With Trump’s victory last night, hopefully he has forestalled the slow steady decline we’ve witnessed over the last few decades of our Second Amendment and our other God-given civil rights listed in the US Constitution, the supreme law of our lands. We have all have been watching and felt the erosion.
We are not alone in this concern, as we have seen record gun and ammunition sales set new records every month recently according to FBI background check statistics, which does not include private sales or transfers among the lawful general public and within families passing down through the generations preserving our American tradition of gun ownership and use.
A Clinton/Democratic win would have seen the challenge and weakening of the landmark Heller Decision, a furthering of gun importation and ammunition restrictions, an assault on domestic gun manufacturing and their protection from frivolous lawsuits, as well as the stacking of the US Supreme Court with anti-second amendment justices if the Republican majority in the Senate continue to fail to do their job correctly (approving questionable presidential nominations) as we have seen many times over the last eight years.
In watching California’s draconian SB-53 (background checks for ammunition purchases) pass easily by the voters yesterday shows how our gun rights still hang precariously in some other states, but here in Idaho the citizens, lawmakers and our local law enforcement continue to support our right to keep and bear arms. Also, the Idaho Constitution is pretty specific as worded in Article 1, Section 11: “No law shall impose licensure, registration or special taxation on the ownership or possession of firearms or ammunition.” Through the passage of some relatively recent Bills, like S1332 that has been incorporated into Idaho Statutes, Title 18, Chapter 33, Section 3315B. California’s only hope on this issue is either that the Governor vetoes the law, or if he fails to act, gun owners and their legal organizations are able to have the law overruled in the courts, which isn’t likely.
Given Trump’s history with gun control issues, and his newfound support for the Second Amendment, we’ll be watching closely for the next 4 years. “The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance”, so let’s take a short break and then keep working with our elected and unelected officials to maintain our natural right.
