Our two major political parties are always in flux, and as much as American voters like to pretend otherwise, our system of government is a lot closer to a European-style parliamentary system than we would like to admit. Coalitions must be built, compromises must be made, and aside from the most loyal, or delusional partisans, it is unusual that any specific faction within either party walks away from the process believing that their preferred side shares their principles.

I do not need to list all of the ways in which modern Republicans have failed to fulfill their commitments to defend the constitutional rights of the American people, in recent years and decades, Republicans have engaged in the same irresponsible inflation-causing deficit spending as their counterparts in the Democratic Party. After Roe v. Wade was overturned, the party has largely punted the abortion issue, in fact, both abortion and entitlement reform are completely absent from the 2024 Republican platform.

President George W. Bush promised limited government and delivered The Patriot Act, Iraq War 2, and the largest expansion of the Department of Education in decades. President Donald Trump promised reform and delivered spending levels that exceeded those under his predecessor President Obama, and allowed the authority of the U.S. federal government to be hijacked by unelected bureaucrats like Dr. Anthony Fauci and others who ushered in the greatest explosion of state control over the lives of the American people since, at least, The New Deal during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

This is obviously subjective, but one could argue that the last Republican president who governed under the restraints of the constitution was Calvin Coolidge, who left office in 1929, and arguably you would have to go back to the 1890s and President Grover Cleveland to find a registered ‘D’ who would fit that description—it has been a while.

There are notable exceptions: President Reagan famously had a love/hate relationship with gun rights, and President Trump was often hostile towards the rights of gun owners during his first term in office. “Take the guns first, go through due process second” is about as constitutionally illiterate a comment from an American politician as possible, and the Supreme Court, led by Trump’s three appointments overturned the former president’s unconstitutional “bump-stock” ban last month, but, by and large, in recent years the Republican Party generally has been a bulwark against the predation of Democrats who have long desired to curb, or even eliminate Second Amendment protections.

President Biden has pledged to ban the most popular rifle in the nation, the AR-15 if he is re-elected and congressional Democrats have repeatedly introduced legislation that would erode the Second Amendment. The fact that they are facing down a party committed to disarming Americans makes this decision by GOP leadership, presumably at the direction of their now three-time standard-bearer, all the more troubling. If Republicans at the federal level cave on gun rights, the battles currently being waged on the state level become even more important.

The 2nd Amendment has been bolstered by the states in recent years, almost always under the leadership of Republicans. Until 2003, only Vermont allowed citizens to carry a pistol without a state-issued permit, in March of this year Louisiana became the 28th state to grant its citizens permission to defend their families without government harassment. There are up to 44 million AR-15s in civilian hands in the U.S. and the total number of privately owned firearms is approaching the 400 million mark. Without a national party advocating for the rights of gun owners, all eyes will be on the state legislatures, and time and investment into political races should adjust accordingly.

The aftermath of a string of Second Amendment victories both at the Supreme Court and in state capitals across the country seems to me to be a bizarre time for the supposed victors to take their foot off of the gas, but these are Republicans we are talking about- masters of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The Founders, however, would almost certainly urge American gun owners and Second Amendment supporters not to put their hope in politicians or parties, but to take personal responsibility for the defense of their families and communities and to hold their leaders to account when they get queasy in the face of questioning from a press corps that is increasingly hostile to gun rights.

Promo codes did not exist when the Bill of Rights was ratified in December 1791, but I would bet George Washington would approve of you finding a great leftover Independence Day deal on that rifle you have always wanted. Happy gun shopping, and make sure you put in plenty of range time honing your skills and practicing firearm safety.