a few circuit court judges who consistently spoke out against the Second Amendment. President Trump’s track record for nominating judges speaks for itself, and he will continue that pattern during his second term.
This is crucial. By the end of this year, Democrats will have appointed over 60% of the federal circuit and district court judges, and by the end of the next administration, Clarence Thomas will be 80 and Sam Alito will be 78. Those two justices are among the strongest supporters of the Second Amendment on the U.S. Supreme Court. If Kamala Harris has the chance to replace either of those justices, those who value self-defense will face a very different Supreme Court.
2. President Trump previously agreed he would sign a national reciprocity law that allows law-abiding citizens to carry firearms for self-defense over state lines. Can we expect continued support for national reciprocity?
Besides Kamala Harris’ stance against the Second Amendment, the Democrat vice-presidential candidate, Gov. Tim Walz (D), is on record strongly opposing the recognition of concealed-permit reciprocity, but President Trump will continue to support national reciprocity. With more than 22 million concealed-handgun permit holders nationwide, Americans must be able to protect themselves when they travel across the country. There are decades of data on the behavior of permit holders. Some states have detailed data. In Florida and Texas, the data shows that permit holders are convicted of firearms-related violations at one-twelfth the rate at which police officers are. And police are convicted at just one-twentieth of the rate for the general population.
3. In NRA v. Vullo, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that officials with the state of New York had attacked, indeed suppressed, the NRA’s First Amendment rights. In its ruling, the high court sent the case back to a lower court for a remedy—and the NRA is seeking financial damages. Would the next Trump administration work to stop this type of weaponization of government agencies?
The weaponization of government agencies is an end-run around the rule of law and must end. Having government agencies put pressure on private companies not to do business with the NRA is outrageous. But the Biden administration revived the Obama administration’s Operation Choke Point that puts pressure on financial companies not to do business with companies in disfavored industries, from energy to firearms. President Trump ended Operation Choke Point when he became president in 2017. President Trump will quickly move to end it again.
4. Under a new Trump administration, what qualities would a nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) need to have across state lines?
Time after time, courts have struck down the Biden administration’s ATF regulations because they have gone well beyond the laws that Congress passed. Unfortunately, Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), which changed the definition of a firearms dealer and provided the ATF a chance to issue long and extremely complicated rules that will result in many gun owners having to register as gun dealers. If you sell a friend a gun once and discuss the sale of a second gun, you must be a licensed dealer. Similarly, if you sell one gun and keep any record of what you bought and sold it for, you must also be a licensed dealer. Other rules are vague and give the government discretion to classify you as a dealer when it sees fit. The reason that the Biden administration is pushing these rules is to make sure that their national gun registry, which President Trump will also undo, will be able to track more people who own guns.
Because of the BCSA, we can’t be certain that the courts will strike down these rules. So, President Trump will appoint an ATF Director who will review these extremely burdensome regulations that make Americans less safe. The person President Trump will appoint would also reflect the overwhelming view of law enforcement that private ownership of guns is important for reducing crime.
5. The Biden-Harris administration has focused the agencies within the Department of Justice (DOJ) on criminalizing lawful gun ownership. What qualities would a Trump pick for attorney general have that would be of interest to gun owners?
Yes, the Biden-Harris administration has weaponized the DOJ against lawful gun ownership. The ATF is part of the DOJ. Operation Choke Point has also been an initiative by the DOJ. Too often, Democrats blame law-abiding gun ownership for the problems created by their own unwillingness to catch and punish criminals. President Trump will have an 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.
6. The politicization of the FBI has eroded the American public’s confidence in the agency. How would Trump and his team fix this?
There are many great special agents at the FBI, but decisions on everything from whom to bring criminal charges against to whom to promote within the agency to even the data produced by the FBI have become much too political. The FBI can’t function effectively if Americans think their decisions are political. A new, nonpolitical culture must be created within the agency. To do that, someone willing to clean out many of those on the 7th floor must be appointed to run the agency.
7. Kamala Harris is running on a platform of new infringements on the Second Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights. Her plan includes a ban on popular semi-automatic rifles and, if her rhetoric accurately reflects her intentions, even popular pistols. Would a new Trump administration support any such ban?
Kamala Harris has been the Biden administration’s “gun-control czar,” overseeing the administration’s gun-control effort through the White House’s new Office of Gun Violence Prevention (OGVP), which coordinates the administration’s gun-control efforts. She therefore has her fingerprints on many of Biden’s gun-control policies, and Biden is the most-activist president ever on gun control. His “zero-tolerance” policy put thousands of gun dealers out of business by the middle of last year for trivial, inconsequential paperwork mistakes. He used government regulations to “debank” gun makers and dealers, and those that survived were faced with higher costs. The Biden administration has also put together a national gun registry. Continuing these policies, along with others, such as undoing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), risks destroying Americans’ ability to defend themselves and their families.
As to your question about an “assault-weapons” ban, no, President Trump doesn’t support any such ban on rifles or pistols. Some politicians will continue calling AR-15s “assault weapons” and “weapons of war.” And some seem to think “AR” means “assault rifle” when it stands for ArmaLite rifle, after the company that developed it in the 1950s. But at least some of the media are now recognizing that “AR- or AK-style rifles designed for the civilian market” are fundamentally different than military weapons. Even the Associated Press now acknowledges that the term “assault weapon” conveys “little meaning” and is “highly politicized.”
