Massie’s Second Amendment Record: Pro-Gun, Pro-Due Process, and Pro-Constitution
Rep. Thomas Massie’s Second Amendment record is getting renewed attention as Kentucky voters head into a hard-fought Republican primary in the 4th Congressional District. The race pits Massie against Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein, but for gun owners, the more important question is not the campaign noise. It is whether Massie has actually fought for the right to keep and bear arms. On that point, his record is unusually clear.
Plenty of Republicans talk a good game on the Second Amendment when campaign season rolls around. Fewer are willing to file serious pro-gun legislation, challenge federal gun-control machinery, and take heat from the establishment when a so-called “pro-gun” package comes loaded with poison pills.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is one of the few who has built a real record on those fights.
Massie has represented Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District since 2012 and currently serves on the House Judiciary Committee, which puts him directly in the middle of the federal fights over firearms, civil liberties, and the administrative state. He is also not just another name on a caucus roster. In 2016, Massie launched the Congressional Second Amendment Caucus, a group formed to push meaningful firearms legislation and oppose new infringements on gun owners. Recently, Massie told senators that the Second Amendment exists as a check on tyranny.
Massie has several Second Amendment bills in play that cut straight at the federal gun-control architecture: constitutional carry, handgun rights for young adults, repeal of the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act, and transparency around NICS denials.
The NRA Grade Does Not Tell the Whole Story
One of the more interesting things about Massie’s record is the split between how different gun-rights groups view him.
Gun Owners of America gave Massie an A+ in its 2024 voter guide, its top rating for a pro-gun leader. GOA’s own grading system says an A+ is reserved for someone who does more than simply cast the right votes — it is for lawmakers who carry pro-gun bills, work with pro-gun groups, and publicly lead on the issue.
The NRA-PVF, by contrast, currently lists Massie with a B rating in Kentucky’s 4th District. That may sound odd to gun owners who know Massie’s record, but the reason appears to be less about whether Massie supports the Second Amendment and more about whether he supports the NRA’s Washington strategy.
The clearest example came in 2017, when House leadership moved to combine national concealed-carry reciprocity with the Fix NICS Act. Massie supported reciprocity, but he objected to jamming it together with a bill he said would expand the background-check database and empower administrative agencies to affect gun rights without proper court process. His position was simple: vote on reciprocity and Fix NICS separately. Don’t use one pro-gun bill as political cover for a federal database expansion.
Massie is not a “take the deal and call it a win” Republican when the deal grows federal power over gun owners. For some organizations, that makes him difficult to work with. For Second Amendment absolutists, it makes him valuable.
GOA proudly supports Rep. Thomas Massie for reelection in Kentucky.
Massie is a patriot, a gun owner, and one of the strongest defenders of 2A rights in Congress.
If you know anyone in his KY district, make sure they get out and vote for Massie today! pic.twitter.com/5nSu7EMsUZ
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) May 19, 2026
National Constitutional Carry
Massie’s biggest current Second Amendment bill is the National Constitutional Carry Act, H.R. 645.
This is not just a permit reciprocity bill. Reciprocity says states should recognize each other’s carry permits. Constitutional carry says peaceable Americans should not need government permission to exercise a constitutional right in the first place.
Massie introduced H.R. 645 on Jan. 23, 2025. The bill would prohibit states and local governments from imposing criminal or civil penalties on eligible individuals who carry firearms in public. In plain English, the bill targets the blue-state and blue-city game of turning the right to bear arms into a paperwork trap for ordinary citizens.
Massie’s office describes the bill as an effort to protect Americans’ right to carry firearms in public spaces across the country. Sen. Mike Lee has also introduced a Senate version, giving the proposal a bicameral push.
This is the kind of legislation Republicans should be moving when they control Congress. Not with another hearing. But, a clean bill saying the government does not get to turn the Second Amendment into a privilege slip.
The SAFER Voter Act: If You Can Vote, You Can Buy a Handgun
Massie has also reintroduced the SAFER Voter Act, H.R. 1643, which addresses one of the most absurd restrictions in federal gun law: the ban on licensed dealers selling handguns to adults under 21.
Federal law treats 18-, 19-, and 20-year-old adults as old enough to vote, serve in the military, pay taxes, and be prosecuted as adults, but not old enough to buy a handgun from a federally licensed firearms dealer. Massie’s bill would reduce that age from 21 to 18. His office says the legislation is aimed at repealing the federal restriction that blocks voting-age adults from purchasing handguns from FFLs.
The constitutional problem is obvious. The Second Amendment does not say “the right of the people over 21.” Young adults are part of “the people.” They have the same basic right to self-defense as everyone else.
