To say that Donald Trump is a far better President than would Hillary Clinton have been is a truism too obvious to bear repetition. This particularly is the case with regard to the Second Amendment; not only in terms of broad policy direction, but with regard also to the regulatory actions and day-to-day decisions by bureaucrats. Were we living in the third year of a Hillary Clinton presidency, damage wrought by her and her minions already would have seriously undermined the ability of every law-abiding Second Amendment supporter to actually exercise the rights guaranteed thereunder.
While he may not be a policy wonk immersed in the minutiae of firearms regulations (which is a good thing), Trump does understand the need to defend the right to keep and bear arms against its detractors at all levels of government. This was on display most recently in late April when the President signed an executive document on stage at the NRA annual meeting in Indianapolis that erased the Obama administration’s signature affixed in 2013 to the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty.
Despite Trump’s sincere support of the Second Amendment and for what it means in practice, there are blind spots that have manifested themselves in both policy and practice; and which set precedent for serious mischief by future presidents more attuned to Obama or Clinton than to Trump. These deficiencies reflect not so much an anti-Second Amendment predisposition as a desire to “do the right thing” in the immediate aftermath of mass shootings; and without fully understanding the consequences of such actions in the long run.
by Bob Barr
