DOJ advises ATF to ban braces.

[Kramer]

Silencers and national reciprocity were pipe dreams at best and were never going to happen.
Just sayin'.

I concur 100%

Silencers have been regulated since 1934 and they will not change that cuz it works for them. As far as national reciprocity goes, if sworn and trained law enforcement officers don't have that ability, it won't happen for us.

[internet troll]

Even if your premise is true, that does not excuse President Donald J. Trump's abysmal record on the RKBA/2A.

In my opinion, supporters of President Trump should stop giving him a pass for his 2A failures.

Actions speak louder than words.

Name one major accomplishment (gain of liberty, or repeal of a restriction) in the RKBA/2A arena by President Trump.

I will not be holding my breath.

Honestly when Trump was running many of us did it for the Supreme Court and figured anything else would be the the icing on the cake. Low standards but the alternate was Hillary. Basically voting for Trump was a defensive move more than anything else.

I doubt any truly pro gun people were happy about bump stocks. To some they don*t seem like a big deal but giving even an inch to antis hurt. You are right, It does not matter if he got advice from the NRA, or others said hey this will be fine..... in the end it was his decision to give the atf the go ahead to redefine things and that set a bad precedent. Trump gets the praise for positive decisions and acts (what he did in the Middle East is vastly understated imo), the buck stops with him when it comes to bump stocks.

But on the whole the 2nd won with Trump in office. I*ve said this many times recently, unless the Senate had a filibuster proof majority for pro gun legislation.... no amount of hope, whining, bitching or complaining would get pro gun legislation passed even with the Presidency, house and a simple majority in the Senate unless the Republicans did the nuclear option on legislative votes which i am glad they did not do and hope democrats do not do. When it comes to gun legislation they always needed 60 votes in the Senate. Anyone who understand the legislative process knows this. (Side note: It still pisses me off that after hundreds of years democrats and republicans have been eliminating the filibuster for judges over the last decade fundamentally changing a fail safe built into the Senate. I honestly fear the effect doing this for voting will have on the country. It could be the straw that finally breaks the camels back. )

I say the 2nd won with Trump in office for a few reasons.

1. Judges. He got to replace 3 Supreme Court Judges. That is huge. You can have all the questions you want about them right now. But if Hillary had won she would have replaced at least two judges. Replacing Scalia alone would have swung the courts in an extreme anti direction. McConnell for all his negatives was huge in holding off on that vote until after the 2016 election. Between Scalia*s replacement, Roberts and a wishy washy Kennedy on top of the Obama appointments we would be screwed right now. No if ands or buts. The Senate has enough wishy washy Republicans that they probably would have passed a Hillary replacement for Scalia based on their principals and saying that the president has the right to appoint who he sees fit, they are only there to advise. (Romney, Murkowski etc.....). It still amazes me how lucky we are Ginsberg did not step down during Obamas presidency.

2. Judges. On top of the Supreme Court Trump filled in 200 or so federal judge positions. Early on I was checking the positions on the 2nd of the judges and was happy with what I was seeing. I stopped checking a while ago but again, better him than Hillary.

3. Nevada, Orlando, Parkland etc..... If any one of these had occurred under Hillary she would have used the bully pulpit to press for gun control. With all the shootings it would have been a full court press against the 2nd. Would she have been able to do anything with the Senate in Republican hands? I don*t know. There is a chance they would have resisted pressure and not voted for more gun control. But there is also a good chance that with the presidents bully pulpit, a full court press from the media and Hollywood, pressure from constituents after the aftermath of Las Vegas and Parkland that they would have succumbed to the pressure and voted against the 2nd.

Just as importantly, if Hillary had won the current mess we are facing with ammo and firearm prices/availability would have started years earlier. Supporters of the 2nd had a virtual Panacea under Trump. It*s given many us a chance to take advantage of low prices to stock up. Heck I was able to build a freaking ar pistol for under $250. We would not have had that with Hillary.

Realistically a vote for Trump was never really about going on the offense with the 2nd. Unfortunately the bar was much lower than that. Check threads around here from 2016 and many of us were saying vote Trump for the Supreme Court. We got Trump and until proven otherwise I think the picks he put into place will do the 2nd justice and certainly better than any Hillary pick. It also gave Kennedy a chance to bow out. He may have stayed on until after the 2020 election.... and would be getting replaced by Harris.... I mean Biden.

Other than that Trump was a defensive pick. And I think that 4 years later it was a good pick overall and that the 2nd is in better shape than it would have been with Hillary in charge.