We’re still waiting to learn who Donald Trump will tap as the next director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and what the incoming president plans to do with the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention set up by Joe Biden in 2023, but Second Amendment advocates have plenty of ideas for Trump to consider.
Writing in the Washington Times, Ryan Petty and GOA’s Aidan Johnston are urging Trump to get rid of the WHOGVP and replace it with a White House Office of Violent Crime Prevention that would “inform Mr. Trump of the pro-crime, pro-illegal immigration and anti-gun policies and bureaucrats, programs and offices that will try to stymie his agenda.”
Women for Gun Rights’ Dianna Liedorff Muller has offered up a similar idea, though she’d like to see the new office focus on both firearms education and violence prevention.
While simply shuttering the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention has its appeal, especially for those of us who want to dramatically shrink the federal government’s footprint, I think it would be shortsighted to scrap the office without replacing it with something along the lines of what Petty, Liedorff Muller, and others have suggested. If nothing else, the White House is a bully pulpit, as the gun control lobby well knows, and having an office dedicated to both promoting safe and responsible gun ownership and preventing violent crime would help 2A advocates in shaping the media narrative around gun ownership and our Second Amendment rights.
By Cam Edwards
