By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Just as the mid-term elections are looming, a former Trump administration Justice Department official has reportedly launched a new gun rights group “aimed at restoring firearm access to Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.”
Reuters is reporting the new group calls itself Firearms Rights for Americans, founded by former U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, who left the DOJ last week. The announcement comes on the heels of last Friday’s pardon of former U.S. Navy sailor Patrick “Tate” Adamiak and a handful of other citizens who had been convicted of gun law violations during the Biden administration’s effort to weaponize the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives against small federal firearms license (FFL) holders.
Also pardoned by President Donald Trump was Oklahoma Pastor Russell Fincher. His home was raided in 2023 by ATF agents, two years into Biden’s single-term presidency, which has been called the “most anti-gun administration” in the nation’s history.
The stories of Adamiak’s and Fincher’s ordeals were fully reported by Lee Williams, the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project editor.
As noted by Reuters, last month Attorney General Todd Blanche joined Martin in announcing finalization of a federal regulation allowing certain people convicted of non-violent felonies to petition for restoration of their Second Amendment rights.
There is another motivation for creating the group, which was reportedly encouraged by Trump. “The strategy aims to mobilize single-issue Second Amendment voters in competitive congressional swing districts who may feel the administration has not acted quickly enough on gun rights,” the Reuters report said.
Traditionally, gun owners and hunters have been lethargic about voting, coming to the polls only when there was a looming threat to their gun and hunting rights. That would certainly appear to be the case now, with midterm elections less than two months away.
If Democrats retake control of Capitol Hill, there will be no more confirmation of pro-gun federal judges, and there would almost certainly be an effort to impeach Trump. Any pro-Second Amendment legislation would be dead-on-arrival, and Democrats would likely aggressively push more gun control, especially in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of bans on semiautomatic rifles and handguns.
