The third-party candidate before voters this week feels that, "Armed people are harder to oppress and harder to attack."
Chase Oliver, 38, secured the Libertarian Party's 2024 nomination for president at the group's National Convention in Washington, D.C. in May, earning 60 percent of the vote on the seventh round of voting among eligible attendees. While former President Donald Trump and activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.both stumped for the attendees, they did not secure the nomination.
Trump on Guns: His Track Record on the Second Amendment
Oliver, a political activist who has been a member of the Libertarian Party since 2010, has not held public office and has run a shoestring $400,000 campaign but is on the ballot in all 50 states.
His campaign platform has a dedicated page on gun rights, something neither the Trump nor the Harris campaign has.
In case you don't want to make the jump, he states:
I support the right of every person to defend themselves from violence and aggression. Gun control throughout our history has been used to limit the ability of vulnerable populations to defend themselves. Armed people are harder to oppress and harder to attack.
As President:
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I will not support any new gun restrictions and will look to repeal the restrictions that exist today.
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I will nominate to the judiciary judges committed to protecting the right of all persons to defend themselves from aggression.
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District of Columbia v. Heller was a seminal moment in our history, affirming not only the right of citizens to own arms, but determining that restrictions such as trigger locks are unconstitutional. I will work to extend this legal concept to all bans, such as bans on bump stocks.
Where Does Kamala Harris Stand on Gun Rights?
As far as the Libertarian Party itself, the group has maintained the same platform it adopted in 2022, which likewise has a section on gun rights.
The only legitimate use of force is in defense of individual rights – life, liberty, and justly acquired property – against aggression. This right inheres in the individual, who may agree to be aided by any other individual or group. We affirm the individual right recognized by the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms, and oppose the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. Private property owners should be free to establish their own conditions regarding the presence of personal defense weapons on their own property. We oppose all laws at any level of government restricting, registering, or monitoring the ownership, manufacture, or transfer of firearms, ammunition, or firearm accessories.
He has released an ad on gun rights, contrasting his and the Party's stance on the matter, contrasted with statements from President Trump and President Biden, as well as others.
To be clear, the Libertarians are a long-shot party, with their 2020 Presidential candidate, Jo Jorgensen, only securing 1,788,000 votes, or 1.2 percent of those cast in the general election. This was well down from the 4.4 million (3.3 percent) LP record set by 2016 candidate Gary Johnson.
In recent five-way polls naming Oliver as a candidate, he is typically garnering 1 percent of respondents.