4 Biggest Second Amendment Fights on 2018 Horizon

With 2018 underway Breitbart News thought it wise to point out four Second Amendment fights that the House and Senate need to address sooner rather than later.

Some of these fights are issues that were undertaken but not secured in 2017, things like national reciprocity and the Hearing Protection Act. Others are things that came up and need to be defeated. These would include things like the backdoor push for bump stock gun control.

The bottom line—there are things to be done in defense of the Second Amendment now.

National Reciprocity—National reciprocity for concealed carry passed the House on December 6, 2017. It was introduced by Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) on January 3, 2017, then sat idly until conservatives were able to overcome Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) stonewalling. Now it has gone to the Senate, where it sat idly throughout December, as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) busied himself with other things. National reciprocity must be the number one priority in 2018 for supporters of the Second Amendment, as it will fix the cumbersome patchwork of laws that concealed carry permit holders currently face as they travel.

Repeal of Gun Ban for Military Veterans—On March 16, 2017, the House voted to repeal the gun ban for military veterans. The ban is structured in a manner similar to Barack Obama’s Social Security gun ban inasmuch as it allows bureaucrats to flag military disability recipients who require help with their finances. Those flagged recipients are then turned over to the National Instance Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and barred from purchasing firearms for self-defense. Although the House voted to repeal the ban, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his colleagues never took up the measure for a vote.

Hearing Protection Act—The Hearing Protection Act was introduced in the House on January 9, 2017. The measure is designed to remove suppressors from the purview of the National Firearms Act (1934). Contrary to the left’s scare tactics, the Hearing Protection Act is not about making suppressors legal, as they are already legal in over 40 states. Rather, the Hearing Protection Act would simply make the devices less difficult for law-abiding citizens to acquire. The Act would accomplish this by removing the requirements that suppressor purchasers submit fingerprints and photographs of themselves, and would also remove the registration requirement and $200 federal tax for suppressor owners. The Hearing Protection Act was days away from a vote on House floor in early October but Speaker Ryan shelved the bill, providing no insight into when he might allow the measure to come up for a vote.

Defeat of Elitist Push for Bump Stock Ban—Elitists within Congress and without have been pushing a ban on the firearm accessories known as “bump stocks” ever since they were criminally used by the Las Vegas attacker. In other words, one criminal misused the accessories on October 1, and Senators and House members who admitted to not even knowing what bump stocks were piled on for more gun control. The Senators who voiced support for legislation or bump stock hearings included John Cornyn (R-TX), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Charles Grassley (R-IA). House members supporting action against bump stocks include Reps. Bill Flores (R-TX), Kevin Yoder (R-KS), Mark Meadows (R-NC), and Carlos Curbelo (R-FL). The DOJ is now quietly doing the biding of elitists in Congress and without by pushing to redefine terms in the National Firearms Act (1934), so as to allow bump stocks to be reclassified and banned. Gun Owners of America vows to fight tooth and nail against a bump stock ban.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.