Keep right on talking Chuck…….
Dem Senate leader Chuck Schumer mocks Americans who want to keep their hard-earned income and praises the government as a “barrier” to them:
“You know what their attitude is, ‘I made my money all by myself. How dare your government take my money from me?’ … They hate… pic.twitter.com/vb4oDxPQ3V— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 18, 2025
WINNING: CA Democrat Withdraws His Own Anti-Self Defense Bill in State Assembly
In a victory for common sense, human rights, and the Second Amendment, a California Democrat assemblyman, Rick Zbur, has withdrawn his own bill, which would have gutted legal protections for innocent citizens who use force in self-defense.
AB 1333 is Dead: Assemblyman Zbur Withdraws Bill Limiting Self-Defense.
‘If the bill was supposed to stop vigilantes, then why did so many law enforcement officials denounce it?@CaliforniaGlobe https://t.co/vixOKRoNTg pic.twitter.com/ATZ03H9JJM
— California Globe (@CaliforniaGlobe) March 13, 2025
The California Globe has more details on AB 1333:
Assemblyman Rick Zbur (D-Los Angeles) announced late on Wednesday that he would be withdrawing his new self-defense limitation bill following significant public backlash and confusing language in the bill.
Assembly Bill 1333, which was introduced last month, would have eliminated certain circumstances under which homicide is justifiable, including, among others, in defense of a habitation or property. The bill would have also additionally clarified circumstances in which homicide is not justifiable, including, among others, when a person uses more force than necessary to defend against a danger.
Zbur said that AB 1333 would simply close a “legal loophole” over public confrontations and then claiming self-defense. However, AB 1333 instead sparking public outrage. Many pointed out that the bill would severely limit self defense against crime and leave open questions into when homicide was and wasn’t legal.
In non-political speech, this law could have implemented serious legal dangers, with one GOP assemblyman calling it a “complete assault on self defense.” Both Republicans and Democrats balked, forcing Zbur to withdraw the bill:
“This bill is a complete assault on self defense!” said Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) last month. “Imagine this: A violent criminal breaks into your home, and YOU have to second-guess whether defending your family is ‘justifiable.’ The misguided energy behind this proposal is beyond comprehension.”
Flooded with criticism from both Republicans and some Democrats, Zbur swiftly responded on X, saying that he wanted to target vigilantes and that AB 1333 would be amended soon to clarify the bill language.
As with so many poorly thought-out gun and self-defense laws, this proposal would never have any effect on criminals but would only serve to place innocent citizens in the position to choose between suffering a criminal attack or suffering legal hassles and possible jail time.
The demoncraps thought they had him pinned down, but like Antaeus who regained his strength when he touched the earth, Trump grew more powerful. He has mentally broken them.
The problem is that the insane often are quite dangerous
Democrats Locked in Their Own Hell
What is the Democrat message? Do they even know?
Is the Democrat message pure Jacobin hatred for anything pro-American and anything that could be considered pro-President Donald Trump?
They’re feral creatures now, lonely, isolated, frightened without leadership, desperate for relevance, without any cogent message, terrified at what’s to become of them.
And quite mad, like inmates in Victorian lunatic asylum.
The other day Democrat pundit Chris Matthews appeared on a “Morning Joe” panel on left-wing MSNBC. He skipped the old Trump is Hitler shtick, ranting instead that Trump was Mussolini. He might as well have channeled the lunatic Renfield from an old Dracula movie, laughing maniacally, chanting “the blood is the life! the blood is the life!”
Some kind soul might tell Matthews and other MSNBC attention seekers that the blood of rats and birds and flies are not the life. Nor is jabbering paranoia. For political parties, votes are the life. And they keep losing them. Americans appeal to common sense, not to mad ravings.
Long ago, the Democrat Party had a choice:
Cleanse themselves of their Barack Obama infection, cleanse themselves of Obama’s racist and radical addiction to racial preferences that we now know as DEI, amputate any limbs that had become sodden with jacobin gangrene and become what they had been: a patriotic American party of the American working class.
Or, they could continue following the discredited Clintons and Obamas down the sewer.
The Democrats chose the sewer.
MSNBC Panel: Democrats Really FUBAR’d the Moment, Huh?
Ya think?
Give credit to Symone Sanders and Michael Steele for being honest about Democrats’ abject strategic and tactical failures last night. But also consider the fact that they had little choice in the matter, after watching Democrats as a body soil the sheets on national TV.
