There’s no good news for the 2nd Amendment in 2016 presidential politics

by Sam Rolley 

GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is certainly no 2nd Amendment advocate’s dream. In fact, I’m not at all uncomfortable betting he’d sign new gun control measures into law if elected.
Last week, Trump offered support for legislative actions to ban Americans placed on the government’s no-fly list from purchasing firearms. This is a policy agenda that Hillary Clinton has also vehemently endorsed.
It shouldn’t surprise you that both are on the same side of that particular issue, though. As I noted earlier this year:

Over the years, Trump has spoken out in support of so-called common sense gun control measures proposed by politicians on the left. And back in 2000, Trump blatantly stated his support for increased gun control measures in his book The America We Deserve.
“I support the ban on assault weapons and I support slightly longer waiting periods to purchase a gun,” he wrote.

The problem with supporting a push for no-fly/no-gun laws is that anyone who’s paid even a little attention to the controversy over the government’s no-fly list in recent years knows that it is tremendously flawed and inaccurate.

As the American Civil Liberties Union pointed out last week: “[T]he standards for inclusion on the No Fly List are unconstitutionally vague, and innocent people are blacklisted without a fair process to correct government error.”
The ACLU filed a lawsuit over the list in 2010 on behalf of “U.S. citizens and permanent residents who the government banned from flying to or from the U.S. or over American airspace.”
“Our clients, among them four U.S. military veterans, were never told why they were on the list or given a reasonable opportunity to get off it,” the ACLU said.
That both mainstream candidates support the idea of using this flawed list to bar people the constitutional right to bear arms is depressing. So, is there a better option?

Well, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson’s campaign says he is totally against using the list for the purpose of gun control.
“Gov. Johnson believes Second Amendment rights are too fundamental to be denied without due process, and being put on a list arbitrarily by the government is certainly not due process,” Johnson campaign communications director Joe Hunter said in a statement to The Daily Caller.
That’s good, until you consider Johnson’s running mate, former Republican Massachusetts Gov. William Weld. His gun control record is abysmal if you happen to like the 2^nd Amendment.
Here’s a nice little summary from The New York Times, circa 1993:

Mr. Weld, a Republican who will run for re-election next year, called for a statewide ban on assault weapons — a proposal he opposed during his 1990 campaign — as well as a waiting period for buying handguns and a prohibition on handgun ownership by anyone under 21. His proposed legislation would also limit the number of handguns an individual could buy and would impose tough penalties for illegal gun sales and gun-related crimes.
“The purpose of this common sense legislation is to remove deadly guns from our streets and to take weapons out of the hands of many teens who themselves are becoming deadly killers,” the Governor said.

Boy, that all sounds really familiar. It’s unlikely that a Libertarian administration would pursue a gun control agenda (it’s unlikely that we’ll ever know, too). But Weld’s recent excuse for his gun control shenanigans is still less than satisfactory.

“I was deeply concerned about gun violence, and frankly, the people I represented were demanding action,” he said. “Sometimes, governing involves tough choices, and I had to make more than a few. Today, almost 25 years later, I would make some different choices. ”
So what’s a 2^nd Amendment supporter to do?
Don’t wait around to see who’s going to be screwing up the country from the Oval Office by next year— start a healthy dialogue with your state and congressional representatives right now. Let them know gun control is non-negotiable if they want your vote. With statehouses and Capitol Hill packed with 2^nd Amendment supporters, there’s at least a chance the probable executive and judicial assault on gun rights ahead of us will be met with some balance.