Biden drops out, endorses Harris.

[Lumpy]

I would like to see almost any Republican other than Trump as president, but the fact is that Trump carries a huge base devoted personally to him. The 'Pubs have tried and failed to find a candidate with his appeal. Given that, Trump is still (barely) the lesser of two evils compared to the 'Dems and their jihad against firearms.

[Ranb]

What has the GOP done since the 2004 sunset of the AWB94 to ease restrictions on firearm possession? Hardly anything at all.

Wanna-be gun grabber Obama failed to push Congress to pass his own AWB, but his administration wrote 41F which greatly eased the transfer of firearms like machine guns and silencers in the USA. The most common complaint I heard from people who wanted to buy an NFA firearm prior to 2016 was that their local sheriff would not sign their tax stamp application. Do you know why no one complains about that? Because it is not required anymore.

Trump with his gun grab, push for gun confiscation without due process and his desire to raise the age to buy certain guns from 18 to 21 is so rabidly anti-gun, he makes the actual anti-gun Obama look more pro-gun than Trump.

Trump talks about protecting our civil rights, but he obviously does not give a damn about the rights of gun owners. The GOP can do better, they just don't want to.

[Jackpine Savage]

I answered your question, can you answer mine?

Unlike some others, my sense of integrity does not allow me to vote for a known gun grabber and anti-gun extremist like Trump.

You don't seem to notice that there is a difference between future nominees. Trump is a two time loser of the popular vote. There are others better qualified Republicans who are not anti-gun like Trump and that would make a more suitable candidate. Why is it that some people seem to value devotion to a politician more than their civil rights?

I have been critical of Trump in the past. I'm well aware of his weaknesses. I'm sure you are aware that the popular vote is meaningless. I'm not sure what you consider being 'qualified'. A presidential candidate first needs to inspire people to vote for them. Trump did that in 2016. He concentrated his campaign on regions that won him the electoral college. A candidate also needs to have or raise a massive amount of money, like it or not. Those are the primary factors in an election. If your perfect candidate can't accomplish those things they wouldn't stand a chance.

My world view is that we are at a critical junction. In reality the Dems and Repubs have been flip sides of the coin in recent years. Trump is an outsider, which why he was viciously attacked. In his first term he didn't go with the status quo. He worked to shut down the border crossing, started putting an end to China taking advantage of us, negotiated a better North American trade agreement, shined the light on NATO, etc. He shook things up. I don't believe that there was another Republican candidate that would have done any of these things.

You can see what a super majority of Democrats did in Washington. Did you stop voting for imperfect candidates there too? Are you actually waiting around for a Democrat that is good on guns?

You didn't comment on Trump's Supreme Court nominations.

[Ranb]

The popular vote is not meaningless. Faithless electors are rather uncommon. The vast majority of electors vote according to the popular vote in their state.

Qualified means natural born citizen, at least 35 years old, and a resident for at least 4 years; Article II, Section 1, Clause 5.

There are no perfect candidates. There will always be compromises made. I do not require that anyone I vote for be perfect. Trump is an example of a person who is far far worse than "not perfect".

Trump's Supreme Court judges had the good sense to reverse his gun grab. I think they screwed up when they said the president was immune for any official acts. They did not define what an official act actually is beyond what the overly vague law already says about it.

What are your thoughts regarding devotion to a politician verses your civil rights? Do you really trust any politician to not screw you over again?

[Jackpine Savage]

Qualified means natural born citizen, at least 35 years old, and a resident for at least 4 years; Article II, Section 1, Clause 5.

If that is what you meant by qualified you should run.

There are no perfect candidates. There will always be compromises made. I do not require that anyone I vote for be perfect. Trump is an example of a person who is far far worse than "not perfect".

Trump's Supreme Court judges had the good sense to reverse his gun grab. I think they screwed up when they said the president was immune for any official acts. They did not define what an official act actually is beyond what the overly vague law already says about it.

What are your thoughts regarding devotion to a politician verses your civil rights? Do you really trust any politician to not screw you over again?

Just what you said, every candidate is a compromise. I absolutely do not trust any politician. They all need scrutiny and pressure to do the right thing.

Another significant thing the Trump Supreme Court did was to limit the power of the executive branch by dismantling the Chevron doctirn. It will make it more difficult for future ATF dictates.

