GOA’s Pratt Urges Congress to Step Up on Gun Rights or Risk Midterms

Gun Owners of America bills itself as a no-compromise gun rights organization, and they were a massive part of why we got what we got out of the One Big, Beautiful Bill concerning the Second Amendment. They weren’t alone, necessarily, but they fought hard, and we all saw it.

Now, with the midterms coming up, a lot of gun rights supporters are wondering what happened to everything else we voted for. Yeah, we got a few wins from the White House, but we also got a couple of Ls from there, too. From Congress, we’ve gotten nothing but a watered-down version of the bills we all wanted as they were written.

And this is with a Republican majority.

So that brought GOA’s Erich Pratt to Washington.

Erich Pratt, the senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee that Congress must repeal all of the Biden administration’s gun control measures if they want to win back the gun vote in the upcoming midterm elections. Pratt argued that the Second Amendment is about preserving freedom, not just hunting or sport, and that the current administration’s policies are infringing on constitutional rights.

Why it matters

This testimony highlights the ongoing political battle over gun rights and the importance of the gun-owning voting bloc. The Republican party has traditionally courted this group, and Pratt’s comments suggest they risk losing that support if they don’t take action to roll back Biden-era gun regulations.

The details

In his testimony, Pratt criticized the Biden administration for defending various gun control measures in court, including rules on pistol braces, the ‘engaged in the business’ regulation, and the frame and receiver rule. He called for Congress to ‘repeal every federal infringement’ on the Second Amendment and to abolish the ATF. Pratt argued that the right to bear arms is about preserving freedom, not just hunting or sport.

He argued that the right to bear arms is about preserving freedom because it’s about preserving freedom. Hunting and sporting uses are covered, sure, but that’s not what it was about, as is clear from the Founding Fathers’ own words at the time.

But is Pratt right about gun owners not turning out in the midterms?

I mean, yeah, actually.

Look, if we’re not going to get what we voted for from this bunch of yahoos, why should we care all that much if they retain their seats? What good are they doing us right now?

Oh, some will turn out still because there are other issues that matter, and I’m one of them, but a lot of people won’t really worry about it on election day because maybe it’s their day to remove toe jam or they really wanted to binge watch Gilmore Girls or something. 

The truth is that this Congress has had the opportunity to act. They’ve had coming up on two years to pass measures and get them signed by a relatively pro-gun administration, and they’ve done practically nothing except neuter the one thing they had a real chance of getting through. A lot of us are disgusted.

There’s a difference between being pro-gun and anti-gun control. Far too many Republicans, who like to frame themselves as pro-gun, are really anti-gun control. There’s a place and a time for that, especially when that’s the best you can hope for anyway, but we’ve got a golden opportunity and so far, they’ve blown it.

They’ve still got time to step up and repeal the Biden-era rules once and for all, thus barring the next Democrat in the Oval Office from reviving any that Trump has tossed, but if they don’t, they can’t be shocked if single-issue gun rights voters just stay home.

Gun rights is a litmus test to see if candidates value freedom. Right now, far too many are getting a failing grade in my book.

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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