With President Donald Trump urging the U.S. Senate to do away with the filibuster to put an end to the government shutdown, one gun-rights group is sounding the alarm on that proposal.
On November 4, Gun Owners of America (GOA) issued a national alert encouraging members to “save” the filibuster for the good of the Second Amendment.
“President Donald Trump is calling on the Senate to use the ‘nuclear option’ and eliminate the filibuster to reopen the government,” the GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt wrote in the alert. “Destroying the filibuster would be a disaster for the Second Amendment. The truth is, the filibuster is the critical tool that GOA has used for years to defeat mandatory gun registration, bans on common firearms, crushing restrictions on gun shows, national gun confiscation laws and countless other gun-grabbing schemes.”
As Pratt further noted, if the filibuster is nuked, there will be nothing left to stop a flood of anti-gun legislation in the future.
“If the filibuster falls, no matter who demands it, the gun control crowd in Congress will ram every radical gun control bill into law,” Pratt wrote. “That’s why your action is absolutely critical, right now. I need you to send a message to your senators today. Tell them: Protect the filibuster and don’t give up the ONE tool that’s topped gun control for decades! Enshrine the filibuster into law.”
In the alert, GOA gave its members and other gun owners the opportunity to sign on to a prewritten letter explaining to senators the importance of the filibuster to the protection of the Second Amendment.
“As a proud gun owner and constituent, I’m urging you to take bold action to preserve the Senate filibuster, a tool responsible for stopping wave after wave of radical gun control,” the letter states. “For decades, the filibuster has been the ONLY thing standing between the American people and dangerous attempts to force mandatory gun registration, bans on commonly-owned firearms, and federal restrictions on gun shows.”
The letter then encourages senators to protect the filibuster because of its importance to gun rights, not nuke it as President Trump is suggesting.
“Senator, I’m calling on you to enshrine the filibuster into law, making it permanent and untouchable,” the letter states. “Make the filibuster the law of the land—by constitutional amendment, if need be—so that NO future Senate majority, Republican or Democrat, can shred the rights of millions with a single vote.”
The GOA national alert warned that if Senate Democrats don’t help make the filibuster federal law, immediate action must be taken on some top 2A priorities.
“If anti-gun Democrats refuse to make the filibuster permanent, it only confirms their tyrannical plans down the road,” Pratt wrote. “Then Republicans should nuke it first and pass nationwide carry and repeal federal gun control.”
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