Yet another significant change that is occurring because of Trump is Republican party is changing. The old establishment wing (big business, open borders, free trade) is losing power. I think that the new power structure is more committed to our civil rights and is less likely to sell us out to the Chinese.

[Ranb]

That is what the Constitution mean by qualified. So Trump and Biden were definitely qualified, yuck. I would be nearly completely dependent upon my cabinet to run the executive branch if I was elected. But I do feel, like many others, completely comfortable in sitting back and judging our leaders from the safety of my couch.

Do you think if Chevron deference was not in affect, Trump would not have been able to order the ATF to ban bump stocks? I suspect it might have been more problematic, but Trump would have prevailed. The ATF rule document made it clear that Trump ordered them to classify bump stocks as machine guns. The ATF was not going rogue in 2018.

Trump has greatly changed the GOP, for the worse. Trump made violation of our civil rights, especially our 2nd Amendment rights, something that can be casually accepted. His gun grab, push for gun confiscation without due process and desire to raise the age for buy semi-auto firearms were met with hardly any protest by the gun owners of this country.

I'm sure that some gun owners will not be concerned by this as they will say, "I don't own those kinds of guns', or "no one thinks I'm a criminal". But this would be naive thinking for sure.

[Lumpy]

Practically speaking, one doesn't vote for Trump- one votes against the Democrats. It's why for example a vote for the Libertarians is a protest vote that is either virtually useless or actually counter-productive. If the gun control crowd had their way completely anything with a removable magazine would now be banned from civilian ownership, it would be illegal to make your own guns, and most gun manufacturers would have been sued out of business. Effectively all gun owners can do is be active in local and state primaries to send the message that pro-gun Republicans will get gun owner's nominations; at the national level Trump sewed up the heir apparant role early on, and from there it's now Trump or nothing as far as gun rights goes.

What has the GOP done since the 2004 sunset of the AWB94 to ease restrictions on firearm possession? Hardly anything at all.

This hasn't escaped any gun owner's attention. I've said in the past that firearms ownership is largely an orphan issue politically because it's a populist, libertarian issue– it's about government fundamentally having less control, something damn few politicians are ever going to champion. If it hadn't been for the original tension between the states and the Federal government at the nation's founding we wouldn't even have the concept of limited government.

[Erud]

Donald Trump walked away with the 2024 primaries. He is clearly who the majority of Republican voters (or at least the ones who care enough to show up) want to be the next president. His stances on 2A topics are not great, or even good, but I guess I wouldn’t expect that from a billionaire from NYC. Single-issue gun voters are a fairly small segment of Republican/conservative voters. I used to consider myself one, but have become more pragmatic in my advanced age. There are a lot of important issues, and whoever most closely aligns with my beliefs on them will get my vote. There has never been a presidential candidate on the ballot that is as conservative as I am, and I am resigned to the fact that there never will be. The reason is that I am more conservative than most people, and my opinions are not shared by everyone in the Republican Party. The most conservative candidates get filtered out by the process, and we are left with the compromises. The D and R names on the ballot are the only two people who have a chance to be president, barring some crazy circumstance.

This is the process that we have. So vote for whoever you want, or don’t vote at all if that makes you feel better. Complaining about the choices is certainly your right, but man is it boring to read about.

[Jackpine Savage]

Trump has greatly changed the GOP, for the worse.

You are constantly dissing the Republicans, and not Democrats in general. I'm guessing you're an Iron Range Democrat who hasn't yet figured out that the Democrat party has fallen off the left side of the stage. No point in further discussions.

[Ranb]

Trump has greatly changed the GOP, for the worse.

You are constantly dissing the Republicans, and not Democrats in general. I'm guessing you're an Iron Range Democrat who hasn't yet figured out that the Democrat party has fallen off the left side of the stage. No point in further discussions.

The only time I have been in the Iron Range is when I pass though on my way north to Tower.

What can I say about the Democrats that no one else knows? Everyone knows about their anti-gun agenda, no one denies it. Are you going to vote democrat in the upcoming election? If you are, then perhaps I should be telling why you might not want to do that.

I criticize the GOP because they have abandoned the principles they had prior to 2018. The GOP used to have only a pro-gun platform, now they have a pseudo pro-gun platform and an unofficial anti-gun platform. Why can't you see that this is something worth arguing about? We need new blood that is not so eager to throw away our civil rights. Trump needs to go away, the sooner the better.

