“Senator Mike Rounds, R-S.D., is taking on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) with a new bill expanding full-time travelers’ gun ownership rights,” Fox News reports. “Rounds reintroduced the Traveler’s Gun Rights Act on Thursday, a bill that aims to update federal law to account for gun residency issues full-time travelers — such as people who live in recreational vehicles (RVs), individuals with multiple homes, and military personnel and spouses.”
“Currently, the ATF does not allow Post Office (PO) boxes or private mailboxes to be included on federal forms for firearms purchasers,” the report explains.
The National Rifle Association and National Shooting Sports Foundation have high praise. They’re right, of course, there is no legitimate reason why citizens without a permanent address should be denied rights and why the Second Amendment should be treated differently than the First or any of the others. But lost in the rhetoric and the applause is a simple reality that the report and those commenting on it seem happily unaware of: With a Democrat majority Senate and Joe Biden in the White House, and with all the emphasis from the administration and Congressional Democrats on restricting, not expanding “gun rights,” good luck expecting this bill to pass and become law.
Sen. Rounds knows this, which leads to the logical question, “Why now?”
Odds are it’s for the same reason Lindsey Graham is dreaming the impossible dream of codifying the right to bear arms outside the home. First, “shall not be infringed” should have done the trick, and the thought that a government that won’t obey that command will suddenly fall into line with a law that says things less plainly is delusional. But again, he knows it won’t pass. So again, “Why now?”
In Graham’s case, it’s pretty well established that he’s not only burned some bridges that need to be rebuilt (like caving to Democrat propaganda on the J6 tapes), but also that his actions on nomination approvals have actually undone many of his “good” votes on guns. So he could use some appreciative feelings from his base about now.
The same goes for Rounds. He, too, was part of the group of Vichycons that “joined the GOP chorus trashing [Tucker] Carlson” for airing the videos the J6 Committee held back from the public. But what has he done to undermine his “good” gun actions, like this travelers’ rights bill?
For starters, and you don’t really need to go much beyond this, back in 2018, Rounds teamed up with Chuck Schumer and squishes Susan Collins and Angus King, to “gut interior enforcement and grant amnesty to more than 10 million illegal aliens … including some who aren’t even here yet!”
As noted recently in an exclusive AmmoLand report, the impetus for that continues with a vengeance. And Schumer himself has revised the figure to “however many undocumented there are here,” with some revised estimates running up to “30 million (or more).”
Add to that ongoing demands for a “pathway to citizenship” (more like a superhighway if proponents have their way), and all observable demographic realities tell us this will result in Democrat supermajorities. Legislatures will then be able to pass whatever anti-gun edicts they want while confirming judges, especially to the Supreme Court, who will uphold those edicts and reverse gains (like Bruen) made to date.
Schumer’s counting on that and on Rounds feeling good about reaching across the aisle. He’s playing the guy.
So even if Rounds’ travelers’ bill passed, it won’t last once the prohibitionists take politically unchallengeable charge. Every “good” gun vote the “cheap labor Republicans” give constituents as a sop to distract them from the real dangers will be undone. And then some as they start rolling out the bans.
For reasons of their own, none of the “pro-gun groups” want to go on record as believing this is a threat, probably in no small part because they don’t want to be smeared as xenophobes and haters (too late!). So they fall back on a “single issue” excuse for not only saying and doing nothing about the greatest threat to the continued recognition of the right to keep and bear arms and still giving “A” grades to politicians like Rounds, whose immigration stance threatens to help eradicate all electoral, legislative and judicial remedies.
In a way, their position is understandable, with the only armed citizen advocates out there arguing otherwise are small fry “extremists” (like me) with limited range voices that are easy to ignore. Hopefully, the direct and devastating impact a “pathway to citizenship” will have on the prospect for future legislation and rulings will be more receptively entertained by them now that a more recognized and respected academic and legal voice has dared to pose some related questions for their consideration.
“THREAT TO 2A RIGHTS? Immigration (Legal and Illegal) & Gun Rights” is the title of a recent video “from constitutional attorney Mark W. Smith, a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar, a professor, a frequent Fox News guest, and a New York Times bestselling author.” And while he hasn’t taken a position and is hedging his bets to protect himself from being lumped in with us “haters,” Smith asks questions that, if answered realistically, come up with an inescapable conclusion: Of course it is.
“Gun rights groups” committed to giving their members a complete picture should be demanding answers to those questions from candidates before assigning ratings and endorsements filled with superlatives. If they expect us to believe “we can count on Mike Rounds to stand up for our constitutional freedoms in the U.S. Senate [and] for his steadfast support of the Second Amendment,” they should demand them of him.
Bearing Arms takes exception to Smith’s video.
I take exception to Bearing Arms. So does my colleague Herschel Smith at The Captain’s Journal.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
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