“With Republicans like these, who needs Democrats to destroy the Second Amendment?”
I wasn’t surprised by how this unfolded. Did any of us really expect it to go any differently than it went?
An excellent article that I encourage everyone to read in full.
The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) fought off a lot of competition for the media’s center stage, from an ongoing conflict in Ukraine to munitions exchanges between Israel and Iran. In doing so, we witnessed significant fatigue in America’s patience with out-of-control government spending on programs that do not benefit the taxpayer. Additionally, the reconciliation bill was an opportunity to correct course on the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), an unconstitutional infringement upon gun rights hidden in the tax code almost a century ago when lawmakers knew that treating it any other way would trigger a violation of the Second Amendment, a caution thrown to the wind in today’s political cesspool. As such, conservatives gathered the fruit of grassroots efforts to champion the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) and the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today (SHORT) Act, but it seems we’ll have to postpone the rewards of that harvest for a later date, if ever, thanks to the telling inaction and betrayal by Vice President JD Vance and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
The HPA, in its entirety, survived the House Ways and Means Committee with language that removed firearm silencers completely from NFA regulation; however, continued phone calls and emails urging Representatives to stand firm for the voice of their constituents ultimately resulted in the Senate adding the SHORT Act to the OBBB, effectively removing short barreled rifle (SBR), Short Barreled Shotgun (SBS), and any other weapon (AOW), from the definitions of firearms regulated under the almost century-old draconian gun regulation.
One final step remained before sending the bill to the President’s desk, the “Byrd Bath,” a reference to the process whereby the Senate Parliamentarian reviews a reconciliation bill to ensure compliance with the Byrd Rule. Named after the late Senator Robert Byrd, this rule restricts what can be included in reconciliation bills, ensuring they primarily address budgetary matters rather than extraneous provisions. Unfortunately, the current parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, a Democrat appointed by Harry Reid in 2012, does not shy away from corrupt partisan activism, treating the position as one of an unelected saboteur.
By Darwin Nercesian
