MILWAUKEE — Republicans speaking at an event Tuesday on concealed carry just days after a gunman tried to kill their presidential candidate said the party will not change its stance on Second Amendment rights.
Attendees of the hour-long session hosted by the US Concealed Carry Association near the Republican National Convention were not allowed to conceal their firearms because the session was held inside a Secret Service checkpoint.
But attendees heard from Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita and three members of Congress about their plans to address gun rights if they win a majority in Congress and the White House in the November election.
“I think we’ll see a continuation of the support and defense of the Second Amendment, and where that really comes into play is the judiciary, the appointment of judges,” LaCivita said. “And it’s clear, you know, one of the biggest impacts that President Trump has clearly had in his first term is the reconstruction of the judiciary.”
Florida U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack, speaking to reporters after the event, said the GOP is “absolutely not” considering changing its support for Second Amendment rights. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was wounded by a gunman at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, leaving one person dead and two others injured. The shooter died at the scene.
“I have 1,000 percent confidence that the Republican Party will always defend the Constitution and the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms,” Cammack said. “One crazy individual who clearly needed help is not going to change the Constitution of the United States or our right as Americans to bear arms. Absolutely not.”
Cammack said it was “shocking” and “inappropriate” for any lawmaker to call for changes to gun laws in the wake of “tragic events” such as mass shootings. She criticized Democrats for not making similar comments after Trump’s shooting.
“The thing that really shocked me is that right after these tragic events, so many politicians and pundits come out and say, ‘It’s time to talk about gun control,’ when it’s clear that … that’s not the right thing to do,” she said.
“In this case, I went back and saw some of my colleagues’ messages and I don’t see the same calls for gun control after this incident,” Cammack added. “That makes me think there’s a little bit of a disingenuousness to some of the comments they’ve made.”
Hunters, gun owners
During the panel discussion, Cammack said Republicans need to talk to the 10 million hunters and gun owners across the country who are not registered to vote to make sure they change their situation and go to the polls in November.
“It’s a missed opportunity for us as 2A supporters to make sure that we’re actually taking action to secure that victory because we can’t get out on the right track and start talking about how we’re going to secure each other’s support nationally if we don’t get the votes,” Cammack said.
A nationwide carry reciprocity law would likely force states with stricter carry laws to recognize out-of-state carry permits.
The USCCA writes on its website that “reciprocity simply means that a concealed weapons permit or license is valid outside the state in which it was issued.”
“States can have full reciprocity, recognizing all out-of-state permits, or partial reciprocity, establishing agreements with select states,” the website states, referring to state-level regulations. “The negotiation and recognition of these agreements is dependent on the willingness of the states to cooperate. Regardless of the agreement, carriers must comply with the laws of the state in which they are transporting, which may differ from the laws of the issuing state.”
Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald told the panel that gun rights advocates need to pay close attention to what lawmakers at the state and federal levels are doing because changes to gun laws tend to be incremental, not dramatic.
“I think, you know, we have to be diligent as legislators who protect the Second Amendment to say, ‘No, wait, you know, this is a constitutional guarantee right,’” Fitzgerald said. “So you can continue to pass bill after bill after bill with some cute name that makes people believe it’s about safety. But we have to be diligent.”
