In recent years, Daniel Defense has caught a lot of flak that is, frankly, undeserved. Anti-gunners accuse them of marketing guns to kids, but their marketing is really mostly directed toward people who might be interested in their guns. That includes my 51-year-old butt.

While the firearm community isn’t fazed by these accusations, the heat has still been there, which some people can ignore and others have a harder time.

So it’s nice to see that Daniel Defense founder Marty Daniels got some recognition. He was a guest at Tuesday night’s joint address of Congress.

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, invited the founder of Georgia gun manufacturer Daniel Defense as a guest to President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night address to a joint session of Congress.

Daniel Defense makes high-end AR-15 style rifles and accessories at its factory along I-16 in Bryan County, near the Georgia coast.

It is one of Georgia’s better-known arms makers, an industry the state has courted for years. Daniel Defense is a company conservative Georgia leaders point to as a homegrown success story.

The company also has taken heat for allegedly marketing its guns to minors. A Daniel Defense weapon was used in the deadly 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and relatives of many of the dead have sued the company.

Of course, the media can’t ignore the whole Uvalde thing.

Never mind that the Uvalde killer was an adult, hence negating that whole “marketing guns to minors” thing. Plus, it’s not like the Uvalde killer would have just abandoned his demented agenda if Daniel Defense never existed.

Virginia Tech was carried out with a couple of handguns, after all, which means even a so-called assault weapon ban, which would hurt Daniel Defense significantly, wouldn’t have done anything.

Not that anything of the sort really made it into the piece, though Daniel’s testimony before Congress did get quoted.

It’s nice to remember that not everyone in Congress is hostile toward the right to keep and bear arms. Collins issuing the invitation is a nice gesture.

It also happened to be the only significant pro-gun move made at the address. President Trump talked about a great many things, and Democrats made asses of themselves, but one topic not discussed was gun rights.

On one hand, that bothers me.

On the other hand, well, we have his executive order that directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to get some work done, and that process should be going on now. In other words, it didn’t get mentioned because the address is about what’s to come and right now, the Trump administration is figuring out just what is to come on that note.

But Marty Daniel getting some appreciation, even if it’s a relatively small gesture, is a positive thing. The American firearms industry is a vital part of the fabric of what makes this nation great. Not just from an economic standpoint, of course, but by providing the tools that protect that freedom, be it from foreign powers or more domestic threats.

It’s time Congress realizes this for a change. Rep. Collins did a good thing there.