The 2016 Republican platform denounced Democratic proposed laws as “abolition of the Second Amendment,” with three paragraphs devoted to gun rights. The 2020 platform did not discuss the topic at all, because there is no 2020 platform; instead, the party pledged “enthusiastic support of the president’s America First agenda.” This time, the Republican National Committee (RNC) did approve a platform. but as reloadJake Fogleman noted that the Republican National Committee removed any mention of the Second Amendment other than in passing.
This reference appears in the list of “Twenty Commitments We Will Deliver”
That will happen soon when we win the White House and Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Liberty, freedom of religion and freedom of religion”. The right to keep and bear arms. “
This cursory treatment of the Second Amendment is consistent with the current reality that the Republican Party wants whatever former President Donald Trump wants. Although Trump pays lip service to the right to armed self-defense, he has never been a true believer, as his flirtation with the Democratic gun control agenda after the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas illustrated.
In addition to a unilateral ban on bump stocks that was recently struck down by the Supreme Court, Trump met with members of Congress in February 2018 to discuss gun regulation. At that meeting, he favored requiring background checks on all gun transfers, raising the minimum age to purchase long guns, preemptively confiscating guns from potentially dangerous people and even banning so-called assault weapons visible joy Senator Dianne Feinstein (D–California).
Trump’s embrace of these ideas has frustrated the National Rifle Association (NRA), but it looks like a return to his actual views. In his 2000 book America we deserveHe offered a middle ground between the “extremes” of the two major parties on the issue of gun control.
“Democrats want to confiscate all guns, which is a stupid idea because only law-abiding citizens will hand over their guns and the bad guys will be the only ones with weapons,” Trump wrote. “Republicans follow the NRA’s line, rejecting even limited restrictions.” By contrast, he said, “I am opposed to gun control in general, but I support a ban on assault weapons, and I also support a slightly longer wait time to purchase a gun.”
In 2011, when Trump was considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination, he flatly declared, “I am against gun control.” Two years later, he described himself as “a very strong believer in the Second Amendment.”
Trump expressed a similar position during the 2016 campaign, calling himself a “Second Amendment guy” while then-President Barack Obama was a “non-Second Amendment guy.” When asked if he supported new gun laws to prevent mass shootings, he responded: “Gun laws have nothing to do with this. This is not about guns. This is about real mental illness.”
Does Trump support “restrictions on the sale of any type of gun in the United States under any circumstances”? one moderator asked during a 2016 debate. Trump’s answer was an unqualified: “No.”
In fact, Trump does support some forms of gun control, including “red flag” laws and banning gun ownership by people on the “no-fly” list. As president, he even said that when police believe someone is in danger, they should “get their gun first” and “then go through due process.”
Before he secured the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, in his 2015 book Make Great Again: How to Repair Our Broken AmericaTrump (or his ghostwriter) eloquently stated the importance of the Second Amendment:
The fact that the Founding Fathers made it a Second Amendment, second only to our First Amendment of free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and the right to assemble and petition the government, shows that they understood the right to bear arms How important.
We all have this basic right to protect ourselves and our families. The Founding Fathers knew it was vital to a free society and passed this amendment to ensure the government could never take it (or our weapons) away. Throughout history, we have seen oppressive governments consolidate and ensure control over their rulers by denying citizens the means they need to defend themselves…
The Second Amendment was created to ensure that Americans could protect themselves against tyranny. There is nothing we can do to change it.
Trump said this for several pages. The platform approved by the Trump-led Republican Party has only seven words. But if gun rights supporters aren’t happy with that, they can hardly expect anything better from Democrats.
In 2016, Democrats removed the Second Amendment from their platform, reverting to the approach taken in 2000 and before. The 2016 platform referred to the “rights of responsible gun owners” but did not mention the scope of those rights or the legal basis for those rights. The 2020 platform also makes no mention of the Second Amendment; it doesn’t even mention the “rights of responsible gun owners.” But it does include two paragraphs of gun control proposals aimed at “ending the gun violence epidemic.”
Like abortion opponents, Second Amendment supporters may feel they have no choice but to support a Republican candidate who appears weak on their issue but is better than the alternative. “As the Republican platform downplays Second Amendment issues, the gun rights movement finds itself in a precarious position politically,” Fogelman wrote. “As guns become increasingly polarizing along partisan lines, gun rights Supporters find themselves relying on Republicans for political support. President Joe Biden has made gun control a fixture of his term and has pushed for broader proposals in his campaign, including a possible second. Meanwhile, the Republican incumbent has continued to seek support from the National Rifle Association and made promises in speeches at the organization, which has at times been erratic on gun policy.
Trump is not the only candidate in this race whose views on gun control have shifted with the political winds. In 1985, as a senator, Biden gave a speech in support of the Gun Owners Protection Act, sounding like Trump circa 2000.
“I believe the compromises that are now part of this bill have resulted in balanced legislation that protects the rights of private gun owners while not infringing on law enforcement’s ability to deal with those who misuse firearms or violate the law,” Biden said. “In my twelve and a half years on this agency, I have never believed that additional gun control or federal gun registration would reduce crime. I believe criminals who want guns can do so through illegal, untraceable, unregistered Source, with or without gun control.
