Former President Donald Trump is making a very real play to return to the White House. Polling at this point shows he’s got a very good shot and moving back in, though it’s still very early.

However, Trump has taken this particular road before. Part of that road from eight years ago included an endorsement from the National Rifle Association.

Yet the NRA isn’t what it once was. The scandal revolving around Wayne LaPierre has gutted it into a shadow of its former self.

In fact, it had some of us pondering whether or not Trump would feel the need to be a Second Amendment ally this time around, should he win in November.

But one thing is for certain, the road Trump took in 2016 involved getting an NRA endorsement and this time around, it does as well.

Donald Trump wooed “rebellious” gun-rights advocates Saturday at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Dallas, pleading with them to go to the polls in November’s presidential election.

“With your vote I will stand strong for your rights and liberties,” he told about 8,000 NRA members who packed the main hall of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center to capacity for his 100-minute keynote address.

But he gently scolded them for their lackadaisical voting habits as he sought to re-animate and expand his victorious 2016 coalition.

“You’re rebellious people, aren’t you? Gun owners don’t vote,” he noted.

“I think you’re a rebellious bunch,” he continued as he accepted the powerful group’s endorsement.
“But let’s be rebellious and vote this time, okay?” he said.

It was Trump’s ninth appearance before an NRA crowd, and his second this year, as he continued to court a powerful lobby that has given Trump its full-throated support since his first White House run in 2016.

I’m not sure where Trump got the impression that gun owners don’t vote, because I can’t find any data suggesting that we don’t.

In fact, the Second Amendment community typically has an outsized influence relative to its side because gun owners tend to vote and they tend to vote on gun issues. Those of us who remember the bloodbath in Congress that followed the passage of the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban can verify that gun owners vote.

Part of the problem in 2020 is that Trump seemingly allowed Biden to dictate the terms of the election. While gun control was a major topic during the Democratic primaries, it was missing during the general election debates.

If you’re not talking about guns, there’s not much reason for many gun owners to figure they have anything to worry about, especially with legions of fact-checkers telling us that Biden didn’t want to take our guns.

So it’s not that we have “lackadaisical” voting habits so much as no one gave many gun owners a sense of urgency.

I’m quite sure they have it now, and the truth of the matter is that regardless of what happened four years ago, there’s absolutely no way anyone should delude themselves into thinking another four years of Biden will be a cakewalk for gun rights. 

It won’t be.