Ahead of his address to and endorsement by the National Rifle Association over the weekend, former President Donald Trump’s campaign announced they would join with the Republican National Committee in forming a new coalition called “Gun Owners for Trump,”
According to the 45th President’s Make America Great Again campaign, the group aims to undo gun control efforts seen under President Joe Biden and will be led by “over 50 Olympic athletes, firearm industry leaders, and public advocates who stand up for the Second Amendment.”
The group will “push back against Biden and the gun-grabbing Democrats’ attempts to erode the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution,” while organizing gun owners to get out to the polls and vote.
“Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated on my very first week back in office,” Trump said along with the announcement.
The coalition, according to the Trump campaign, is a “diverse” group representing a “broad spectrum” of American gun owners and Second Amendment rights advocates. The group’s formation comes, they say, in response to concerns over immigration and a perceived uptick in crime.
“Unfortunately, no American is safe from the violent migrant crime wave that Joe Biden has unleashed on our country. As the radical Democrats continue to sell-out the police and let our communities be overrun by violent criminals – including criminal illegals – now more than ever Americans must have their right to defend themselves protected,” Trump’s team wrote.
The Trump campaign’s attempts to link the Second Amendment issue with concerns over the border also comes following the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which greatly expands background check requirements for gun sales and broadens the definition of who needs a federal license to sell firearms.
Immigration is a problem which has plagued Biden’s presidency almost from the start and now threatens his reelection chances this coming November.
According to information provided by the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. authorities broke a record for migrant encounters near the U.S.-Mexico border at the end of 2023. Meanwhile, recent polling by The Economist/YouGov shows 11% of voters — including 9% of Democratic leaning voters — see immigration as the most important issue going into the presidential election season.
Data provided by both the FBI and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, however, shows that both violent crime rates and property crime rates have fallen substantially — by 49% and 59%, respectively — from the high levels seen in the early 90s, according to Pew Research.
Murder rates spiked in 2020, at the height of COVID-19 pandemic, and fell but remained high through 2022, Pew says. Data for 2023, the research agency said in April, suggests murder rates fell substantially.
Despite this, Pew wrote, “Americans tend to believe crime is up, even when official data shows it is down.”
Trump’s new coalition appears poised to capitalize on that disparity.
“Joe Biden’s failed crime policies put every American in danger, which is why protecting our Second Amendment right is more important than ever. President Trump will always stand with gun owners, unlike weak Joe Biden,” David Bernheardt, a former Trump Administration cabinet member and a part of the new coalition’s leadership team, said in a statement.
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