A growing gun rights group is threatening to turn its back on former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party for leaving protections for firearm owners off the party platform.
“Our stance is very simple,” Luis Valdes, national spokesman for Gun Owners of America, told the Washington Examiner. “We will not compromise, and we will be relentless in holding Republicans accountable to their campaign promises. Republicans campaign that they are pro-gun. We will hold their feet to the fire.”
That includes Trump for the GOP, Valdes said.
“[The GOP] platform for the last eight years was very solid, and for that to be all scrapped and thrown away is quite perplexing and foreboding for gun owners, especially because of the past history of the Trump administration,” he added.
Valdes faulted Trump for waffling on gun control, specifically pointing out that he praised Florida’s state legislature in March 2018 for passing gun-control measures. Valdes predicted Trump and the GOP’s snub to gun rights activists in the party platform could backfire.
“The Republican Party has forsaken one of the most die-hard bases of the party,” he said.
Gun Owners of America, a Virginia-based gun rights group, has operated in the shadow of the National Rifle Association for years but has risen in rank, growing to more than 2 million members and committed to taking down lawmakers who show any sign of compromise on gun control.
It proudly pitches itself as the “no compromise” gun group and spent more than $3 million last year on lobbying efforts. It has capitalized on the NRA’s financial and legal woes and emerged as a power player in politics.
“We will continue holding any and all lawmakers accountable. It doesn’t matter if they are Republican or Democrat. GOA is not an organization that carries water for a political party. We are an organization that protects, defends, restores, and expands the Second Amendment. We don’t care if someone has an R or D next to them. We hold them the same,” GOA said.
The GOA’s forceful comments come just days after Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
While the GOP has always been known for its embrace of gun rights, some are questioning the decision to quietly strip the Second Amendment from its platform and slash all mention of its gun policy positions.
“The Republican Party platform’s downplaying of Second Amendment issues comes as the gun-rights movement finds itself in a precarious position politically,” Jake Fogleman of the Reload wrote. “As guns have become increasingly polarized along party lines, gun-rights supporters have found themselves reliant on Republicans for political support. President Joe Biden has made gun control a fixture of his tenure in office and is already campaigning on even more sweeping proposals, including a ban on sales of the popular AR-15, in a potential second term.
“At the same time, while the GOP’s current standard-bearer has continued to seek the support of the National Rifle Association and make promises in speeches to the group, he has been fickle on gun policy at times. His felony convictions also mean he can no longer legally own or possess firearms.”
The Republican National Committee voted last week 84-to-18 to advance its new 2024 platform, a 28-page statement of first principles traditionally written by party activists, which was adopted this week at the convention. In the past, it included language about the role of the platform and the party in politics. This year’s finalized document, the first one since 2016, leans heavily into Trump’s “America First” policies but barely mentions gun rights.
In 2016, the GOP platform devoted three hefty paragraphs to it, taking aim at Democrats for proposing laws that would “eviscerate the Second Amendment.” It listed pro-gun policies it wanted to enact, as well as gun-control measures it opposed. In 2020, the party promised to “enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.”
In 2024, the platform makes only a passing reference to gun rights in its list of “twenty promises that we will accomplish very quickly when we win the White House and Republican Majorities in the House and Senate.”
The right to bear arms is grouped in with defending the Constitution, which came in at No. 7.
The NRA had a more measured response to the news.
“President Trump and the RNC went with a more concise platform this year while still maintaining support for the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, told the Washington Examiner. “President Trump and Senator Vance are strong supporters of gun rights and the NRA, and the NRA looks forward to their victory in November.”
The move to pare down the language in the party platform caught some of the GOP faithful off guard.
“I wasn’t aware of it and am surprised,” former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told the Washington Examiner from Milwaukee. “I did look through it and it’s just like Trump’s imprint was everywhere in there. But no, I didn’t really notice that, and that really surprised me.”
Similar to Hutchinson, who called the omission “stunning,” Idaho state Sen. Tammy Nichols also said she was unaware of the changes.
“It really wasn’t on my radar,” she told the Washington Examiner, adding that she would have to see “exactly what they have in it and how they worded things.”
Nichols thought the GOP might be “making it more of a state’s rights issue” but wasn’t sure.
“The Second Amendment applies to everybody, all over the nation,” she said. “So, yeah, I hope that it’s something though, that it’s not been thrown out just willy nilly.”
Others, such as Vance Patrick, chairman of Michigan’s Oakland County Republican Party, said the overwhelming consensus from his state’s delegation was the language used would attract more people to the party.
“The 2024 GOP platform accomplishes something that has been missing from previous years: Simplification of language so that you don’t have to be an expert in political science and public policy to understand it,” Patrick told the Washington Examiner. “It reaffirms the GOP’s commitment to our Constitution and the rights of individual states to pass laws to cover issues not governed by the Constitution.
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“It reaffirms our commitment to ensuring every American has the right to defend themselves by keeping and bearing arms. It reaffirms our commitment to our critical ally, Israel, and our fight against antisemitism,” he added.
Calls and emails to the RNC and the Trump campaign for comment were not returned.
