By Donald Jeffries
Attorney General Pam Bondi entered office with a spotty track record in the eyes of many conservatives. While serving as Florida attorney general, she was instrumental in pushing for the prosecution of George Zimmerman, after his fatal encounter with Trayvon Martin. She has supported Red Flag laws, which clearly infringe on Second Amendment rights.
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As attorney general, Bondi has treated Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA), passed in 2021, much as the Biden administration did. Bondi’s Justice Department has declared that Missouri is not immune to federal gun laws and has, in fact, tried to strike down the act completely.
As has been typical of both Trump administrations, his high-ranking appointee is acting contrary to his often expressed views, and his executive order instructing federal agencies to protect Second Amendment rights.
To quote news and commentary website “Zero Hedge”:
If the Trump administration is to fulfill its pledge of being the most pro–Second Amendment in history, that requires more than speeches. It requires ensuring that the Department of Justice under Pam Bondi does not undercut states when they act to safeguard constitutional rights. On Missouri’s SAPA, that responsibility has not yet been met.
Several gun rights groups have now mounted a campaign, demanding that Bondi be fired. They allege that, in addition to her long track record of being supportive of gun control measures, she ordered gun membership lists to be turned over to the government.
A senior official in the Justice Department predictably called this “fake news.”
In the recent Reese v. ATF case, a U.S. district court judge, at the behest of Trump’s Justice Department, ordered gun groups like the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and the Firearms Policy Committee, to hand over a verified list of their members, dating back to November 2020. Bondi managed to convince the court that the names were “necessary.”
The Second Amendment Foundation angrily filed a motion to defend, declaring, “SAF has never—and will never—provide the government a list of our members.”
Gun Owners of America (GOA) stated on social media, “This is just another illegal, unconstitutional registry of gun owners in the making.” GOA blamed Bondi directly.
Pravda, which ought to know gun confiscation when it sees it, reported:
Trump’s current government, through Pam Bondi, just convinced a federal judge to force a gun rights group to hand over its membership list. That’s a gun registry. No law. No vote. Just betrayal from within.
Then-National Rifle Association President David Keene framed the issue in 2013:
Registry of people who own firearms—citizens who’ve broken no law, who are not prohibited from owning firearms-—would be very dangerous because it can easily result in confiscation of those firearms.
MAGA loyalists have the ability to forget Donald Trump’s consistent anti-Second Amendment record. It wasn’t Barack Obama or Joe Biden who said, “Take the guns first, go through due process second.”
After the 2018 shooting at Parkland High School, Trump joined with Democrats to push a series of typically liberal measures, like raising the age to 21 to purchase a rifle, expanding background checks, and banning bump stocks “with or without Congress.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with two other odious senators—Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)—co-sponsored the Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety Act of 2019 (TAPS), which empowered law enforcement to give a “threat assessment” to everyone—even children—to “stop dangerous individuals before they can commit an act of violence.”
This brings to mind the seemingly farfetched scenario envisioned in the film “Minority Report.” It’s pretty easy to picture “conspiracy theorists” and other modern thought criminals as a “threat” under such an Orwellian program. The corresponding version of the TAPS Act in the House singles out mass casualty attacks” as a “threat to public safety” that requires “a proactive solution … in order to prevent future tragedies.”
Given her history, it is difficult to have much confidence in the Second Amendment Task Force, set up by Bondi in the Justice Department. Bondi noted:
For too long, the Second Amendment, which establishes the fundamental individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms, has been treated as a second-class right. No more.
On another seemingly positive note, FBI director Kash Patel commented on the tyrannical “Zero Tolerance Policy” of the ATF, announcing:
Today’s repeal of the Zero Tolerance Policy and the comprehensive review of stabilizing brace regulations and the definition of “engaged in the business” marks a pivotal step toward restoring fairness and clarity in firearms regulation. We are committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure our policies are balanced, constitutional, and protective of Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
Bondi’s Justice Department has defended the National Firearms act of 1934. It restricted suppressers, which gun rights groups believe are protected under the Second Amendment.
Overall, neither Bondi nor Trump have a good track record here.
