Pro-2A Voters Need to See Results Before 2026 Midterm Elections
As I write this, we are fast approaching the 2026 midterm elections. Sounds like a lot of time, but it’s not.
The conventional wisdom says Congress changes parties at the midterms. With the razor-thin margins Republicans hold now, damage control has to be a priority.
There’s a four-seat majority in the House; all 435 seats are up for grabs. Fifty-one representatives are retiring or leaving to run for other offices. The majority of them are Republican.
There’s a six-seat majority in the Senate. However, that includes at least two RINOs (Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski), who can be counted on to join the Democrats on 2A issues.
Thirteen Democrats and 20 Republicans are retiring. Mitch McConnell is among them, but that probably won’t keep the Senate Red. It may well be the best strategy is to do everything in our power to prevent the Democrats from winning 60 seats.
Gun owners and pro-Second Amendment advocates made a difference in the 2024 general election. According to the 2021 National Firearms Survey, there are about 81.4 million gun owners in the United States. Out of a population of 342 million, that doesn’t seem like much, but looking at data from the 2022 midterms, that 81.4 million would equal more than 72% of the total number of ballots counted.
After four years of possibly the most anti-gun administration in history, Donald Trump pledged to support the Second Amendment, undo the damage done by Biden, Harris, & Co., and recover gun rights in general.
Being the most 2A-friendly administration in U.S. history wasn’t much of a challenge. Based on the past 100 years, simply doing nothing would have ensured a ranking near the top.
The President made a good start right out of the gate, though there was concern about his choice of Pam Bondi as Attorney General. When she was Florida’s AG, she had a very uneven track record on 2A issues.
Bondi’s bad habits followed her from Tallahassee to Washington. Over the past year, she’s taken a lot of the shine off of the administration’s 2A claims by her inconsistent and sometimes perplexing positions.
When the DOJ opposed dropping the registration and approval requirements for short-barreled rifles and shotguns, it argued that the NFA tax still produced revenue for the federal government. But that revenue came from an entirely different tax.
There is no longer any revenue from the transfer tax on SBRs and SBSs. The Supreme Court ruled the National Firearms Act was a revenue measure nearly 89 years ago. Without the tax, there is no reason to impose the processes intended to ensure compliance and payment of the tax.
To be sure, the Trump Administration, including Pam Bondi, has done more to secure gun rights than any administration in recent memory. However, disappointment often has a greater impact than satisfaction on public perceptions: It certainly generates more traffic on social media.
The current Congress can’t pass gas, let alone any pro-2A legislation. The Supreme Court seems to be content to smile benignly on lower courts’ defiance of its decisions. The burden of inspiring pro-2A voters to show up at the polls falls squarely on President Trump, the actions of his administration, and the efforts of pro-gun groups and gun owners to persuade them to get back on track.
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About Bill Cawthon
Bill Cawthon first became a gun owner 55 years ago. He has been an active advocate for Americans’ civil liberties for more than a decade. He is the information director for the Second Amendment Society of Texas.