“Republicans were not coming to play,” Steele noted, as though anything about Donald Trump’s triumphant return after four years of Democrat lawfare suggested anything different. Not to mention that the Democrats had spent the better part of two days leaking plans to organize disruptions to Trump’s speech to Congress, which at one point included noisemakers as well as “bingo signs,” which were every bit as stupid as Sanders and Steele describe. (Wait until the meme-makers get done with them. Those won’t be back.)
But none of the panel truly gets what went wrong for Democrats last night:
Symone Sanders and Michael Steele HATED the Democrats’ “bingo signs.”
SANDERS: “This is an indictment, in my opinion, on the Democratic leadership… The visuals are not taking back the House in 2026.”
STEELE: “I don’t know who thought up the bingo signs, but they should be… pic.twitter.com/oi89ZQBg4V
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 5, 2025
Put aside the complaint that Al Green was somehow treated unfairly or differently than Lauren Boebert or Marjorie Taylor Greene. (Take that complaint to Nancy Pelosi, who sat through last night’s speech looking utterly defeated.) Republicans knew better than to stage an organized food fight at a State of the Union or quasi-SOTU event. Why? Because presidents have the tactical and strategic advantage, especially when his party controls Congress.
James Carville used the analogy of Pickett’s Charge recently. For those who haven’t studied Gettysburg, Pickett’s Charge lost Robert E. Lee the battle and the war by ordering an infantry charge on the center of a fortified Union line across nearly a mile of open ground, on the military basis of We’re right and they’re not. Pickett’s forces — some of them — actually made it to the line, but his command was destroyed, and Lee was forced to retreat from then until Appomattox.
That’s exactly what happened last night, and it’s even more inexplicable than Lee’s decision at Gettysburg. The American people rejected Democrats and chose Trump despite four or even nine straight years of exactly this kind of attack on him. Trump triumphed over the ankle-biting as well as the lawfare, and despite the character assassinations Democrats have staged on Trump and his supporters. The last place to use those same strategies and tactics is in a place where Trump easily commands the high ground — cameras, the microphone, and the attention — especially since it has been blindingly clear that he loves doing battle.
Steele suggested that Democrats shouldn’t have shown up at all. That would have been a bad choice too; it would have made them look like absconders rather than responsible legislators, only willing to participate in civic duties when they’re in charge. It still would have been a better choice than what unfolded last night. To answer McCaskill’s question more fully, they should have sat quietly, gotten it over with, and afterward started listening more than talking. Instead, they sounded like unruly radicals, and acted like fools.
If they would stop emoting and start listening, they might understand why a new CBS poll shows that three out of every four viewers approved of Trump’s speech, even though only 51% of the viewers identified as Republicans. It’s because Trump used the speech to position himself on the 80% side of the 80/20 issues Americans care most about:
– 77% support his plan to cut government waste and spending
– 77% back his immigration and border policies
– 76% approve of Trump’s speech
– 76% approve of removing congressmen who interrupted his speech
– 74% say his speech was presidential
– 73% support his stance on Russia and Ukraine
– 68% say it made them feel hopeful and proud
– 68% say he has a clear plan to tackle inflation
– 68% say he accurately described America’s crime crisis
– 63% say he focused on issues they care about
In other words, Trump set a trap for Democrats who couldn’t have telegraphed their foolish strategy and tactics more loudly than if they’d exhumed Samuel Morse himself to do it. And Democrat leadership — not the Boeberts and the MTGs, but party leadership — led them on a Pickett’s Charge right into it, with crazy Al Green waving his walking stick to lead the charge.
Now Democrats look like a party that can’t even break free of their toxic Trump derangement long enough to stand for a child suffering from brain cancer, or a young man whose dream of serving his country through West Point has come true. Democrats are utterly lost because they stand for nothing except raw power to benefit themselves, and only themselves. And without any other real purpose, the only strategy that they can see is to stupidly charge at all times under the military doctrine of We’re right and they’re not.
Maybe they should learn from history rather than trying to edit it.
Trump Skips Guns in First Congressional Speech of Second Term
President Donald Trump did not mention gun policy once in what turned out to be the longest address to a joint session of Congress in history.
On Tuesday, Trump gave an hour-and-45-minute speech to the House and Senate. While he covered a myriad of topics during the marathon session, he did not make even a passing mention of gun policy.
