Trumps Second Amendment Position Paper

In his second policy position paper, presidential candidate Donald Trump called for an expansion of gun rights in America. In the document published on his campaign website, Trump stated: “The Second Amendment to our Constitution is clear. The right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed upon. Period.” He added: “It’s been said that the Second Amendment is America’s first freedom. That’s because the Right to Keep and Bear Arms protects all our other rights.”

In that light, the candidate called for at least three major changes: National Right to Carry: “The right of self-defense doesn’t stop at the end of your driveway. That’s why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states. A driver’s license works in every state, so its common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every state. If we can do that for driving – which is a privilege, not a right – then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege.”

Military Bases and Recruitment Centers: “Banning our military from carrying firearms on bases and at recruiting centers is ridiculous. We train our military how to safely and responsibly use firearms, but our current policies leave them defenseless. To make America great again, we need a strong military. To have a strong military, we need to allow them to defend themselves.”

Background Checks: Update the national background check system. “There has been a national background check system in place since 1998. Every time a person buys a gun from a federally licensed gun dealer – which is the overwhelming majority of all gun purchases – they go through a federal background check…“Too many states are failing to put criminal and mental health records into the system – and it should go without saying that a system’s only going to be as effective as the records that are put into it. What we need to do is fix the system we have and make it work as intended. What we don’t need to do is expand a broken system.” Trump also stated his opposition to gun and high capacity magazine bans. “Gun and magazine bans are a total failure. That’s been proven every time it’s been tried. Opponents of gun rights try to come up with scary sounding phrases like ‘assault weapons,’ ‘military-style weapons’ and ‘high capacity magazines’ to confuse people…The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own,” according to the plan.

Additionally, the candidate advocates reforming the nation’s mental healthcare system. “All of the tragic mass murders that occurred in the past several years have something in common – there were red flags that were ignored…We need to expand treatment programs, because most people with mental health problems aren’t violent, they just need help.” Indeed, we need real solutions to address real problems not Obama and the liberal left grandstanding or pushing their political agendas.