By Tanya Metaksa
UPDATED 10/14 @ 4:35 EDT: What’s New— Arkansas: There is a Right to Keep and Bear Arms Amendment on the November 3, 2026 ballot for every voter in Arkansas. Minnesota: Minnesota Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party raising $$ with Animal Rights Coalition; More $$$ from Anti-Second Amendment groups—the fund raising from George Soros, and Michael Bloomberg reaches new HIGHS! TEXAS: WE NEED YOU!!!
State Legislatures: Still in session:
States in session through to Dec. 31: Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio. Pennsylvania session runs through Nov. 30, 2027. These legislatures may come back in session after the election.
Arkansas: There is a Right to Keep and Bear Arms Amendment on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot for every voter in Arkansas.
Arkansas voters will consider Issue 2, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Amendment, on Nov. 3. It would expand the Arkansas Constitution’s existing firearms provision to expressly protect lawful hunting, recreational use, and other lawful purposes; include ammunition, firearm accessories, and components; and declare the right “natural, fundamental, and individual” and one that “shall not be infringed.” If approved, it would take effect Jan. 1, 2027.
What would change?
Article 2, Section 5 currently states:
“The citizens of this State shall have the right to keep and bear arms, for their common defense.”
Issue 2 would retain that protection and add three elements:
- Additional protected purposes: “lawful hunting and recreational use” and “any other lawful purpose.”
- Express protection for related items: the right would include “without limitation” the possession and use of ammunition, accessories, and firearm components.
- Stronger characterization of the right: it would expressly become a “natural, fundamental, and individual right that shall not be infringed.”
Why it matters legally
The proposal concerns the state constitution; it is not an amendment to the federal Second Amendment. Its principal significance is that it would provide more explicit state constitutional language for evaluating firearms restrictions, particularly those involving ammunition, or accessories. The text does not define those categories or expressly prescribe a judicial test such as strict scrutiny.
An important distinction: the phrase “includes without limitation” identifies what the protected right encompasses; it should not automatically be summarized as repealing every restriction on firearms or accessories. The proposal does not expressly repeal particular gun statutes or specify exceptions for prohibited possessors. How the new wording interacts with existing restrictions would therefore be a question of legal interpretation rather than something conclusively resolved by the ballot text.
Why add it?
Supporters argue that the amendment clarifies ambiguous language, expressly recognizes an individual right, and prevents ammunition, components, and accessories from being excluded from constitutional protection. They also describe it as a safeguard against future government restrictions.
What a vote means
- FOR: Adopt the expanded state constitutional protections.
- AGAINST: Leave the current constitutional wording in place; a “no” vote would not eliminate the existing right to keep and bear arms. but it would give the anti-Second Amendment proponents political cover for more onerous gun control legislation.
The legislature referred the proposal to voters in April 2025 as SJR 11, sponsored by Sen. John Payton and Rep. Matt Duffield. It requires approval by a majority of voters voting on the amendment.
Politics 2026
Political Bedfellows
In an article on the NSSF website Jenn Jacques, NSSF’s Public Affairs Manager, takes aim at the connection between the Minnesota Democrat Farm Labor Party and the Minneapolis based Animal Rights Coalition (ARC). Her central argument is that Minnesota Democrats’ “Animal Welfare Fundraiser” is more than a benign animal-protection event: it reveals political and financial ties between DFL legislative leaders and activists whose agendas could threaten hunting, ammunition choices, and firearm ownership. She urges readers to judge those relationships by the legislation they ultimately produce.
Jacques’ main points
- The fundraiser connects DFL leadership with anti-hunting advocates. Scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 15, the event features House DFL Leader Zack Stephenson and Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, with proceeds divided equally between their legislative caucuses—not directed to wildlife conservation. Jacques highlights co-hosts Chad Zenk-Tills and Chelsea Youngquist for their connections to the Animal Rights Coalition, which has protested hunting events.
- One co-host’s organization has already supported ammunition restrictions. Aaron Zellhoefer, Minnesota state director of Humane World for Animals, represents an organization that submitted support for a Minnesota proposal to prohibit lead in hunting ammunition and fishing tackle. For Jacques, this provides a concrete link between the fundraiser’s participants and policies affecting hunters and ammunition manufacturers
- Another co-host raises concerns about radical activism. The invitation lists Kevin Kjonaas, whose name and background Jacques says closely match those of the former president of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA. She recounts that former leader’s federal conviction and 72-month prison sentence in connection with an intimidation and harassment campaign. Importantly, the article presents the identity connection as a potential match, not a definitively established identification of the fundraiser co-host.