That continues a trend of Trump downplaying guns in favor of other issues during his campaign and the early months of his second term.
The lack of attention to firearms during his congressional address, despite its length, mirrors Trump’s hour-and-a-half-long RNC keynote speech, where he also ducked the issue. It also follows him skipping out on gun executive orders during his day-one push to jumpstart his agenda. The White House then left gun rights off its literal priority list.
Trump had promised to enact a series of pro-gun reforms during his first week in office but failed to deliver on that timeline.
“Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated my very first week back in office,” Trump said during a speech to NRA members last February.
However, Trump does have a concrete move he could have highlighted in the speech. He followed up those early moves by ordering a review of the executive branch’s approach to gun policy, especially federal rules established during the Biden Administration. So, he may still fulfill his promise to NRA members in the long run.
“The Second Amendment is an indispensable safeguard of security and liberty,” the executive order said. “It has preserved the right of the American people to protect ourselves, our families, and our freedoms since the founding of our great Nation. Because it is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans, the right to keep and bear arms must not be infringed.”
While the order only tells Attorney General Pam Bondi to review policies, it lays out most priority areas the gun-rights movement has focused on for years. It has the potential to uproot most of the restrictions the Biden Administration imposed through executive actions and transform the federal government’s legal position in gun cases.
Bondi, who has faced criticism from gun-rights advocates over her history of backing some gun restrictions, will have some say over which policies to change. How big the administration decides to go on reforming those policies could determine whether gun-rights advocates remain on board with Trump’s presidency.
Trump’s speech was a killer….literally
Newly Elected Congressman Dead Hours After Attending President Trump’s Speech
A U.S. Congressman has died just hours after sitting in attendance during President Trump’s address before Congress last night.
U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner had just won the 2024 election to take the seat left vacant by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who passed away last year.
Rep. Turner had attended President Trump’s address before being taken to the hospital last night.
He was 70 years old at the time of his passing.
A spokesperson for the Congressman said that he was taken to the hospital sometime after President Trump’s address.
He later died this morning at his home, according to the Associated Press:
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas has died two months after taking office and hours after attending President Donald Trump’s address before Congress in Washington, D.C., officials said on Wednesday. He was 70.
Linda Brown, a spokesperson for Turner, said he was taken to a hospital and died at his home on Wednesday morning after being released.
His cause of death was not immediately known.
“The House Democratic Caucus family is shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of Congressman Sylvester Turner. Though he was newly elected to the Congress, Rep. Turner had a long and distinguished career in public service and spent decades fighting for the people of Houston,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement.
Turner was elected in November, filling the seat that had been held by longtime U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who died last July after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Okay. This is him entering the race for POTUS in ’28.
FL Gov. DeSantis Comes Out Swinging for 2A in ‘State of State’ Address
The governor’s full address
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came out swinging in defense of the Second Amendment during his annual State of the State address Tuesday before the Legislature, declaring, “We need to be a strong Second Amendment state.”
Florida leads the way in licensed concealed carry, but in recent years, in the aftermath of the tragic 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the state adopted some laws which DeSantis would like to see rolled back.
He also proposed offering a “Second Amendment Summer” sales tax “holiday” on the purchase of “firearms, ammo and accoutrements.”
“I know a lot of people in the state will appreciate that,” said DeSantis, a Republican who likely still has an eye on running one day for the presidency.
In remarks certain to make gun prohibitionists bristle, DeSantis told Sunshine State lawmakers in Tallahassee, “The free state of Florida has not exactly led the way on protecting Second Amendment rights. We have some of the more weak laws on the country compared to our other states who consider themselves conservative.
“I would ask you to protect people’s Second Amendment rights,” the governor said. “Look back in instances where legislation may have been passed in recent years, such as shifting the burden on red flag laws, such as taking away the right of young adults to purchase firearms, such as limiting somebody’s ability to both keep and to bear arms as our Constitution does.”
Thomas Jefferson had some things to say about goobermint gone tyrant:
When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.
When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.
and last, but not in anyway least:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
Rep. Jamie Rankin Beclowned Himself in Opening Remarks at Gun Hearing
Rep. Jamie Rankin isn’t going to be on the Christmas card list of any gun rights group you care to name. He’s a vehement anti-gunner and that’s where his bread is buttered. That’s not going to change.
