Top gun policy expert: Trump enemies lie about his Second Amendment stand
The man known in the nation’s capital as “the dean of Washington gun lobbyists” has come out and joined the growing number of United States VIPs and endorsed a true “Inside the Beltway” outsider — Donald J. Trump — who is expected to win the South Carolina and Nevada Republican primaries.
“GOP presidential candidate Trump is four-square on gun rights,” former NRA publications editor John M. Snyder said in his office in Titusville, Florida, earlier today. “The attempt to undermine the Trump candidacy with firearm owners is an outrage,” he added.
Snyder is referring to certain Democratic Party news media hacks and even some Republicans who claim Trump is not a strong advocate for America’s gun owners who are under attack by the Obama-Clinton coalition.
“One Republican [presidential] opponent has even charged that Trump as president would nominate to the Supreme Court justices who would eviscerate the Second Amendment,” Snyder noted. “This is shameful and desperate,” he said.
“As far as I know, Trump is the only presidential candidate with a permit, issued by New York City, to carry a concealed firearm. [Trump also] believes a citizen with a [concealed handgun] permit issued by one state ought to be able to carry in other states as well,” added Snyder, who serves on the Board of Advisors for the 15,000-member National Association of Chiefs of Police (NACOP).
“Trump has repeatedly defended the individual Second Amendment civil right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. He has criticized severely restrictive gun control laws as partially responsible for a number of high-profile murders, including multiple murders. His book, Crippled America, even includes a chapter on the importance of Americans’ gun rights.”
Snyder said that, “Criticism of Trump on the right to keep and bear arms issue seems to have come about at least partially because his pro-gun rights position represents a reversal of previously-held attitudes.”
“However, that is ridiculous. Our pro-gun rights, pro-individual freedom movement needs converts in order to continue expanding throughout the United States. Where would the United States be today if our Founding Fathers had continued to seek reconciliation with the English Crown rather than promoting American independence? Even modern conservative icon Ronald Reagan switched from Democrat to Republican.”
Snyder asserts that, “Instead of voicing suspicion and even condemnation of Donald Trump, lovers of individual gun rights and personal freedom should welcome him and support his campaign to make America great again.”
In the past, there have been a number of political leaders who changed their positions on key issues. For example, former Democratic Party presidential hopeful Al Gore was pro-life for many years until be became a liberal U.S. Senator. George H.W. Bush was a pro-choice Republican but changed his position on abortion when he became President Ronald Reagan’s second-in-command.
A practicing Catholic, Snyder has been named “the dean of Washington gun lobbyists” by both the Washington Post and the New York Times. He’s been dubbed “a champion of the right of self-defense” by the Washington Times, the “gun dean” by Human Events magazine, and “the senior rights activist in Washington” by Shotgun News.
He has been an NRA magazine editor and official of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and the Second Amendment Foundation. He directs Telum Associates, LL.C, and serves on boards of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, Council for America, and the American Federation of Police & Concerned Citizens.
