We’re only a couple of months in to Donald Trump’s second term in office, and while the progress in undoing Joe Biden’s anti-2A executive actions may not be moving as quickly as we’d like, things are at least moving in the right direction.
So you can imagine my surprise when I saw a headline from Honolulu television station KHON claiming that Donald Trump is pushing to”curb gun rights” in the District of Columbia. Reporter Sandy Harjo Livingston, who authored the report, alleges that a new memo from the top federal prosecutor in D.C. reveals a sea change in how the Trump administration will treat the Second Amendment.
One of the most intense debates to characterize the United States for the last 26 years is regarding guns rights.
And while President George W. Bush’s two terms and the first presidential term of Donald Trump was characterized with holding true to the Republican push to expand how the Second Amendment is interpreted, the second presidential term for Trump is taking a decidedly different position.
According to the Washington Post, POTUS is marking certain people for prosecution. Here’s what we know so far.
The interim United States Attorney General, Ed Martin, has launched a new initiative called “Make D.C. Safe Again”. It’s an initiative that involves federal prosecutors moving to focus heavily on all firearms cases in the city. According to Martin, it’s meant to make the city safer, abandoning the “guns don’t kill people; people kill people” boilerplate response to gun violence.
That would be big news if it was true… and “if” is the key word there. As it turns out, the Washington Post did not report that the U.S. Attorney (not the Attorney General, by the way) is going to vigorously prosecute every case where someone possesses a firearm without the prerequisite permit issued by the D.C. police. Here’s what the paper actually laid out:
Martin pledged a “multi-step effort to fight all crime in D.C.,” beginning this month by charging felons caught illegally possessing firearms under federal statutes in U.S. District Court rather than with local offenses in D.C. Superior Court and ordered his office to review pending cases for potential federal gun violations.
Now, this does represent a reversal, just not from previous Republican administrations. It was under Joe Biden’s watch that federal prosecutions of gun cases in D.C. declined dramatically, and Martin’s memo indicates that moving forward, felon-in-possession cases will be tried in federal courts instead of the municipal courts in the District.
That’s hardly evidence that the Trump administration is pushing to curb gun rights in D.C., as the KHON reporter claims. At this point, it’s not even clear whether the U.S. Attorney will focus on all felon-in-possession cases, or prioritize those involving individuals previously convicted of one or more violent felonies.
We’re all used to bad reporting on 2A issues, but this feels a little different to me than simple ignorance. I don’t know if it was her intent, but Livingston’s report comes across as a blatant attempt to inflame gun owners and turn them against Trump, who ran all of his presidential campaigns on the promise of protecting our right to keep and bear arms. There’s no evidence whatsoever that Trump is going after lawful gun owners or their Second Amendment rights. Instead, this is just part of the law-and-order approach to fighting violent crime that Trump talks about all the time.
That could always change in the future, of course, but that hypothetical doesn’t change the fact that KHON is misleading its viewers and readers about the effort to make D.C safe again and what that entails. Martin’s memo offers no reason for lawful gun owners to be concerned, but violent felons who choose to illegally carry a gun should be aware that the Trump administration isn’t interested in continuing Joe Biden’s strategy of avoiding federal prosecution and stiffer sentences whenever possible.
Read the full article here