Which is fine, I suppose. He’s in the minority right now, so all he can do is bloviate and then sit there and be impotent in his gun rights animosity.
But bloviate he shall, and he did.
In opening remarks in a subcommittee meeting on Tuesday, Rankin decided to display his burning stupid for the entire world to see, then sent out a press release with his remarks.
Awfully swell of him, really.
The problem is that my Republican colleagues have completely deformed the Second Amendment. They say it gives you the right to overthrow the government. Our former colleague, Matt Gaetz often claimed that the Second Amendment “is about maintaining within the citizenry the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government, if that becomes necessary.”
This purported right to overthrow the government means that the people must enjoy access to munitions equivalent to that of the government’s arsenal. As our colleague, Representative Chip Roy, argues, the Second Amendment was “designed purposefully to empower the people to resist the force of tyranny used against them.” And my friend Representative Lauren Boebert says that the Second Amendment has “nothing to do with hunting, unless you’re talking about hunting tyrants, maybe.”
Despite all of this pseudo-revolutionary rhetoric about how the Constitution provides a right of civil insurrection, the actual Constitution, in a half-dozen different places, treats “insurrection” and “rebellion” not as protected rights but as serious and dangerous offenses against our government and our people.
And yet, our Founding Fathers also made it very clear that when the government became tyrannical, it was the duty of the people to throw off the chains of oppression and fight back, not just with words but with weapons.
I mean, they’d just engaged in their own rebellion, their own insurrection, and thrown off those precise chains. They knew that no government could be created that couldn’t, in time, come to oppress the people. They wanted to prevent that, which includes the right to keep and bear arms.
After ATF Abuse, a New Bill in Congress Would Finally Give the Tiahrt Amendment Teeth.
The Tiahrt amendment — AKA the Tiahrt “rider” — became law in 2003. Among other things, it prohibits ATF from releasing law firearm data to anyone outside of law enforcement. There’s only one problem with the Tiahrt amendment …it has no teeth. In other words, there’s no penalty for ATF violating the law, which they did as part of Biden’s war on guns.
When not proclaiming the gun industry an enemy of the people, semi-sentient Joe campaigned on repealing Tiahrt. Fortunately, he failed in that effort, but it didn’t stop his weaponized ATF from blithely ignoring the law and releasing trace data last year as part of a media and gun control industry effort to name and shame gun dealers that had lawfully sold guns used in crimes, smearing them as enabling “gun violence.”
Now, however, there’s an effort afoot in Congress to give anti-gun un-elected bureaucrats pause before violating the Tiahrt amendment. Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana has introduced a bill that would fine violators, enable gun dealers to sue them as well, and remove sovereign immunity from the firearm regulatory agency if they decide to ignore the law again in the future.
The NSSF is cheering on the move . . .
Zelensky goes to town
He behaved like a spoiled child, talking over Trump and Vance
If the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, were on my Christmas list, I think I might give him a copy of Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War. I’d mark that bit in book five we call “The Melian Dialogue.” It tells the story of how Athens confronts the tiny island of Melos, a neutral ally of Sparta. Athens demands that the island surrender its neutrality. The leaders of Melos resist. Athens delivers an ultimatum: surrender or be destroyed.
The Melians offer a number of arguments about why they should not be forced to capitulate. Athens is not being fair, the Melians have right on their side, et cetera. In perhaps the most famous bit of the episode, the Athenians explain that “the right, as the world goes, is only in question between equal power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
This was not, perhaps, a shining moment for the Athenians. But it does have the virtue of being a true description of the way the world actually works. Machiavelli, who knew a thing or two about that subject, would have understood. I am not sure that Volodymyr Zelensky does.
In his extraordinary performance with Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and others in front of the press in the Oval Office today, he behaved like a spoiled child, talking over Trump and Vance, shouting and essentially telling them that Ukraine was the aggrieved party in the war with Russia and that he was not interested in a ceasefire.
The Approach Trump Had in the Zelensky Meeting Is One Democrats Can’t Wrap Their Head Around.
The meeting between President Donald Trump, VP J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was nothing short of explosive, fantastic, and satisfying. So much so that America collectively need a smoke afterward.
The Democrats, however, seem to think Trump just beheaded a statue of Apollo and now the gods will be wrathful.