- These relationships matter because Democrats intend to revive firearm restrictions. Jacques connects the fundraiser to DFL proposals targeting semiautomatic firearms and magazines that stalled in the evenly divided House in 2026. She cites Stephenson’s stated intention to win a majority and enact those measures in 2027, emphasizing that his district includes Anoka, home to Federal Ammunition.
How the political stakes are framed
Jacques portrays hunters and the firearm industry as contributors to conservation, rather than enemies of animal welfare. She invokes the Pittman-Robertson excise-tax funding system to argue that restrictions affecting hunting and ammunition could burden the very community that helps finance wildlife restoration. This is her counterpoint to the animal-rights organizations’ framing of hunting as harmful to animals.
Her conclusion is a warning about political influence, not a claim that the fundraiser itself establishes a legislative agreement. She sees the co-host list as evidence of an alliance worth scrutinizing; the decisive test, she says, will be whether those activists’ priorities become bills, hearings, votes, and enacted policy at the Minnesota
More $$$ from Anti-Second Amendment groups
The lead paragraph of the October 6, 2026 article in AXIOS:
“Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that advocates for stricter gun laws, is teaming up with House Democrats on a $10 million ad campaign to boost former gun safety advocates now running for Congress, Axios has learned.
And it went on to explain:
- The candidates boosted by the campaign are all former volunteers for Moms Demand Action, which is part of Everytown.
- The candidates include: JoAnna Mendoza of Arizona, Pia Dandiya of Florida, Christina Bohannan, Sarah Trone Garriott and Lindsay James of Iowa, Christina Hines and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan, and Paige Cognetti of Pennsylvania.
Everytown president John Feinblatt said in a statement first shared with Axios.
- “There’s a Moms Demand Action volunteer on the ballot in every one of these districts, and we’re partnering with House Majority PAC to turn them into majority makers.”
- Mike Smith, the president of House Democrats’ main super PAC, House Majority PAC, said in a statement: “Every seat on this map is a chance to put a check on a Trump administration and a MAGA House that have spent two years putting the gun lobby ahead of American families.”
This spending is in addition to the spending we covered in last week’s legislative report. The NSSF political spending report covers the spending by George Soros and his son Alex and their family organizations. According to this report they are “dumping” $102 million in Democracy PAC, which NSSF describes as “a Soros organization super PAC that backs candidates who support more gun control, soft-on-criminal prosecutors and defund the police advocates in communities all across the country.”
Remember that Alex Soros, in his first year in charge of the Soros Democracy PAC supported Kamala Harris’ presidency candidacy in 2025. During the 2024 election cycle, Democracy PAC contributed $10 million to Future Forward PAC, which supported the Democratic presidential ticket. It also funded organizations that supported both Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates, making its total Harris-related support difficult to isolate from its overall political contributions.”
The evidence reviewed does not establish a single, comprehensive Harris-only total. Adding the $10 million Future Forward contribution to all $15 million given to Black PAC would probably overstate what can be attributed specifically to her presidential campaign because it is difficult to separate Harris-related spending from spending supporting other candidates.
The Fight for the Texas Senate Seat
On Oct. 14, the NRA Issued a press release titled, NRA Launches New Texas Senate Ad as Part of Multi-Million Dollar Campaign to Retain Pro-Gun Majorities in Congress.
With less than three weeks to go in this election cycle, those of us who support the Second Amendment hope that it is not “too little, too late.” Here are the opening paragraphs of the Press Release.
“The National Rifle Association today released a new 30-second ad highlighting Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico’s longstanding support for banning so-called “assault weapons” and standard-capacity magazines—the firearms and accessories owned by millions of law-abiding Texans.
“The ad is one component of the NRA’s multi-million dollar investment to retain pro-gun majorities in Congress ahead of the November midterm elections. It is running in conjunction with the NRA’s Gun Bus battleground tour and the organization’s conventional get-out-the-vote operation, which includes millions of the world-famous NRA Orange Cards, targeted text messages, and door-knocking efforts across Texas and other battleground states.
“The ad, titled “Yes Absolutely,” features Talarico’s own words. In a 2020 video, Talarico endorsed a ban on assault weapons and commonly owned magazines. When asked more recently on NewsNation whether an assault weapons ban remains “on the table,” he replied simply: “Absolutely.”
You can view the add here.
For Texas’s 2026 general election, early in-person voting begins Monday, October 19, 2026, and runs through Friday, October 30. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
Vote like the Second Amendment depends upon it— because it does!
