Donald Trump is the 2024 Republican Presidential nominee, but where does he stand in the gap between 2A rights and gun restrictions?
Before Running for Office
Pivoting politically from registered Republican in 1987 to Independent and Democrat and back to Republican by 2009, Trump, who has kept a penthouse residence at the 58-story Fifth Avenue tower that bears his name since 1984, long maintained a NYC concealed carry permit.
In his bestselling 2000 book, "The America We Deserve," Trump wrote, "I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons, and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun. With today's Internet technology, we should be able to tell within 72 hours if a potential gun owner has a record."
As an Empire State resident and gun owner, he went on record against the controversial NY SAFE Act in 2014, appearing at a 2A rally outside the New York State Capitol building in Albany.
“I’m a big Second Amendment person,” said Trump before a crowd of about 3,500. “I’m a big, strong believer in it … I wanted to be here to support you. I’ll be with you no matter where you are.”
2016 Campaign trail
Although he did not formally announce his candidacy for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination until his now-famous June 2015 golden escalator ride and speech at Trump Tower, Trump appeared two months prior at the NRA's Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, and addressed the crowd at the event's Leadership Forum.
His eight-minute speech, early in the event, included an appearance by his adult children and Trump said that, should he run, "The Second Amendment would be totally protected, that I can tell you."
Trump, a dark horse candidate at the time, whittled away the crowded field of more than 20 professional politicians and GOP royalty to clinch the Republican nomination by May 2016. On the way, he made promises to get rid of gun-free zones but also made left-leaning statements backing "no fly no buy" policies to strip gun rights from those on terror watchlists.
That summer saw his speech at the NRA's Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia headline the event and grow to over a half-hour. The organization spent more than $30 million during that election cycle endorsing him as a protector of the Second Amendment and the only candidate capable of preserving the conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
By July 2016, Trump added Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to the ticket, a move welcomed at the time by 2A groups, as Pence had voted to pass the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act while in Congress and signed several pro-gun bills into law as governor.
During the first presidential debates between Trump and Hillary Clinton in September 2016, both seemed to agree that "no fly/no buy" was a good policy.
His official Trump 2016 website included a four-page 1,100-word position paper on the Second Amendment, which aligned the candidate with a host of pro-gun issues including disavowing gun and magazine bans ("The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest, people are allowed to own."), being in favor of national concealed carry reciprocity ("A driver’s license works in every state, so it’s common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every state."), allowing members of the military on bases and recruiting centers to carry firearms to defend themselves, and calling for updates to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System ("Too many states are failing to put criminal and mental health records into the system – and it should go without saying that a system’s only going to be as effective as the records that are put into it.").
On the eve of the November election, Trump announced a "Second Amendment Coalition," that would advise him on gun policy should he make it to the Oval Office. The 62-member council included influencers, shooting sports icons, and gun industry members such as Jesse James, Marty Daniel, Ronnie Barrett, Kim Rhode, and Doug Koenig.
In Office
Picking up 304 electoral votes over Clinton's 227, Trump became the 45th President and was inaugurated in January 2017. Likewise, the incoming 115th United States Congress, in which Republicans held control of both chambers (54-46 Senate, 246-187 House) led to unrealized hope in 2A circles that the polarity switch would see rapid movement on gun reforms such as national concealed carry reciprocity and the Hearing Protection Act.
Similarly, his campaign promises to repeal gun-free zones nationwide and allow military personnel to carry firearms on base and at recruiting stations for self-defense never made it to reality.
He did, just two months after taking office, sign a Republican-backed resolution reversing a pending rule change that would have banned some Social Security recipients from possessing firearms. He also signed the Great American Outdoors Act, billed as the largest-ever investment into America’s national parks and public lands, as well as measures making it easier to build shooting ranges on public land, expand museum access to historic firearms, and approved a plan to transfer the U.S. Army’s remaining stock of .45 ACP M1911A1 pistols to the Civilian Marksmanship Program.
He also pulled the plug on a burdensome rule that added a mandatory gun lock sale mandate to FFLs.
Trump's initial cabinet included a lot of pro-gun picks in key positions, including former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue as Agriculture Secretary, Montana Republican Congressman and retired Navy SEAL officer Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior, and U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, all replacing more progressive Obama appointees. This resulted in a gradual clean-up and repeal of many of the former administration's gun control efforts. He also Obama's Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, who frequently labeled gun crime as a public health issue, and replaced him with one who held different views.
Trump's administration held onto the prospect of cutting federal red tape on overseas interaction by the American gun industry to an extent, and in January 2020 a rule change was introduced to pass oversight of some commercial firearm exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department.
In March 2020, while the country was shutting down over COVID restrictions, the Trump administration included "[w]orkers supporting the operation of firearm or ammunition product manufacturers, retailers, importers, distributors, and shooting range" as part of the nation's Essential Critical Infrastructure.
While in office, Trump continued to address the NRAAM – the first for a sitting President – delivering increasingly long-winded speeches in 2017 (29 minutes), 2018 (50 minutes), and 2019 (59 minutes).
On a sour note on gun policy, Trump in 2018 seemed to endorse controversial "red flag" gun seizure methods without due process by saying "I like taking the guns early," during a televised meeting on gun laws at the White House. "To go to court would have taken a long time, so you could do exactly what you’re saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second," he said.
Other Trump talking points at the time included expanding background checks, outlawing rifle sales to anyone under 21, and banning bump stocks. The latter step, in which Trump directed the Department of Justice to propose a rule change that classified bump stocks as unregistered machine guns, took effect in March 2019.
Nonetheless, the mid-term gun control blip evaporated as Trump leaned harder into the Second Amendment in his 2020 re-election campaign, with the assistance of a "Gun Owners for Trump" group and quick endorsement of most pro-2A organizations.
His 2020 2nd Amendment platform statement noted:
The Second Amendment to our Constitution is clear. The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed upon. Gun and magazine bans are a total failure. The right of self-defense doesn’t stop at the end of your driveway. That’s why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states.
Perhaps Trump's biggest pro-gun legacy from his 2017-2020 term was in appointing over 200 judges to the federal bench – flipping the balance of several appeals courts from a majority of Democratic appointees to a majority of Republican appointees. These appointments included more than 80 district court judges, 50 circuit or appeals court judges, and Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. All three of Trump's SCOTUS picks, in 2022, signed on to the momentous 6-3 majority decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which has put hundreds of gun control laws on shaky ground nationwide.
Similarly, those same Justices recently repudiated the Trump administration's 2019 rule change on bump stocks, noting that the ATF exceeded its statutory authority in the reclassification, a step that should have gone through Congress.
Campaign 2024
Trump is vying to do something that hasn't happened since 1893 in becoming the second U.S. president to serve non-consecutive terms, a feat not seen since the twin administrations of Democrat Grover Cleveland.
Easily securing the nomination, he has a rebooted Gun Owners for Trump group and endorsements from all the big 2A advocacy groups. His 20-point campaign platform backed up by the GOP pledges simply to "Defend our constitution, our bill of rights, and our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms," when it comes to gun rights.
Speaking at the Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in February, Trump vowed, if re-elected, to undo all restrictions enacted by the Biden-Harris administration.
"Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day," said Trump in a 77-minute speech.
Speaking at the 2024 NRAAM in Dallas in May, Trump doubled down, promising to sack the head of the ATF "at noon" on inauguration day and to "roll back every Biden attack on the Second Amendment."