But besides watching an entitled brat of a world leader get raked over the coals by the guy from The Apprentice and a hillbilly millennial, Zelensky’s strategy was a head scratcher. Perhaps he was so used to American politicians who were willing to lay themselves down into puddles, so Zelensky wasn’t ready to talk to two dudes who don’t feel the need to perform for the media, which Vance seemed hyper-aware of, and pointed that out to Zelensky.
Perhaps he thought America owed him one, and thus his smug attitude, but as Bonchie noted in his article, this wasn’t wise:
Trump has never accepted the idea that Ukraine is doing the United States a favor by fighting Russia as a way of justifying unlimited aid. Perhaps Joe Biden found that argument persuasive, but Joe Biden is not in office anymore. Russia is not going to invade the United States or any NATO country (if for no other reason than a lack of capability), and using that as a type of blackmail for support was never going to play.
And herein we find the trump card that Trump had on Zelensky… you know, besides the money the world’s most successful beggar came to get.
Trump’s negotiation strategy vastly differs from many other American leaders, especially those on the Democrat side of the aisle. Despite Trump’s reputation as a rough-around-the-edges man whose political charm is far divorced from what people expect after watching The West Wing too much, he is a master negotiator.
Even when it comes to our enemies, Trump is not going to negotiate from a position of bad faith. He sees everything as a businessman would. There are no friends or foes while at the table, just good deals and bad deals.
I thought The Federalist CEO Sean Davis put this very well in a post he made on X:
Trump doesn’t bad mouth anyone who comes to the negotiating table in good faith. Ever. It’s a near-cardinal rule of negotiations for him, and a major reason he’s been such a successful dealmaker.
If you refuse to negotiate, he will trash you. If you lie or negotiate in bad faith, he will trash you. He has zero interest in allowing empty moralizing to get in the way of a deal that he wants.
He has done this his entire career, in business and in politics, and it’s fascinating to me how many people who think of themselves as smart and savvy are incapable of seeing or understanding this dynamic.
For 4 years the office of the President of the United States was controlled by unelected aides and political activists who were hiding an incapacitated president.
THAT was a constitutional crisis.
Cutting off taxpayer funding of trans surgeries in South America is not. https://t.co/0IADaPtAEx
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 28, 2025
GOP Lawmakers Introduce Bills to Make North Carolina 30th Constitutional Carry State
Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to make North Carolina the 30th constitutional carry state in the union.
The Daily Tar Heel reported that both bills–HB 5 and SB 50–“would allow U.S. citizens with no felonies and no mental illness-related charges, over the age of 18, to conceal carry a weapon.”
The House bill also contains language that would “allow elected officials to conceal carry weapons in legislative buildings and offices in Raleigh.”
It is interesting to note that at least one NC state Senator who opposed constitutional carry during the 2023-24 session is a sponsor on the carry legislation now.
South Carolina became the 29th constitutional carry state on March 7, 2024, just two days after Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA) signed legislation making Louisiana the 28th constitutional carry state.
Democrats Learn the Hard Way That David Hogg Is a Shameless Grifter
It’s been less than two weeks since conservatives cheered when the Democratic National Committee was dumb enough to elect David Hogg as the token white male vice chair. Well, we got the first laugh, and it looks like we’re going to get the last laugh because Hogg is already causing headaches for the Democratic National Committee, with insiders accusing him of exploiting his new role for personal gain.
Just two weeks into his tenure as a DNC vice chair, Hogg has been using the party’s contact lists to send out donation requests for his own political action committee, Leaders We Deserve PAC, which pays him over $100,000 a year, according to Federal Election Commission records.
“David Hogg — talk about living up to your name. A trough of DNC dollars all for him and he doesn’t seem to give an oink,” a top Democrat told The New York Post.
Many of us predicted disaster for the Democrats for electing Hogg, but who knew he was basically running to grift for his organization?
But alas, that’s just what he’s done.
“David Hogg here: I was just elected DNC Vice Chair! This is a huge win for our movement to make the Democratic Party more reflective of our base: youthful, energetic, and ready to win,” reads one of at least eight texts he blasted out to the DNC’s vast database of phone numbers.
Hogg co-founded “Leaders We Deserve” in August 2023 with the stated goal of electing young progressives to Congress and state legislatures across the country. It also provided him a six-figure income job right out of college.
Since the PAC was founded, Hogg has pocketed more than $175,000, records show, with more than $20,000 in salary payments coming in December alone, the most recent month for which public data is available.
