In a landmark accomplishment in furtherance of President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order on the Second Amendment, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the creation of a new section under its Civil Rights Division - the first ever dedicated to protecting the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
The Second Amendment Section, headed by Acting Chief Andrew Darlington, listed the following as its purpose and objectives in “secur[ing] the natural firearm rights of law-abiding American citizens:”
The mission of the 2nd Amendment Section is to ensure that law-abiding American citizens may responsibly possess, carry, and use firearms. The 2nd Amendment Section will work diligently to investigate law enforcement agencies that engage in a pattern or practice of infringing on law-abiding citizens’ 2nd Amendment rights, as well as be proactive in searching for litigation opportunities to secure such rights. The 2nd Amendment Section will also seek opportunities to advance a broad interpretation of the 2nd Amendment via statements of interest, motions to intervene, amicus briefs, and original lawsuits where applicable on behalf of Americans across the country. All attorneys within the 2nd Amendment Section will advocate with zeal on behalf of the United States of America in furtherance of all objectives as tasked.
(The same webpage includes contact information and a link for reporting alleged violations of Second Amendment rights.)
In a video, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division, said she’s been working on making the Second Amendment Section a reality since she arrived at the DOJ, and her message was good news for America’s millions of gun owners.
She began by affirming her belief that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right and that she’s “really excited about this [new section],” adding that, “For the first time, the DOJ Civil Rights Division and the DOJ at large will be protecting and advancing our citizens’ right to bear arms as part of our civil rights work.”
The focus of upcoming enforcement actions will include addressing jurisdictions with “multi-thousand dollar costs for citizens to apply for concealed carry permits” and “other jurisdictions [] having unreasonably long delays.” Further, the assistant attorney general highlighted jurisdictions that “are outlawing guns that should be protected by the Second Amendment under the recent Supreme Court precedents.” Dhillon noted, “States cannot interfere with the right of law-abiding citizens to carry commonly-used firearms.”
The head of the Civil Rights Division explained,
Common sense teaches us that a criminal is less likely to attack a house that is guarded by an armed citizen. Secondly, the right to bear arms equalizes the ability of those of us – women, people with disabilities, and others who might otherwise be more vulnerable – to be able to protect ourselves, and this is important… The Second Amendment was passed, as the Federalist Papers and other founding documents make clear, to allow citizens the individual right to bear arms for lawful purposes.
Dhillon concluded with a cheerful “[s]tay tuned, you’re going to see a lot more action from this Department of Justice to protect your Second Amendment rights.”
In a separate interview for NEWSMAX, Assistant AG Dhillon also expressed her support for a national reciprocity law as a logical part of this general push for increased protection and recognition of gun rights. “[W]e really do need to have some national respect and reciprocity,” she said, mentioning how her own concealed carry permit for the District of Columbia doesn’t extend to the adjoining jurisdictions so “I have to go through paperwork to get that done and that’s a real pain.” She noted that “there’s so many other areas of the law in which this is required,” referring to a Glock pistol she brought with her from California that has, in the meantime, been outlawed by that state, “so this is kind of nonsense.”
Predictably, gun control groups are less than thrilled with the invigorated defense of this civil right.
Brady issued a press release with the title, “Brady condemns DOJ launch of new ‘gun rights’ office that will endanger gun violence prevention laws.” According to the item, the group’s favored gun control measures are “policies [that] are in no way inconsistent with the Second Amendment.” If that’s truly the case, Brady has nothing to fear from the new civil rights section.
Brady may take umbrage at the Trump administration’s efforts to protect Second Amendment rights, but the group was previously all-in on the President of the United States taking action on gun control “by leveraging executive power.” The anti-gun group crows about how they were responsible for creating “a list of recommended executive actions for the Biden-Harris administration, most of which have already been taken, including …the establishment of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.”
In other pro-Second Amendment actions at the federal level, the U.S. Department of Education has made a nearly $1M grant to the University of Wyoming’s Firearms Research Center. The funding is intended for the development of a nationwide program to provide secondary school teachers with “nonpartisan, historically grounded content on the origins, legal interpretation and civic implications of the Second Amendment.” Spokespersons for the Firearms Research Center advise the project “will honor the nation’s 250th anniversary by allowing educators to engage with the complexity and nuance of the country’s founding documents,” and “provide a much-needed apolitical approach to an otherwise politically charged topic, emphasizing the legal and civic origins of the right to bear arms connecting it to the early principles of the nation’s founding and examining its evolving role, through legal interpretation, in American culture over time.”
It’s a vast understatement to say that federal agencies haven’t always been staunch defenders of enumerated constitutional rights in the past. Common sense teaches us to withhold judgment until there’s evidence of how, and to what extent, the new commitments on addressing Second Amendment infringements are being implemented. The rhetoric, though, is worlds removed from the Biden-Harris era, and that in itself is a welcome change.
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