We reported recently that Attorney General Pam Bondi, in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order to investigate infringements on 2A rights, has formed a Second Amendment Enforcement Task Force to protect the fundamental right to keep and bear arms.
“This task force will continue the Department’s ongoing work to implement Executive Order 14206 and protect the fundamental right secured by the Second Amendment,” Bondi said in announcing the effort. “The Task Force is principally charged with developing and executing strategies to use litigation and policy to advance, protect, and promote compliance with the Second Amendment.”
Now, one gun rights group is giving Bondi some good suggestions on where she should start focusing her new task force’s efforts.
On April 14, Alan M. Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), wrote a letter to Bondi thanking her for forming the task force and proposing some particular states on which to focus.
“It was with great pleasure that the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms received word April 8 about the formation of the Second Amendment Task Force,” Gottlieb wrote. “Please accept my personal congratulations on what I see as a bold, and long overdue, move by the Department of Justice to protect one of our most important Constitutional rights, and the cornerstone of our Bill of Rights.”
Gottlieb continued by suggesting Bondi’s task force begin by taking a close look at a dozen different states where anti-gun leaders have greatly infringed on the Second Amendment rights of their citizens.
“As you may know, the Citizens Committee is one of the nation’s largest grassroots organizations, with affiliate organizations in most states and members and supporters in every state,” Gottlieb wrote. “That being the case, I would like to suggest that among the Task Force’s priorities might be to examine the patterns of egregious Second Amendment violations in the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.”
Most Truth About Guns readers likely recognize those states as among the most anti-gun in the nation. And, as Gottlieb pointed out, they are also the target of frequent lawsuits by a number of different gun rights organizations.
“All of these states have adopted laws in recent years which have essentially relegated Second Amendment rights to the level of government-regulated privileges,” Gottlieb wrote. “Our sister organization, the Second Amendment Foundation, has been involved in litigation challenging gun control laws in nearly all of those states, and the Citizens Committee has joined SAF in lawsuits, most recently in Maryland and Washington.”
Bondi has said that she will chair the task force, and the associate attorney general will serve as the vice chair. Other members of the task force will include representatives from Bondi’s personal staff, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office of the Associate Attorney General, the Office of the Solicitor General, the Civil Division, the Civil Rights Division, the Criminal Division, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
