Will the Next Congress Protect the 2nd Amendment?

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Is the Second Amendment at risk in the new Congress? If Democrats retain control of the House and Senate, the risk to gun owners is high. If Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are emboldened by winning in a midterm election, there’s no telling what freedoms they’ll attempt to infringe upon next, but you can be sure that they want to take guns away from law abiding Americans.

But what if the GOP wins? A GOP House is unlikely to infringe on the Second Amendment, but what about the Senate? In June, 15 GOP senators broke their pledges on protecting Second Amendment rights and voted with Democrats to pass a new gun control measure. Those 15 senators included:

1. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY)
2. Roy Blunt (MO), Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee
3. Richard Burr (NC)
4. Shelley Moore Capito (WV)
5. Bill Cassidy (LA)
6. Susan Collins (ME)
7. John Cornyn (TX)
8. Joni Ernst (IA)
9. Lindsey Graham (SC)
10. Lisa Murkowski (AK)
11. Rob Portman (OH)
12. Mitt Romney (UT)
13. Thom Tillis (NC)
14. Pat Toomey (PA)
15. Todd Young (IN)

Of those fifteen, two were replaced in the 2022 election. Rob Portman was replaced by JD Vance, who is assumed by the NRA to be an A rated senator (earning an AQ rating, the highest possible grade a first time candidate can receive from the NRA). So Vance will potentially make the Senate a safer place for gun rights.

The other retiree from the group of 15 was Pat Toomey (PA), who has been replaced by John Fetterman. Fetterman called NRA members “the lunatic fringe of gun ownership.” He’s probably going to be worse for gun owners.

There are still three races in which the senator is yet unknown:

• Alaska: In Alaska, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) is trailing candidate Kelly Tshibaka. Tshibaka is considered to be the more conservative candidate in the race. After the vote above, the NRA downgraded Murkowski’s grade to a B, and awarded Tshibaka with an A grade. If Tshibaka wins, the Senate will presumably be friendlier to gun owners.
• In Arizona, Blake Masters is looking to unseat Sen. Mark Kelly, the husband of former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a major player in the left’s anti-gun efforts. Kelly has been a rubber stamp for the Schumer agenda and replacing him with Masters would be a big boon to gun owners.
• In Nevada, Senate hopeful Adam Laxalt has an A+ rating from the NRA. That rating is reserved for proven protectors of the Second Amendment rights Americans hold dear. He’s attempting to replace Catherine Cortez Masto, who is rated F by the NRA. Laxalt’s election to the Senate would be a big help to gun rights advocates.

If the three remaining pro-Second Amendment senate candidates prevail, the overall Senate will be friendlier to gun rights than it was before Election 2022.