Being called a democrat for my pro-gun stance is not new anymore. It has been happening to me since Trump's gun grab in 2018. Do you see the irony? Being pro-gun is considered a liberal stance by the GOP.

[Ranb]

Donald Trump walked away with the 2024 primaries. He is clearly who the majority of Republican voters (or at least the ones who care enough to show up) want to be the next president. His stances on 2A topics are not great, or even good, but I guess I wouldn’t expect that from a billionaire from NYC. Single-issue gun voters are a fairly small segment of Republican/conservative voters. I used to consider myself one, but have become more pragmatic in my advanced age. There are a lot of important issues, and whoever most closely aligns with my beliefs on them will get my vote. There has never been a presidential candidate on the ballot that is as conservative as I am, and I am resigned to the fact that there never will be. The reason is that I am more conservative than most people, and my opinions are not shared by everyone in the Republican Party. The most conservative candidates get filtered out by the process, and we are left with the compromises. The D and R names on the ballot are the only two people who have a chance to be president, barring some crazy circumstance.

This is the process that we have. So vote for whoever you want, or don’t vote at all if that makes you feel better. Complaining about the choices is certainly your right, but man is it boring to read about.

When a 2A stance that includes a gun grab and additional gun confiscation plans, calling it "not great" or "not good" is a very poor way to describe it. It should actually be called appalling and un-American.

Trump is a twice loser of the popular vote. We can do better.

[Erud]

Donald Trump walked away with the 2024 primaries. He is clearly who the majority of Republican voters (or at least the ones who care enough to show up) want to be the next president. His stances on 2A topics are not great, or even good, but I guess I wouldn’t expect that from a billionaire from NYC. Single-issue gun voters are a fairly small segment of Republican/conservative voters. I used to consider myself one, but have become more pragmatic in my advanced age. There are a lot of important issues, and whoever most closely aligns with my beliefs on them will get my vote. There has never been a presidential candidate on the ballot that is as conservative as I am, and I am resigned to the fact that there never will be. The reason is that I am more conservative than most people, and my opinions are not shared by everyone in the Republican Party. The most conservative candidates get filtered out by the process, and we are left with the compromises. The D and R names on the ballot are the only two people who have a chance to be president, barring some crazy circumstance.

This is the process that we have. So vote for whoever you want, or don’t vote at all if that makes you feel better. Complaining about the choices is certainly your right, but man is it boring to read about.

When a 2A stance that includes a gun grab and additional gun confiscation plans, calling it "not great" or "not good" is a very poor way to describe it. It should actually be called appalling and un-American.

Trump is a twice loser of the popular vote. We can do better.

Then why aren’t we? Why did an overwhelming percentage of Republican primary voters choose Donald Trump from all of the available choices?

[crbutler]

We could and should do better than DJT.

He’s not conservative, smart, moral, principled, or a decent human being.

That he looks good compared to the democrats is a very sorry statement about public life in the US.

[Jackpine Savage]

I criticize the GOP because they have abandoned the principles they had prior to 2018. The GOP used to have only a pro-gun platform, now they have a pseudo pro-gun platform and an unofficial anti-gun platform. Why can't you see that this is something worth arguing about? We need new blood that is not so eager to throw away our civil rights. Trump needs to go away, the sooner the better.

I guess we're just talking in circles then. I acknowledge there are many Republicans that are soft on gun rights. But I do think that Trump is bringing in some of the 'new blood' that we need. I think Democrats, the National Security agencies, and the administrative state are the biggest threats to freedom right now. Establishment Republicans won't do anything about it. Right here and now I think Trump is the best candidate to take them on.

[Jackpine Savage]

We could and should do better than DJT.

He’s not conservative, smart, moral, principled, or a decent human being.

That he looks good compared to the democrats is a very sorry statement about public life in the US.

A side story. My wife use to do production stage lighting and toured with many big name musicians. Pink Floyd, the Stones, just to mention a couple. She was touring with Michael Bolton, and ended up making acquaintance with and playing softball with Marla Maples, who was part of the traveling fan club. She really liked Marla. She thinks Trump is a pig. But she's voted for him twice.

I'll say it one more time and then shut up. Trump has tackled issues that no other Republican would. China, the border, NATO, better trade agreements, etc, etc. That is why he gets my vote.