Second Amendment

Will foreign pornographers be the last defenders of the Bill of Rights? America is going through one of its periodic seizures of moral grandstanding, with gun owners and supporters of the Second Amendment now deemed so unclean that one may not even have commerce with them. Under pressure from Twitter mobs and activist bullies, companies ranging from Delta Airlines to Google and Walmart have curtailed their firearms-related activities. Delta has scrapped a seldom-used discount for NRA members. Google has banned instructional firearms videos from YouTube.

A friend who works for a prominent, hardline conservative think tank writes: 'So, can we all admit that Trump is basically a Democrat now on guns?' On Wednesday, I wrote that American gun reform is close to happening. In the intervening hours, that view has been buttressed by a series of comments from the president of the United States. It seems a perverse fate that Donald Trump, the bogeyman of progressive America, should turn out to be the means a delivering a measure of gun reform. Trump in Washington Wednesday promised 'beautiful' and 'comprehensive' (read: if the immigration debate phrasing is any indication—liberal) reform. On Wednesday, I mentioned Pennsylvania as a flashpoint political state for Republicans considering reform.

It seems a perverse fate that Donald Trump, the bogeyman of progressive America, should turn out to be the president who ends up delivering a measure of gun reform. In the wake of the Valentine’s Day massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, President Trump has delivered a series of remarks promising a ‘beautiful’ comprehensive gun bill that will expand background checks on gun purchases, remove guns from the hands of the mentally ill, bolster security on school campuses and restrict young people from purchasing certain weapons. Trump, clearly, sees an opportunity to triangulate between the National Rifle Association, firmly supported by much of his base, and the at least equally powerful gun reform lobby. He’s also recognising a political reality.

He did not address how he might respond to the inevitable debate that will now consume America over the legality of assault weapons. Again, here he differs from Obama, who for instance used his speech in the wake of the Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon to make an appeal for what he called ‘common-sense gun legislation’. The irony, however, is that whereas Obama consistently fell short in his attempts to ban what he called ‘weapons of war’ and establish tighter legal controls of who can buy guns, Donald Trump might now succeed. The 45th president has so far flip-flopped on the banning of assault weapons – as he has on other culture-war issues such as abortion and gay marriage. In 2000, he said, ‘I support the ban on assault weapons.