Massie’s bill also fits the broader legal moment. The Fifth Circuit has already confronted the federal handgun-sale restriction for 18-to-20-year-old adults in Reese v. ATF, identifying the law as a direct burden on young adults seeking to purchase handguns from licensed dealers.
The SAFER Voter Act is a clean answer: stop treating legal adults as second-class citizens when they try to exercise an enumerated constitutional right.
The Safe Students Act: Repealing the Federal Gun-Free School Zones Act
Massie’s Safe Students Act, H.R. 5066, takes aim at another failed federal gun-control relic: the Gun-Free School Zones Act.
Massie reintroduced the bill in August 2025. His office says it would repeal the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 and eliminate the one-size-fits-all federal ban on guns in school zones, allowing states, local governments, and school boards to set policy instead. The bill text does exactly that by striking 18 U.S.C. § 922(q), the federal school-zone firearm provision.
This is where Massie’s record cuts against one of Washington’s favorite myths. “Gun-free zone” does not mean safe zone. It often means the law-abiding are disarmed while the violent ignore the sign.
The Safe Students Act does not force one policy on every school in America. It removes a federal mandate and lets decisions be made closer to home. That is exactly how a constitutional republic is supposed to work.
NICS Data Reporting Act: Sunlight on False Denials
Massie’s newest Second Amendment-related measure is the NICS Data Reporting Act of 2026, H.R. 2267.
The bill passed the House by unanimous voice vote on May 12, 2026, according to Massie’s office. It requires the attorney general to report aggregate demographic data on people determined to be ineligible to purchase a firearm through NICS. Massie said the system produces too many false denials and argued that more transparency is needed to determine whether NICS is unfairly blocking Americans from exercising their rights.
After House passage, the bill was received in the Senate and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
This bill is narrower than Massie’s constitutional carry or Gun-Free School Zones repeal legislation. It does not abolish NICS. It does not gut the background-check system. But it does force the federal government to produce data about who is being denied and whether the system is producing patterns that deserve scrutiny.
That is a useful fight. Gun owners have heard for years that NICS is clean, fair, and necessary. If that is true, the government should have no problem showing its work. If it is not true, Congress and the public deserve to know how many lawful citizens are being wrongly blocked by a federal system that already puts the burden on the buyer.
Massie’s Real Record
Massie’s Second Amendment record is not built around soft talking points. It is built around a few consistent principles.
First, the right to keep and bear arms belongs to the people, not to government licensing offices. That is the logic behind national constitutional carry.
Second, legal adults should not be treated as constitutional minors. That is the logic behind the SAFER Voter Act.
Third, federal gun-free zones are not serious security policy. They are political symbols that leave good people disarmed. That is the logic behind the Safe Students Act.
Fourth, federal firearm databases and background-check systems deserve suspicion, not blind trust. That is the logic behind his opposition to the Fix NICS package and his current push for NICS denial data.
This is why the NRA’s B rating should not be read as proof that Massie is weak on guns. If anything, it highlights the difference between establishment gun politics and a more hardline constitutional approach. Massie is willing to vote against a package labeled “pro-gun” if he believes the fine print expands federal power over gun owners.
For AmmoLand readers, that is not a defect. That is the job.
Massie is in the middle of a hard-fought Republican primary in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, with voters heading to the polls today, May 19, 2026. His challenger, Ed Gallrein, has been backed by President Trump, and national media have framed the race largely around Massie’s willingness to break with Trump and Republican leadership on major issues.
That is exactly why gun owners should look past the campaign noise and examine the record. On the Second Amendment, Massie has not been a back-bencher or a fair-weather vote. He has carried serious pro-gun legislation, challenged federal gun-control machinery, pushed constitutional carry, defended young adults’ right to buy handguns, and opposed federal “gun-free zone” policy.
Massie’s race may be about many things for many voters. But for Second Amendment voters, the relevant question is simple: has he fought to restore gun rights, or merely talked about them?
Massie is on the ballot now, and his Second Amendment record deserves to be judged on the bills he has filed, the fights he has taken, and the gun-control compromises he has refused to accept.
Gun owners do not have to agree with Thomas Massie on every political fight to recognize what his record shows: on the Second Amendment, he has been one of the House members willing to push past slogans and go after the federal restrictions directly.
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About Duncan Johnson:
Duncan Johnson is a lifelong firearms enthusiast and unwavering defender of the Second Amendment—where “shall not be infringed” means exactly what it says. A graduate of George Mason University, he enjoys competing in local USPSA and multi-gun competitions whenever he’s not covering the latest in gun rights and firearm policy. Duncan is a regular contributor to AmmoLand News and serves as part of the editorial team responsible for AmmoLand’s daily gun-rights reporting and industry coverage.