Under the 1994-2004 ban, there was no drop in the number of attacks with “assault weapons,” and the share of mass public shootings using them actually rose. The overwhelming share of academic research shows that assault-weapon bans don’t make Americans safer in terms of murders or mass public shootings.
8. How would the next Trump administration make America safer again?
The Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey shows that total violent crime fell by 17% during President Trump’s administration and has soared by 43% so far under Biden-Harris. Of course, news outlets routinely assert that Americans are mistaken in believing that violent crime is rising. But Democrats and the media don’t understand the difference between the number of crimes reported to police and the total number of crimes.
Part of the reason for the increase in crime is that law enforcement collapsed in the United States, particularly in large cities. The FBI data show that arrest rates for reported violent crime in cities of over a million people plunged by more than half, from 44% in the five years before the COVID pandemic to just 20% by 2022—the largest drop ever. The arrest rate has never been close to that low before. And the decline in arrests for property crimes is even greater.
But not even all those arrested are charged, let alone prosecuted or convicted. So, criminals face little risk of being punished for committing crimes.
The federal government should consider the efficacy of tying federal funding for state and local law enforcement to arrest and prosecution rates. In this scenario, those places that do a poor job could face funding cuts if they don’t get their rates up within a specified period, such as a year. Local politicians have burdened police departments with all sorts of rules that discourage arrests.
In connection with that, we should expand the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to provide a look at individual cities. The problem is that the FBI only looks at the arrest rate for reported crimes, but the rate at which people report crimes depends on the arrest rate. If victims don’t think that police will arrest criminals, they are less likely to report crimes. The NCVS allows us to measure total crime (reported and unreported), providing a much more accurate picture of how crime is changing.
9. Repeat violent offenders—at times released back onto the streets by George Soros-backed district attorneys—have murdered a lot of citizens, including police officers. How would Trump and his choice for attorney general remedy that?
Take the case last year in Michigan of Jonathan Welch, who faced charges for three murders. He was released on a low bond, after which he went out and murdered a fourth person. This accused murderer was already facing three life sentences and other felonies. Is the threat of a fourth life sentence going to matter?
Or take the case of Darrell Brooks, who tried to murder the mother of his child by hitting her with his car. He was released on $1,000 bail despite facing four criminal charges that could have resulted in decades in jail. But Brooks then drove the same car through the Waukesha Christmas parade, killing six people and injuring 62 others. Given his age, 39, Brooks already faced penalties that might result in what was effectively a life-in-prison sentence. He committed the additional murders without facing much of a real additional penalty.
There are already too many similar examples to cite. Part of the solution is educational, making Americans understand that such lenient bail laws actually encourage criminals to commit more crime.
10. Kamala Harris wants to repeal the PLCAA. Her claims about the PLCAA have been fact-checked as false, even by mainstream-media outlets, but Harris continues to maintain that the PLCAA gives blanket immunity to gun manufacturers and stores. What are Trump’s views on PLCAA?
Harris’ proposal would make gun manufacturers civilly liable for the misuse of guns they sell. This would mean that people could sue manufacturers and sellers whenever a crime, accident or suicide occurs with a firearm. The straightforward result would be to put gun makers out of business.
Imagine what would happen if such liability applied to the car industry. The National Safety Council estimates that 46,027 Americans died and 5.2 million others were injured from car accidents in 2022. People can also use cars to commit crimes.
Gun-control advocates sometimes claim that gun makers cater to the criminal market with low prices and easy concealability. But lightweight, compact firearms also make life easier for the 21.8 million Americans with concealed handgun permits and the millions more in Constitutional Carry states who carry without a permit. Research shows the people who benefit the most from carrying concealed handguns are the most likely victims of crime. Making guns more expensive prevents some of those very people from being able to defend themselves.
11. Studies show that armed citizens stop crimes well over a million times a year in this nation—in most instances without even firing a shot. Trump has talked about, even appeared with, some of the folks who have used this critical freedom to stay safe. Will Trump continue speaking out as president?
Yes. Police are extremely important in stopping crime, but the police can’t be there all the time and usually arrive after the crime has occurred. Police also believe gun ownership helps to combat crime. When PoliceOne, the largest organization of police, surveyed its 450,000 members, around 76% answered that legally armed citizens are very or extremely important in reducing crime. Research finds increases in gun ownership are associated with drops in crime, not rises. Indeed, every place in the world that has banned guns has seen an increase in murder.
12. In contrast to others who have called the millions of NRA members “terrorists” and “criminals,” Trump called NRA members “good people.” How will a new Trump administration continue to protect our freedom and make our streets safe again?
While Democrats want to prevent criminals from being punished through the legal system, they also want to prevent law-abiding citizens from being able to protect themselves. At least Democrats are consistent in ensuring that criminals face little risk in committing crime. By nominating judges who respect the U.S. Bill of Rights, punishing criminals, controlling illegal immigration and appointing the right people at the DOJ, President Trump will protect our freedom and make our streets safe again. When it comes to gun ownership by law-abiding Americans, freedom and safety go together.