While it’s not officially against the rules, personal PAC fundraising — instead of fundraising for the DNC — has rubbed some party brass the wrong way.
“It’s especially important for all Democratic national officials to focus on raising support for the party and not using their position to raise money for themselves or their personal political PACS,” groused a second senior Democratic Party official. “It’s a stunning lack of judgment that is concerning to many people.”
The 24-year-old came to public prominence as a survivor of the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, which left 17 people dead.
Hogg’s appointment to the party’s vice chair job at just 24 makes him arguably the most powerful Zoomer in the United States, but at least some members of the party were alarmed by his lack of experience and a long history of social media posts supporting far-left positions like defund the police and abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
“I mean it’s just very frustrating to be in a party in desperate need of increased accountability for our struggling leadership, and watch someone who is never held accountable ascend to leadership,” Cameron Kasky, a fellow Stoneman Douglas survivor, told the New York Post.
How stupid do Democrats feel now?
Missouri GOP bills aim to loosen more gun laws.
Prosecutors say they would ‘make murder legal’
One of the measures, Senate Bill 74, would bar cities and counties from imposing their own open carry firearm restrictions. Another includes a provision that someone who kills another person with a gun in self-defense would be presumed to be acting reasonably, removing the burden of proof.
A Missouri Senate committee is considering two bills that would repeal limitations on the carry and use of firearms.
Senate Bill 74, sponsored by Stone County Republican Sen. Brad Hudson, would bar cities and counties from imposing their own open carry restrictions.
If passed, the bill would be in conflict with local laws in municipalities including St. Louis. The St. Louis Board of Aldermen voted to prohibit people without concealed carry permits from openly carrying firearms in 2023. [By the way, that restriction is the ONLY one that state law allows]
Mary Gross, a volunteer for Moms Demand Action, was among those who testified in opposition to the bill at a hearing Monday. Gross said that the bill would interfere with local autonomy, and that cities such as St. Louis face different challenges and should be able to make their own rules.
“Consider the county where the bill sponsor lives, Stone County, has a population density of 70 people per square mile,” Gross said. “St. Louis city has a population density of 5,000 people per square mile.”
The other measure, Senate Bill 147, contains a wide array of changes, including making someone who uses a gun in self-defense immune to prosecution or civil action.
Continue reading “”
Bill In Congress Would Outlaw Gun Taxes, Insurance Requirements.
We’ve chronicled over the past few years how anti-gun politicians in some liberal states have attempted—sometimes successfully—to bolster their state budget on the backs of lawful gun and ammunition purchasers. In fact, California now levies an 11% excise tax on guns and ammunition, and Colorado residents must pay an extra 6.5% tax on guns, ammo and accessories.
Other states and municipalities have attempted to pass legislation requiring gun owners to purchase expensive liability insurance policies for firearms they own. In fact, in 2022, San Jose, California, passed a statute forcing gun owners to pay an annual fee and purchase liability insurance to cover damages from accidental or negligent use of their firearms.
Now, a Texas Congressman is attempting to put an end to the trend of punishing gun owners for exercising a constitutional right. On February 4, U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, introduced the “No User Fee For Gun Owners Act,” which would prohibit any state or local government from requiring insurance, taxes, user fees or similar burdensome charges as a condition for the continued ownership of firearms, pistols or revolvers.
Gun Rights Activists Need to Use All of the Tools of Federalism at Their Disposal.
At first glance, gun owners have every reason to be optimistic about their prospects of passing pro-gun reforms at the federal level with a Republican trifecta in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump, in particular, won the popular vote and the electoral college—the latter in a decisive manner— with a clear mandate to govern.
Trump did not shy away from the gun issue on the campaign trail, and contrary to what the fearmongers in Gun Control, Inc. say, running on an unapologetic pro-Second Amendment platform is not an electoral loser.
That said, cautious optimism must always be exercised. Republicans, especially those in the thrall of the establishment gun lobbies, are notorious for letting gun owners down and selling out to the DC swamp. This requires activists to watch their representatives like hawks and hold them accountable.
Beyond federal activism, gun rights activists must be ready to broaden their political horizons. The federal level may not always yield the results they desire. As a result, gun owners will have to fight Gun Control, Inc. through creative means.
I just reintroduced the Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act, H.R. 1040. This bill assists middle-class seniors by eliminating the unjust double-tax on Social Security benefits. pic.twitter.com/87N543vNBl
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 6, 2025
