Republicans and the Courts Are Destroying the Second Amendment in Ways Democrats Can’t

Remember some months back, when gun owners, feeling unprecedented confidence in a “pro-gun” president and majorities in both houses of Congress, thought that national concealed carry reciprocity and removal of suppressors from National Firearms Act tax and registration requirements would be the first of anticipated gun-rights victories? We were on a roll, and it seemed like we would finally be the ones enjoying some of those incremental successes the gun-grabbers have been racking up for years. Plus, Hillary wasn’t president, so we’d not only put an end to Obama-style executive infringements, but we also now had a guy in the White House promising federal and Supreme Court nominees would be vetted constructionists along the lines of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Things were starting to look up!

Except, they weren’t really. Note NRA “A+”-rated and endorsed House Speaker Paul Ryan’s name isn’t listed on the Hearing Protection Act as a co-sponsor, and the bill remains stuck in committee, effectively dead in the water. Likewise, reciprocity wasn’t going anywhere under Ryan’s “leadership” according to Rep. Thomas Massie, who last September informed Armed American Radio host Mark Walters, “The Speaker told me he didn’t think the timing was right.”