A burgeoning gun rights organization threatens to break with the Republican Party and former President Donald Trump for not including provisions protecting gun owners in their platform.
The national spokesperson for Gun Owners of America, Luis Valdes, told the Washington Examiner, “Our view is pretty straightforward.” “We’re not going to back down, and we’re going to keep pushing Republicans to keep their election pledges. Republicans claim to support guns in their campaigns. We’re going to make them stand up in the flames.”
According to Valdes, this includes Trump for the GOP.
For the last eight years, the Republican platform has been fairly strong, he said. “Gun owners should be quite confused and afraid about this, especially in light of the Trump administration’s record.”
Valdes criticized Trump for being inconsistent on gun control, bringing up the fact that in March 2018, he had commended the state legislature of Florida for enacting gun control legislation. Valdes said that the GOP and Trump’s rejection of pro-gun advocates on the party platform will have unintended consequences.
He declared, “The Republican Party has abandoned one of its most ardent supporters.”
Dedicated to unseating legislators who provide any hint of yielding on gun regulation, Gun Owners of America, a gun rights organization, has grown to over 2 million members and has emerged from the shadow of the National Rifle Association after years of operating in its shadow.
It bills itself as the “no compromise” gun club and invested more than $3 million in lobbying activities in the previous year. It has taken advantage of the NRA’s legal and financial problems to become a major force in politics.
“We’ll keep making legislators of all stripes answerable. Whether they are Democrats or Republicans, it makes no difference. GOA does not function as a political party’s mouthpiece. Our group works to preserve, uphold, amend, and broaden the Second Amendment. Whether someone has an R or D next to them doesn’t matter to us. We regard them equally,” GOA declared.
Within days after Trump’s shooting at a Butler, Pennsylvania, event, the GOA made some strongly worded remarks.
Although the Republican Party has long been associated with gun rights, some are raising doubts about the decision to discreetly remove the Second Amendment from its program and eliminate any reference to its views on gun control.
The Reload’s Jake Fogleman stated, “The GOP platform’s downplaying of 2nd Amendment problems comes as the gun-rights movement finds itself in a dangerous position politically.” The political backing of Republicans has grown increasingly important to gun-rights advocates as the debate over firearms has become more divisive on party lines. Having made gun control a cornerstone of his administration, President Joe Biden is already running on even more expansive platforms for a potential second term, such as outlawing the sale of the widely used AR-15.
“At the same time, the current standard-bearer for the GOP has been inconsistent on gun policy at times, even though he has continued to court the National Rifle Association’s support and offer assurances in speeches to the organization. Because of his criminal convictions, he is also no longer able to lawfully own weapons.
This week at the convention, the Republican National Committee accepted its new 2024 platform, a 28-page declaration of foundational principles typically authored by party members, by a vote of 84 to 18. It used to contain wording on the party’s and the platform’s roles in politics. The finished paper this year, the first since 2016, hardly addresses gun rights but overwhelmingly favors Trump’s “America First” objectives.
The 2016 GOP platform devoted three substantial paragraphs to criticizing Democrats for their desire to “eviscerate the Second Amendment.” It enumerated both pro-gun laws it supported and anti-gun legislation it opposed. “Enthusiastically back the President’s America-first agenda,” the party pledged in 2020.
In its list of “twenty pledges that we will fulfill very fast when we win the White House and GOP Majorities in the House and Senate,” the platform in 2024 mentions gun rights merely in passing.
We rank the right to keep and bear arms seventh, along with protecting the Constitution.
Regarding the news, the NRA reacted with greater composure.
The NRA Institute for Legislative Action’s executive director, Randy Kozuch, told the Washington Examiner that “President Trump and the RNC went with a more compact platform this year while still preserving support for the Second Amendment right to keep and bear guns.” “The NRA is excited about President Trump and Senator Vance’s election in November because they are both ardent advocates of gun rights and the organization.”
Paring down the wording on the party platform surprised several Republicans.
Former governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson told the Washington Examiner from Milwaukee, “I wasn’t aware of it and am astonished.” “I did read it, and it seems like there is a trace of Trump all over it. However, I was genuinely astonished that I hadn’t seen that.
Like Hutchinson, who described the absence as “shocking,” state senator Tammy Nichols from Idaho likewise claimed not to be aware of the revisions.
She told the Washington Examiner, “That really wasn’t on my radar,” and she said she needed to check “just what they had in there and how they expressed it.”
